Last week I met a guy.
“Meet” is probably the wrong word. I was walking to class and happened upon a friend talking to a group of people I didn’t know. Said friend greeted me by pointing at the guy in question and yelling “Alex! He does not like Moffat!”
This guy then proceeded to inform me (a girl he hadn’t even been introduced to) his opinions on Steven Moffat. He believes, and I quote, that Steven Moffat is “sexist, racist and homophobic.”
I’ll give that a moment to sink in.
I’m no stranger to anti-Moffat opinions. If you spend any length of time looking at a particular subject online, you’re going to come across people who don’t like it. This goes doubly for someone who people feel they need to have strong feelings about. I will openly admit that, on reading things that people tweet at Steven Moffat or post about him on Tumblr, I occasionally have the desire to track down the offenders IRL and set their letter boxes on fire.
I was, it should be said, very restrained when I encountered this guy. I tried to present my counter arguments in a sane manner for a little while, realised this was fruitless and proceeded to excuse myself and walk away very quickly before I succumbed to the urge to ask him where he lived and whether or not he was in possession of a letter box. Sexist, racist AND homophobic? This guy was clearly was not in a right state of mind.
Now I can understand how some people misconstrue certain things and thus come to the conclusion that Moffat is sexist. Taken out of context some stuff he’s said in interviews could create that impression. He very clearly ISN’T sexist (Lynda Day is one of the most empowered and inspiring female characters ever to grace our screens) but I can forgive that misconception. However, saying that the various pro-gay references in series 6 (which serve to NORMALISE homosexuality in a way which should be applauded) are condescending anti-gay slurs (that’s right, he actually thought that) is stretching the point a bit. I can’t even begin to comprehend how he arrived at racist.
But I digress. I could spend any number of posts outlining the main flaws in this fundamentally flawed argument. I would, however, be preaching to the converted. Because a blind person could see that he’s wrong. That is not the point. The point is that Steven Moffat is not just some kind of vague conceptual entity who produces scripts without emotion. He’s a PERSON. A human being. A real one. And no one should be allowed to make those kind of comments about anyone. (Except maybe Tony Abbot. ZING! Political satire.)
Haters ignore this fundamental fact. They forget that directing their unbridled (and usually ignorant) rage at someone is not a socially acceptable thing to do. There is no situation where ripping someone to shreds like that is ok. I don’t care what some parts of The Internet think- its just not.
Which brings me to another point- The Internet.
Now one guys expressing his opinion to me is very different to that same guy writing his thoughts down on a blog and tweeting it at Steven Moffat himself. That is really, really not cool. You know that Flight of the Concords song? No? Hang on, I’ll find a YouTube link…there. That’s what I’m getting at here.
While I happily subscribe to the fangirl end of the spectrum, I’m not a hater. I can’t think of anyone I have the desire to out-poor my deep seated loathing for. Except maybe Mary Shelley but she’s dead. And she wrote that really rubbish book about mountains. I suppose maybe I’m a hater of Steven Moffat haters. Does that count?
Here’s the thing- I’ve been in a television studio for seven hours while a team of people slave over an hour long show only to have some idiot rip it apart on Twitter. I’ve seen the love and devotion which is invested in something even though its subsequently panned (this could easily have been a post in defence of Good News World). I don’t think people should be allowed to hate on anything without knowing the sweat, tears and sleepless nights which went into creating it.
So in conclusion- Steven Moffat…well he’s just this guy, you know?
