It doesn’t seem too long ago that headlines were calling out the lack of strong female leads and role models in movies and on TV, but now British MP Nick Fletcher has set the internet alight after claiming that the high number of heroic male characters being replaced on screen by women is to blame for young men turning to lives of crime. This has included characters such as Doctor Who, James Bond and other iconic roles that have previously been seen as a male orientated but have been leaning to balance out gender equality, which Fletcher claims is having a negative impact on young males.
Speaking to the U.K. Parliament, Fletcher proclaimed, “Everywhere, not at least within the cultural sphere, there seems to be a call from a tiny and very vocal minority that every male character, or good role model, must have a female replacement. One only needs to look at the discussion surrounding the next James Bond."
He continued, “And it’s not just James Bond. In recent years, we have seen Doctor Who, Ghostbusters, Luke Skywalker, The Equalizer all replaced by women," continued Fletcher. “And men are left with the Krays and Tommy Shelby. Is there any wonder why we are seeing so many young men committing crime?”
The Parliamentary speech was in response to rising crime rates in the country and was instantly ridiculed online, including by opposition MPs who said the government were simply not able to explain or provide a solution to the increasing crime figures and were looking to sensationalized fabrications to try and cover up their inability to deal with the issue.
For the last decade, the calls for equality in the movie and TV industries have seen numerous reboots, remakes and recasts turn white male characters into female roles, or Black male roles and it has become one of the most divisive issues in Hollywood. When Peter Capaldi left the role of Doctor Who in 2017 his replacement was announced as Broadchurch actress Jodie Whittaker, who became the first woman to play the role in the history of the show since its conception in 1963 – although Joanna Lumley very briefly stepped into the role as part of a Comic Relief Special back in 1999 when it as seen as a punch line to the sketch that saw The Doctor become multiple different personalities that culminated with Lumley as the first ever female iteration of the character. Instantly, internet opinion was split with some fans on board with the change, others unable to understand why there was a need to change the gender of a character who had always been male.
This has been a similar story with numerous franchise characters and has seen some describe it as lazy and derogatory for simply taking successful male roles and giving them to female stars rather than going to the effort of creating brand new characters for them. However, in a grander scheme, the question should be more why it fictional characters becoming role models relies on them being a specific gender. Heroes and villains on screen come in all shapes and sizes, but in the end are fictional and are generally created to tell a story and entertain, not influence people in real life one way or the other. Either way, there is clearly no simple resolution to the overall issues of equality and diversity that continue to create a shadow over the entertainment industry, and this is just another example of how complicated the whole thing has become.
