Right. After this long winded tweet, I am putting this to bed once and for all. I am now receiving death threats. Some people want to kill me because I stuck up for a friend. Death threats. I mean, really? Are you serious? Some nameless, faceless cowards actually want me to die. What a wonderful world we live in. And all because of this: I don’t think Steven Moffat a misogynist. I don’t think he is a homophobe. What he is, is a thoroughly decent man, who, in my opinion, writes high quality drama that is hugely popular and continues to win awards. In my opinion. What I witnessed the other week was cyber-bullying at its most rampant. Now, I consider myself a feminist. I am the first to champion women and I happen to work in an incredibly male-dominated profession where good, challenging, stand-out women’s roles are still dwarfed by the huge amount of amazing men’s roles. And where women still have to fight to be taken seriously and keep their clothes on. I am also a mother, first and foremost and I juggle those two careers precariously. Women are made to feel guilty for having children, not having children, working for a living, getting married, staying single, usually by other women, I hasten to add. I have been a professional actor for nearly twenty years and in that time I have been on the receiving end of misogynist behaviour more times than you can possibly imagine. I was sticking up for a friend, who, I felt had been bullied. Now, if you don’t like Doctor Who or Sherlock or indeed, any of Steven Moffat’s writing then don’t watch it. If it upsets you to the point of sending him death threats, then don’t watch it. Be constructive, please, of course, I am all for that but when that criticism turns ugly (and I stress, the stuff I read had become incredibly offensive) then constructive criticism goes out the window and it becomes very personal and frightening. Last time I checked, death-threats were not in the least bit constructive. I have recently just tried to stick up for a young actress who was being harangued on Twitter. It amounts to the same thing. Faceless bullying again. And it is in no way constructive. I sincerely apologise if I came across too strong with some of you. Twitter tends to have that effect on people. The internet can be a fantastic place or Hell on earth. My reaction, in hindsight, may have been a knee-jerk reaction. Maybe that’s because I was horrendously bullied as a child and so any sort of injustice and cowardly attack is heightened to me. Or maybe, I was defending a friend who has contributed to British drama more than any one of the people who were cussing him last week. You see, you all have a remote control. You can always switch off. Just an idea…
I don’t care what you think about Steven Moffat (or X,Y,or Z for that matter), if you’re sending someone death threats, seek professional psychological help IMMEDIATELY. This is unacceptable.
