The Master's 'Name Change'
I’ve seen many complaints about The Master changing his name to Mistress upon changing sex, and I have to say that complaining about this is ridiculous. He regenerates into a woman, new personality and body just like regeneration causes. Upon this change, she not only has a female form, but she apparently enjoys dresses, enjoys looking like a woman, enjoys doing things she apparently wouldn’t have done as a man in canon (such as following through with kissing The Doctor, considering The Doctor has shown a preference towards women in this area, not because The Master sees homosexual kissing as wrong or anything). She’s exploring being a woman and is immersing herself in it, not rejecting it.
So why would she reject the female version of ‘Master’ as her name? She’s already accepted all these other female attributes and doesn’t exactly seem bothered by them either. And as someone who has my own gender problems, I saw it as a victory. She doesn’t reject her female attributes and possibilities upon changing into a female simply because she used to be a male and used to conform to the male attributes she had before. She embraces them, which is what should be allowed for those going through transitions like that.
Many people write up all of these essays and metas about The Doctor and Gallifreyans and how they view gender and if it even matters. As a genderfluid person myself, all of these things are very intriguing to me. When you have a body that could actually change into the opposite sex unexpectedly, how does one go about your gender? Here we have The Master taking on a female gender role upon gaining a female body. She doesn’t reject it, she doesn’t try to fight it, she accepts it and embraces it. This is a very important way to see it and is, in its own way, a way of showing how one should accept their gender no matter what may happen to them and what society throws at them. I can see why people may twist this and think it’s sexist and conformist but it really isn’t, it’s actually hugely accepting.
I’m genderfluid, as I mentioned, and (perhaps a bit TMI), I happen to indulge in the master/slave kink at times. With my fluidity, what title do I prefer? To be honest, I don’t prefer either. Sometimes, I like to be called ‘Master’ and sometimes I like to be called ‘Mistress.’ Does that mean I dislike any title or am rejecting the other gender side of me when I choose one over the other? No. So, when she refers to herself as ‘Mistress’ instead of ‘Master,’ does that mean she is rejecting her old title? Not really. It just means right now, with a female body, she prefers the female version for her own reasons. And this should not be frowned upon.
Let’s not forget she didn’t want The Doctor to hear about her before it was time, nor did she want him to catch on until she was properly ready for him to. She was dealing so directly with the aftermath of what he did that I’m not surprised if she’d simply embrace the new identity just to keep him in the dark for as long as possible either. This is another possibility. Not that she rejected her past name, but that she simply took on another to stay hidden.
So many people have been pushing for a female Doctor, and this is the way they’re trying to introduce the idea and see how it goes over with the public. They’ve taken a different hugely important, ongoing character and changed him from a man to a woman. How do you think they’ll see all of these complaints against the approach? Well, they certainly won’t take it as a go-ahead to make The Doctor a woman, that’s for sure.
I think we should all stop trying to change this into something sexist or homophobic and instead simply see it as it is. The Master is now The Mistress and that title change is her choice. Thank you and good day.
