If you’re a woman, you can’t criticize anything feminists celebrate without also being accused of hating yourself. The new Doctor Who might have been criticized by Feminist Frequency for not being “intersectional” enough, but “unfeminist” criticism from women over the character’s latest incarnation has The Mary Sue all twisted.

In Doctor Who, the main character is a “Time Lord” who has, in every previous incarnation, been a male. While the lore allows for Time Lords to swap genders, this Time Lord in particular has never before been female.

Most people who watch the show may just be curious to see how well the character is portrayed, but for some feminists, replacing a previously male character with a female one is like breaking the mythical “glass ceiling.”

Writing for the feminist vertical, Teresa Jusino gushes on about the Jodie Whitaker, stating that simply seeing her in the minute-long teaser “felt like the Doctor to me,” whatever that means, before launching into a tirade about how it upset her to think about how there was a time not too long ago when she would’ve rejected the character.

It’s arguable that the creators of Doctor Who simply cast the latest version of the Doctor as a woman as a gimmick to capitalize on the show’s female audience. After all, the scripts on the show have been courting social justice issues and feminism over the past few seasons. Jusino rejects this argument, stating that it’s OK for the Doctor to be a gimmick simply because “we need her.”

“Just because some might create a female character as a gimmick to financially appeal to changing times doesn’t mean they’re right,” the feminist writer states. “Women aren’t gimmicks. We’re half the population of the world. We deserve equal representation everywhere we go, because we’re people. That’s all there is to it. Female Doctor is possibly a gimmick? So the fuck what! We need her. She’s long overdue.”

Jusino then addresses an article penned by Karen Walsh, who stated on GeekDad she doesn’t want to see a female Doctor because it takes away a male role model that’s built around brains rather than brawn.

Without even having seen the new series, Jusino then ascribes the idea that the new Doctor will be portrayed with human flaws and make mistakes, instead of being depicted as a “perfect” character.

Given the decline in quality of the show’s writing over the past few seasons, depending on the writers to live up to these expectations may be little more than wishful thinking.

The Mary Sue writer reflects upon her pre-feminist beliefs to state that Walsh’s reasoning for not wanting to see a female Doctor are “just excuses” stemming from internalized misogyny. After all, there’s no better way to dismiss the concerns of other women than to accuse them of hating themselves and supporting the “patriarchy.”

Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter.