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By knowing The Doctor’s greatest secret, in addition to all the secrets that he does not know, River is portrayed as both equal and superior, which are reflective in her own titles of Doctor and Professor. Once she dies, she then enters The Library, whereupon she becomes a ‘goddess’ in her own right. Moffat’s illustration of River is therefore exceptionally positive and effectively brings attention to the intricacy of female identity in a multitude of expressions.

Namely, Steven Moffat presents River Song is ‘Fictional Feminist.’ As a woman who is shown to be equal to and simultaneously independent of the most powerful of men, she mitigates gendered stereotypes, and is representative of Womanhood: older women, younger women, academic women, single women, married women, sexual women, tomboyish women, maternal women, etc… Simply, Professor Song underscores the infinite intersectionality of Womanhood and showcases that by checking one categorical box, it does not mean that another – or plenty of others – cannot also be checked. The innate innovation of the character, however, is what attracts negativity and outright hatred. In the first chapter of ‘Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader’, Douglas Kellner explains, ‘[The media] contribute to educating us about how to behave and what to think, feel, believe, fear, and desire—and what not to’ (5). For so long, Doctor Who and television in general has not portrayed characters like River, so she falls into Kellner’s “what not to” category. In spite of all its achievements, sex and gender equality has not been achieved globally, and the fact that River Song represents a universe in which dichotomy can be defied and gender equality can exist is still widely regarded as a frighteningly radical and offensive belief.