hardcore superstar by far.

[expatiates]

fuck, tonight's dollhouse was awesome.

i guess i completely fail at feminism/being a chick, because i always see people who "find the show offensive as a woman" or some such thing, but it's never been an issue for me at all. idk. all i know is that i loved tonight's ep.

Comments

[defaultcrush]

I read an interesting article written by a sex worker who hated Joss's portrayal of Firefly for precisely the reasons you mention, actually. Truth of it is, most prostitutes pick their own clients and are educated and many are classy, so showing Inara as this "anti-prostitute" because she's these things is kind of offensive.

I thought it was an interesting point. I used to do outreach with sex workers, but we did a lot of work with those who were also homeless and/or using drugs, so the kind of people most people probably think of when they think of prostitutes. However, my organization hosted a conference that featured a woman who had done all kinds of sex work, from phone sex, to stripping, to escort work, and she was beautiful and smart and sassy and all of those great things Inara had.

I guess, in sum, my point is that some people rightly have an issue with Inara, but I don't agree with the common issue with her: that sex work is bad. But I don't think Joss did anything groundbreaking with her either.

[expatiates]

y'know, for me, i never found inara's character particularly surprising or whatever - she always made me think of, like, a courtesan or a geisha, both of which were positions of some distinction. (although i realize geisha aren't prostitutes.) both courtesans & geisha are women who are educated and trained in various arts, who are paid to be the companions of men, and it wasn't unusual for them to accompany wealthy men to functions and whatnot.

the only thing that was especially groundbreaking about inara, imo, was to see that attitude transferred into a more westernized (by which i mean western hemisphere, not necessarily the "space western" genre of the show) society. beyond that, i really never gave it much thought.

[defaultcrush]

I think sex workers "disapprove" (for lack of a better term) because Inara is portrayed as something they are not. She is portrayed as better than the common whores who don't go through the academy- the ones who end up on dingy border planets and aren't educated and all that. It is constantly shown to us that she is NOT a prostitute, or a whore, or a hooker or any of those other things. She is BETTER than them, but in trying to show she is better, he described plenty of working women already. If he describes her as "better" by painting her as the exact person he's trying to show the opposite of, it really seems like he comes from a place of ignorance about what the job actually entails, you know?

I'll try to find the article I read. It was far better at explaining this than I am. *laugh* Obviously, I am a huge fan of Firefly and I wasn't offended either, but reading that article was a great differing viewpoint to the idea that Joss is so forward-thinking for including a "companion" in his series.

Edit: Here it is. A warning