(no subject)
hardcore feminist take on Firefly.
Woah. Now, I do have a few feminist qualms with Firefly. The whole Inara Companion thing is just all over the place. Joss wants it to be a geisha parallel, he wants all the Mal "OMG whore!" bullshit, he wants it's own weird type of quasi-religious status, and doesn't really gel it together all that well (IMO). I get the feeling that if Firefly went on longer, the whole Companion thing would have been one of the concepts that ended up declining in importance. I don't know where he planned to go with it, I think he just liked the "she's a hooker, but OMG ironic twist - people practically worship her for it!" angle, but I don't think all this is a conscious anti-woman thing - like a lot of Firefly, it seems like he hadn't gotten all the kinks out of that idea and hadn't thought much about it beyond "it's cool". Kaylee I thought was one of the more positive female characters in sci-fi, from a sexual standpoint. It's very very rare for the "innocent" character to be so openly and cheerfully sexual, and it's nice to see. I do think that Joss has a few weird gender issues (this whole "waif" boner of his is getting mad old) and isn't quite as feminist as he thinks he is, but he's trying, and he does a lot more than a lot of show creators working now to promote women's issues and equality
But DAMN this woman is straight up crazy. This is like a parody of "humorless feminist" stereotypes, down to the really nasty patronization of women - the whole "women MUST be with other women, or it's rape. Women couldn't possibly choose their own partner for themselves. If she's with a man, he's obviously raping her and smashing whiskey bottles over her ass while burning Andrea Dworkin's collected works". And I'm really skeeved out by the whole "basically any kind of m/f sex is rape" thing. That's so incredibly demeaning to victims of ACTUAL rape that it's ridiculous. And the whole "Joss is raping Mrs Whedon" shit is fucked up. I love that she's so darn concerned with Joss' wife that she can't bother to look up her name, and god forbid credit her with any power or control over her own life. (Incidentally - her name is Kai Cole. She didn't take Joss' name when they got married like the author assumed, but then this article isn't concerned with her as a person, it's just her role as Joss'TWife). To me, this whole "women can't be with men, or they'll get hurt. they need to be wrapped in the warm wooly cottonballs of womanliness so the cruel nasty world doesn't dent them too much" mindset is really fucking anti-feminist. Basically, in this particular interpretation of feminist philosophy, unless women fit into a very particular mold, they're helpless victims. Nice. Remember - it's only demeaning and pigeon-holing if a man does it. Ditto calling women fucktoys and punching bags, which is only dehumanizing and objectifying if it comes out of a man's mouth (or a man's keyboard, in this case).
I also found her her criticism of Zoe and Wash's relationship very ... interesting. "Let me just say now that I have never personally known of a healthy relationship between a white man and a woman of colour" - I love how, when people call her on it in the comments, she's all "OMG no way, I'm not racist - look, I watched a movie and it totally had a black person and a white person and and ... I have an interracial couple friend!". It's just more of the same weird "if you don't conform to our idea of wymmyn, you're being sekritly raped" bullshit. Sigh. Stop making feminists look crazy, you stupid bastards!
Woah. Now, I do have a few feminist qualms with Firefly. The whole Inara Companion thing is just all over the place. Joss wants it to be a geisha parallel, he wants all the Mal "OMG whore!" bullshit, he wants it's own weird type of quasi-religious status, and doesn't really gel it together all that well (IMO). I get the feeling that if Firefly went on longer, the whole Companion thing would have been one of the concepts that ended up declining in importance. I don't know where he planned to go with it, I think he just liked the "she's a hooker, but OMG ironic twist - people practically worship her for it!" angle, but I don't think all this is a conscious anti-woman thing - like a lot of Firefly, it seems like he hadn't gotten all the kinks out of that idea and hadn't thought much about it beyond "it's cool". Kaylee I thought was one of the more positive female characters in sci-fi, from a sexual standpoint. It's very very rare for the "innocent" character to be so openly and cheerfully sexual, and it's nice to see. I do think that Joss has a few weird gender issues (this whole "waif" boner of his is getting mad old) and isn't quite as feminist as he thinks he is, but he's trying, and he does a lot more than a lot of show creators working now to promote women's issues and equality
But DAMN this woman is straight up crazy. This is like a parody of "humorless feminist" stereotypes, down to the really nasty patronization of women - the whole "women MUST be with other women, or it's rape. Women couldn't possibly choose their own partner for themselves. If she's with a man, he's obviously raping her and smashing whiskey bottles over her ass while burning Andrea Dworkin's collected works". And I'm really skeeved out by the whole "basically any kind of m/f sex is rape" thing. That's so incredibly demeaning to victims of ACTUAL rape that it's ridiculous. And the whole "Joss is raping Mrs Whedon" shit is fucked up. I love that she's so darn concerned with Joss' wife that she can't bother to look up her name, and god forbid credit her with any power or control over her own life. (Incidentally - her name is Kai Cole. She didn't take Joss' name when they got married like the author assumed, but then this article isn't concerned with her as a person, it's just her role as Joss'TWife). To me, this whole "women can't be with men, or they'll get hurt. they need to be wrapped in the warm wooly cottonballs of womanliness so the cruel nasty world doesn't dent them too much" mindset is really fucking anti-feminist. Basically, in this particular interpretation of feminist philosophy, unless women fit into a very particular mold, they're helpless victims. Nice. Remember - it's only demeaning and pigeon-holing if a man does it. Ditto calling women fucktoys and punching bags, which is only dehumanizing and objectifying if it comes out of a man's mouth (or a man's keyboard, in this case).
I also found her her criticism of Zoe and Wash's relationship very ... interesting. "Let me just say now that I have never personally known of a healthy relationship between a white man and a woman of colour" - I love how, when people call her on it in the comments, she's all "OMG no way, I'm not racist - look, I watched a movie and it totally had a black person and a white person and and ... I have an interracial couple friend!". It's just more of the same weird "if you don't conform to our idea of wymmyn, you're being sekritly raped" bullshit. Sigh. Stop making feminists look crazy, you stupid bastards!