Meta: Masculinities in "Firefly"

[catwalksalone]

Panel Author: executrix

MY FAVORITE CITY,
(WHERE THE WOMEN ARE STRONG
AND THE MEN ARE PRETTY)
Firefly Masculinities
--Executrix

Comments

[lunabee34]

This is a lovely essay, Exec. I like what you have to say about Zoe in particular. She is a wonderful blend of masculinity and femininity. She is stoic and unflappable and frankly lethal; yet she's the only married woman on the boat and the only one that's even considered breeding.

One Knits, the Other Doesn't

[executrix]

thank you, lunabee. In a lot of media projects, Zoe would have had to learn "the error of her ways" and earnestly transcribe Saffron's bao recipe and generally try to be The Little Woman.

In the deleted OMR scene, River hasn't just considered breeding, she's pushing for a shotgun wedding! I've read a gazillion stories where Kaylee and Simon have a baby, and a few where Kaylee and Jayne do and I daresay she has thought about having one or more babies when she's through having Adventures. She reminds me a little of Ann Whitefield in "Man and Superman"--looking for "A father! A father for the Superman!"

I suspect that one of things going on in HoG is that Companions are temporarily or permanently sterilized, so Petaline has a baby she doesn't even really want (and it seems like she's going to be a TERRIBLE mother) and if I'm right, Inara can't have kids at all.

Re: One Knits, the Other Doesn't

[lunabee34]

In the deleted OMR scene, River hasn't just considered breeding, she's pushing for a shotgun wedding! I've read a gazillion stories where Kaylee and Simon have a baby, and a few where Kaylee and Jayne do and I daresay she has thought about having one or more babies when she's through having Adventures. She reminds me a little of Ann Whitefield in "Man and Superman"--looking for "A father! A father for the Superman!"

Oh, yes. I should've been more precise in what I said. I meant that Zoe's the only one we see in canon who's got someone actively pursuing her for the purpose of procreation.

I suspect that one of things going on in HoG is that Companions are temporarily or permanently sterilized,

That makes a lot of sense to me.

Re: One Knits, the Other Doesn't

[executrix]

I just clicked to check mail after another whack at "The Dyer's Hand," aka "That damn story I can never finish because I can't solve the technical problems so I'm ignoring them" and I was writing about Companion recruiting--I think one thing they're looking for is people who are sort of diffusely maternal but are willing to channel it toward indulging clients rather than making it literal.

[stormkpr]

Just wanted to thank you for this essay. You've got a lot of great insights in it.

[executrix]

Thank you, stormkpr. It's a thoughtful show, with a lot to contemplate.

[thewatch]

This is a really fascinating read, with a lot of interesting points. Firefly is also by far my favourite Joss series, followed by Angel and then Buffy, for the same reasons as you.

Thank you for including the links as well, I shall be following them up as soon as I get a chance.

Very insightful and well written! I love the fact that non of the characters are finished yet, they all have changes in different ways to grow, and how the traditional Male leader is the one who needs to grow most.

One annoying trait I found with Buffy is how she would refuse to change or accept that change occured unless she decided it, she was very immature in many ways, most of the Scoobies were but they refused to acknowledge it, even when it was plainly in front of them.

I enjoyed reading Finding Serenity, have you read that one? It has some very interesting essays in it.

[thewatch]

PS, I love the song you quote at the top, I'm a big Leonard Cohen fan, and I'm totally with you on the slash pairings and het possibilities too.

[executrix]

This is my Leonard Cohen Firefly story btw:

http://executrix.livejournal.com/181817.html

[executrix]

replying to thewatch: the Firefly cast: cookie dough! Made out of protein! I think that Buffy is an experiment in having a hero who really isn't always nice. In fact one reason why a lot of people--me included--weren't happy with S7 is that in a lot of ways the experience of command made Buffy worse instead of better

[inalasahl]

Very good essay, by the way! I very much enjoyed reading it.

The psychoanalytic critic’s answer might be that he and Inara fetishize one another precisely because they prevent one another from having a real relationship with each other, and this therefore defends them against having another, potentially workable but also potentially risky, with anybody else.I tend toward this explanation myself, or at least, tend toward the idea that a lot of Mal and Inara's attraction to each other is that they both know nothing will ever really happen. But I think that Mal's hang-ups about companions (and whores) are way out of proportion to what's reasonable given what we know of his background. The fact that Inara chooses to work on the Rim is repeatedly mentioned as unusual. Therefore, I assume that Mal has never before encountered a companion in real life. So what's the source of his disgust? If it was just Companion=Alliance hatred, I would expect to see him be equally as awful to Simon, which he isn't (certainly not to the level of

[dessert_first]

Very interesting essay. I'm incredibly late to be crashing this party, but I would be intrigued to see your interpretation of the evidence in canon that Mal is fond of and possibly experienced with crossdressing. He likes the airflow, he wears the dress instead of Zoe because of "tactics" and, when questioned about it, he tells Inara, "You can't open up the book of my life in the middle. Like a woman, I'm a mystery."

This all seemed fascinating to me from the masculinity standpoint, particularly because Mal is generally coded *so very* alpha male. That he is so comfortable and free with wearing a dress (or a flowery hat when he's drunk) and *owning up to it* seemed really interesting to me. I don't think he feels it impacts his masculinity in any way, and although he says he isn't "sly", I wonder if that might imply the verse they live in isn't quite as hung up about that sort of thing? Or is it just Mal?