class and gender in Firefly/Serenity

[firecat]

Via my cousin-out-law Michael, an excellent blog post about class and gender in Firefly.

http://capitalismbad.blogspot.com/2005/12/in-which-i-descend-to-previously.html

I don't know that I agree with the blogger that geisha-type careers would not exist in cultures where women can hold a variety of respectable jobs, but I do agree with the blogger's dislike of the Mal/Inara relationship.

Comments

[punzel.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing this.

[rmjwell.livejournal.com]

I disagree with several of her notions.

First, Inara has more to offer than her labor power; she has access to privileges because of her status and she uses that to her and the crew's benefit. Second, while Mal is a property owner, he has much more in common with the independent trucker than say a landed property holder.

I also wonder why she doesnt touch on the third romantic relationship, Zoe & Wash, as it examines boundaries being crossed between the military and civilians.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

It's interesting. I think that the analysis might be somewhat convoluted, or the perspective somewhat convoluted, by the author framing class as an issue of men having power over women. (And what about stories where a woman falls in love with her manservant, who is torn because he does feel some closeness to her but is still ultimately a slave?) Ultimately, that requires the analysis to prove along the way that Mal has power over Inara and that that's the basic dynamic of their relationship. I'm not convinced that that's the case, especially given that she stands her ground on issues of space and boundaries and he backs down a few times in the show, and ultimately, she leaves. It was also given on many occasions that they needed her more than she needed them.

I also think that reducing her role to pleasing men and then brushing aside the time she was shown entertaining a female client and the references they made to female clients in a, "That didn't count," hand wave is a bit simplistic.

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

I hated the whole idea of the Inara character - it really felt like very little thought had gone into it past 'hey, let's have an intergalactic high class whore! It'll be very!'

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I think that, if there was genuine sexual equality in the 'Verse, then there would be male Companions. As it was, Companions were female only, and the one time we saw a male prostitute, it was unusual enough for Kaylee to comment on it. "Hey! They got boy whores! How considerate!"

[(Anonymous)]

Hi this is Maia (the author of the article)

Thanks for linking to my post - you were right about what I had intended about the relationship between class and gender. I wasn't talking about how it is in the world, but how it is usually portrayed in fiction (oh and the point of making the truck driver comparison was simply to show that I did think that the class analysis of Mal/Inara was complicated, I'm not claiming a simple economic description of class is the only way to describe it).

I do think that both prostitution and companionship are primarily portrayed as a commodity women are and men buy. Not just because this is what is shown (and I think that's important), but because of the way people react to anything besides this. For example, it's a big deal for the crew when Inara takes a female client. Likewise when Kaylee (who is very inquisitive, and is shown asking Inara about Companions) sees male whores, her first question is "I wonder if they service girlfolk", rather than assuming they service girlfolk (as you would if both women and men bought sex in equal amounts).