Meta: This Isn't My Feminist Hat
I do not wish them to have power over men, but over themselves. ~Mary Wollstonecraft
To me, "sexual freedom" means freedom from having to have sex. ~Lily Tomlin
Sexism is a social disease. ~Author Unknown
If you don't watch Dollhouse, please read this, so you can see what's on TV. If you do watch Dollhouse, please read this so that you can share your thoughts.
I'm going to make myself hugely unpopular with both my real life friends and a lot of people on my flist by making this post, but I'm also going to stand by everything I'm saying here. I also think it really, truly, honestly needs to be said. And I'm pondering how to put it into a letter to the FOX network.
I hate Dollhouse and think it's a terrible show in a moral sense. I might throw a mini-party if it went off air this season.
I will be upfront and honest: I have only seen four out of seven episodes: 1,2,3, and 7. I only half watched episode seven this past Friday because I was focusing on other things. I have, however, given a great deal of attention to the first three episodes and cannot bring myself to watch further ones.
I admit, I come to this show with issues with Joss Whedon. I do not see him as the great feminist liberator that many do. I remember being a teenager watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer with my brother and father. My father made a point about talking to me about what we saw as the mixed messages toward women in the show. I am in the Firefly fandom, but I also have issues with both Firefly and Serenity. I have issues with Dr. Horrible. I was prepared to have issues with Dollhouse. I was not prepared for the length nor the breadth.
I suppose a primary issue I should get out of the way is that I think Dollhouse fetishizes rape. These women, as far as I can tell, are not consenting partners. They are, instead, "programmed" to be agreeable to sex. While I am sure that devoted fans will disagree with me, I cannot see this as all that different from slipping a girl a mickey so she won't say no. It's the same principle. You guarantee that she won't say no and she doesn't have a choice. It's magical. And it's rape.
I admit that it is personal to me. One of the times I was assaulted, I had been drinking with my assaulter. It was a college party. I was told - by him, by some friends, by classmates - that I must have said yes. It is part of our culture.
Beyond the rape issue - which isn't something I am going to drop, isn't something that will stop bothering me, doesn't appear to be something that will go away - is the treatment of the women in the episode. It's part and parcel with the rape issue. In the second episode, Adelle says, to the client, "Everything you want, everything you need, she will be, honestly and completely," and Boyd says, "She's not a girl. She's not even a person. She's just an empty hat until you stuff a rabbit in it."
Women as objects isn't a new issue in our culture. It's really part of Feminism 101. It does bother me a great deal that there is a show about making women objects. We see Echo as Caroline when she's a person. And then, magically, the Dollhouse turns her into Echo and makes her an object. In the first episode, we see through Sierra that it is pain and suffering that turn them from women to object. Suddenly, they aren't people. They are "dolls."
It is ironic that in the show, they are called Actives. The "dolls" are anything but active. They are the passive-woman. They aren't even that. They are the objects acted upon. It is the men - it is Boyd and Laurence Dominic and Topher who act. They control and design, along with the always male clients.
There is also the issue of the fact that the "dolls" are repeatedly and regularly compared to children. In the second episode, Adelle tells a client, ""In their resting state, our actives are as innocent and vulnerable as children." This concept is fairly regular. What does it mean that the women are somehow children? What does it mean that the clients are paying to have sex with people who can't consent - children?
The clients themselves and how they are portrayed bother me. It is considered and presented as normal and acceptable for a man to "order" a woman to be his sex toy, his "perfect woman," his magical ideal. As the tagline for the show says, "They can be anyone you want..." They are at the whim of the always-male client - they never have choices of their own; their desires and consent and will do not matter. The psyche and problems of the "dolls" does not appear to be a problem or an issue for those who run the Dollhouse.
In the first episode, Echo first is having a wild sex weekend with a client. (Again, prostitute without the hope of consent, in my book.) Then, her second imprint includes the memories of a women who was kidnapped and raped as a child. This... combining these two? In a series premiere? It's sickening and bothersome. It doesn't even occur to the people running the Dollhouse that it could be problematic for a woman to have such memories. Nothing indicates that this will happen - which can be seriously problematic for viewers.
The second episode, if anything, was worse. Echo is bought by a client who after taking her out into the woods and sexing her up, decides to hunt her down like a game animal. She is literally hunted by her lover who appears to be either a serial killer or mass murderer. He laughs at her and tells she needs to prove that she's worthy to live. She experiences, quite literally, flashbacks to a time when another "doll" - this one male - went on a mass killing rampage in the Dollhouse, leaving Echo surrounded by the bloodied bodies of her fellows.
The third episode is where I drew my line. I can't move on from that - I can't force myself to watch more of this show. It didn't get better. It got worse.
Here, Echo is bought by a man to be a friend and bodyguard to a female singer, Raina. The fetishization of stalking bothered me a lot here. It's really problematic and deeply creepy. It also bothers me that everyone was happy when Sierra, a "doll" played by Dichen Lachman, an actress of Tibetan descent, was kidnapped by the murderous stalker.
But what bothered me more was the treatment of Raina. Raina expressed clear suicidal thoughts. She wanted to die. She said that everyone would be happier if she died. She says, ""I don't exist. I'm not a real person... Can't feel anything for a long while, but I know he's out there, the Reaper, any minute now, boom, freedom, there's your rush, there's your joy. I can hear it, I can hear myself."
And Echo's reply is this: "I think hear yourself just fine. Maybe you want to listen to someone else, like, say, ever. You don't like your life so change it... You know the last think I ever thought you'd be was weak."
Later, Adelle says, "And by quite literally dangling the threat of death in front of her, she prevented Raina from ever being a danger to herself in the future."
Whoa. Full stop.
Mental illness - suicidal thoughts, feelings of depersonalisation, complete lack of feeling, these are prime symptoms of mental illness - is a weakness on the part of the patient? The way to cure suicidal thoughts is to pretend to try to kill the patient?
Yeah. I don't need to put up with that. Near rape and fetishisation and objectification and blatant and powerful prejudice against the mentally ill? Fuck that. I'll go find random porn sites on the internet and I'll feel better about the state of feminism.
I feel dirty watching this. I want to scrub myself down. This is no feminism. This is no equality. This is gross. This is hurtful. This is wrong. This should come with warning labels.
To me, "sexual freedom" means freedom from having to have sex. ~Lily Tomlin
Sexism is a social disease. ~Author Unknown
If you don't watch Dollhouse, please read this, so you can see what's on TV. If you do watch Dollhouse, please read this so that you can share your thoughts.
I'm going to make myself hugely unpopular with both my real life friends and a lot of people on my flist by making this post, but I'm also going to stand by everything I'm saying here. I also think it really, truly, honestly needs to be said. And I'm pondering how to put it into a letter to the FOX network.
I hate Dollhouse and think it's a terrible show in a moral sense. I might throw a mini-party if it went off air this season.
I will be upfront and honest: I have only seen four out of seven episodes: 1,2,3, and 7. I only half watched episode seven this past Friday because I was focusing on other things. I have, however, given a great deal of attention to the first three episodes and cannot bring myself to watch further ones.
I admit, I come to this show with issues with Joss Whedon. I do not see him as the great feminist liberator that many do. I remember being a teenager watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer with my brother and father. My father made a point about talking to me about what we saw as the mixed messages toward women in the show. I am in the Firefly fandom, but I also have issues with both Firefly and Serenity. I have issues with Dr. Horrible. I was prepared to have issues with Dollhouse. I was not prepared for the length nor the breadth.
I suppose a primary issue I should get out of the way is that I think Dollhouse fetishizes rape. These women, as far as I can tell, are not consenting partners. They are, instead, "programmed" to be agreeable to sex. While I am sure that devoted fans will disagree with me, I cannot see this as all that different from slipping a girl a mickey so she won't say no. It's the same principle. You guarantee that she won't say no and she doesn't have a choice. It's magical. And it's rape.
I admit that it is personal to me. One of the times I was assaulted, I had been drinking with my assaulter. It was a college party. I was told - by him, by some friends, by classmates - that I must have said yes. It is part of our culture.
Beyond the rape issue - which isn't something I am going to drop, isn't something that will stop bothering me, doesn't appear to be something that will go away - is the treatment of the women in the episode. It's part and parcel with the rape issue. In the second episode, Adelle says, to the client, "Everything you want, everything you need, she will be, honestly and completely," and Boyd says, "She's not a girl. She's not even a person. She's just an empty hat until you stuff a rabbit in it."
Women as objects isn't a new issue in our culture. It's really part of Feminism 101. It does bother me a great deal that there is a show about making women objects. We see Echo as Caroline when she's a person. And then, magically, the Dollhouse turns her into Echo and makes her an object. In the first episode, we see through Sierra that it is pain and suffering that turn them from women to object. Suddenly, they aren't people. They are "dolls."
It is ironic that in the show, they are called Actives. The "dolls" are anything but active. They are the passive-woman. They aren't even that. They are the objects acted upon. It is the men - it is Boyd and Laurence Dominic and Topher who act. They control and design, along with the always male clients.
There is also the issue of the fact that the "dolls" are repeatedly and regularly compared to children. In the second episode, Adelle tells a client, ""In their resting state, our actives are as innocent and vulnerable as children." This concept is fairly regular. What does it mean that the women are somehow children? What does it mean that the clients are paying to have sex with people who can't consent - children?
The clients themselves and how they are portrayed bother me. It is considered and presented as normal and acceptable for a man to "order" a woman to be his sex toy, his "perfect woman," his magical ideal. As the tagline for the show says, "They can be anyone you want..." They are at the whim of the always-male client - they never have choices of their own; their desires and consent and will do not matter. The psyche and problems of the "dolls" does not appear to be a problem or an issue for those who run the Dollhouse.
In the first episode, Echo first is having a wild sex weekend with a client. (Again, prostitute without the hope of consent, in my book.) Then, her second imprint includes the memories of a women who was kidnapped and raped as a child. This... combining these two? In a series premiere? It's sickening and bothersome. It doesn't even occur to the people running the Dollhouse that it could be problematic for a woman to have such memories. Nothing indicates that this will happen - which can be seriously problematic for viewers.
The second episode, if anything, was worse. Echo is bought by a client who after taking her out into the woods and sexing her up, decides to hunt her down like a game animal. She is literally hunted by her lover who appears to be either a serial killer or mass murderer. He laughs at her and tells she needs to prove that she's worthy to live. She experiences, quite literally, flashbacks to a time when another "doll" - this one male - went on a mass killing rampage in the Dollhouse, leaving Echo surrounded by the bloodied bodies of her fellows.
The third episode is where I drew my line. I can't move on from that - I can't force myself to watch more of this show. It didn't get better. It got worse.
Here, Echo is bought by a man to be a friend and bodyguard to a female singer, Raina. The fetishization of stalking bothered me a lot here. It's really problematic and deeply creepy. It also bothers me that everyone was happy when Sierra, a "doll" played by Dichen Lachman, an actress of Tibetan descent, was kidnapped by the murderous stalker.
But what bothered me more was the treatment of Raina. Raina expressed clear suicidal thoughts. She wanted to die. She said that everyone would be happier if she died. She says, ""I don't exist. I'm not a real person... Can't feel anything for a long while, but I know he's out there, the Reaper, any minute now, boom, freedom, there's your rush, there's your joy. I can hear it, I can hear myself."
And Echo's reply is this: "I think hear yourself just fine. Maybe you want to listen to someone else, like, say, ever. You don't like your life so change it... You know the last think I ever thought you'd be was weak."
Later, Adelle says, "And by quite literally dangling the threat of death in front of her, she prevented Raina from ever being a danger to herself in the future."
Whoa. Full stop.
Mental illness - suicidal thoughts, feelings of depersonalisation, complete lack of feeling, these are prime symptoms of mental illness - is a weakness on the part of the patient? The way to cure suicidal thoughts is to pretend to try to kill the patient?
Yeah. I don't need to put up with that. Near rape and fetishisation and objectification and blatant and powerful prejudice against the mentally ill? Fuck that. I'll go find random porn sites on the internet and I'll feel better about the state of feminism.
I feel dirty watching this. I want to scrub myself down. This is no feminism. This is no equality. This is gross. This is hurtful. This is wrong. This should come with warning labels.