A Rapist's View of the World: Our Mrs. Reynolds - Part 1
Projection Room Voices: Again? I thought you were through with these after the first one.
ZeldaQueen: Yeah, but the first sporking was so therapeutic that I just had to work things out with this other one.
Projection Room Voices: Alrighty then...
ZeldaQueen: *to viewers* Howdy, folks! Yes, I'm doing another one of Allecto's essays. If the last one was too weird or intense for you, you might want to give this a pass. She runs rampant with her Whedon-bashing, rape accusations, and male hatred. Anyway, like I said before, the essay belongs to Allecto and not me, Firefly belongs to Whedon and not me, and for my sake and sanity please don't link Allecto to this. I don't want to deal with her in person, second-hand is surreal enough.
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
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A Rapist's View of the World: Our Mrs. Reynolds - Part 1
*Sorry everyone. This post became so long and unwieldy I decided to split it into two. Comments will be harshly moderated. Because I am cruel and heartless. I think EVIL Saffron might be manifesting herself in me. :p*
ZeldaQueen: In other words, you got tired of people disagreeing with you. Very classy.
Because I have had such an enthusiastic response to the first part of my A Rapist’s View of the World post on Joss Whedon and Firefly, I decided to continue on with part two. It was such a pleasure to write the first part (wanting to throw up for two weeks after having watched the trash notwithstanding)
ZeldaQueen: Just like it was a pleasure to go at your first part with a sharpened spork, wanting to stab myself in the head for two weeks after notwithstanding.
that I just really thought I should get on with the second part. Apart from the helpful response from no less than five happy commenters who gave me the very sage advice that I should kill myself at the earliest possible convenience, commenters varied in their response to my argument (rad fem commenters aside).
ZeldaQueen: In your last part you outright stated (among other things) that Josh Whedon certainly locked up and raped his wife and that you did not believe that interracial relationships were possible and thus bashed Whedon for showing one. Not to mention that you vastly misinterpreted/made up/conveniently ignored a good deal of stuff from the episodes you allegedly were watching. Were you honestly surprised that people would be angry?
Before I proceed any further I must share with you the things that I have learnt from my dear commenters.
Firstly, I am an idiot,
ZeldaQueen: No comment
I am also lazy and apparently I have not actually watched the show (news to me I can tell you, must have imagined those torturous hours).
ZeldaQueen: Oh, poor you. Given what you claimed War Stories was about (as well as this episode we'll be getting to), I'm thinking that you watched the show with your fingers in your ears and your eyes closed.
Moreover, I am dead-set, completely and obviously deliberately WRONG.
ZeldaQueen: On some points, YES YES YOU ARE! Making baseless and terrible accusations about people gets you that.
Also, I am absolutely bonkers/off my rocker/insane
ZeldaQueen: Again, no comment.
Finally, I am… wait for it… PATRIARCHAL… in my approach to deleting comments.
ZeldaQueen: I can't say if that's patriarchal or not (though it sounds mighty totalitarian to me), but if that's coming from other feminists then you might take a clue.
Oh, oh and a male feminist (no, no they really do exist, like unicorns and fairies, don’t be so patriarchal) disagrees with me about all sex being rape.
ZeldaQueen: First, way to be a bitch towards an entire sex. Believe it or not, not all guys are trying to chain their wives to the kitchen and there are plenty of men who support women getting equal rights.
Second, all sex is not rape! Rape is sex without consent - that is if a person is physically overpowered or put in a position where her judgement was impaired. You seem to find it impossible to believe that a woman can desire sex with a man without being brainwashed and forced and thus don't believe that there is any non-rape sex, I know. But there is. And quite frankly, calling all sex "rape" is degrading and insulting to people who really were raped.
(I’m not sure where it is that I said that but if you find it, dear readers, let it be known that a unicorn ahem sorry, I mean a male feminist, disagrees with me.) So, dear readers, it has been put to me that the world really would be a better place if I offed myself. Unicorns would be free to roam, Whedons and Whedonites would be free to rape and daisies would sprout magically from the side-walk.
ZeldaQueen: Oh stuff it you smugh son of a - ugh! And again SHUT UP AGAIN RAPE! For someone who's entire female family was apparently abused while you watched, you're being extraordinarily insensitive towards the subject.
Too bad.
I can’t off myself, dear readers, because… 1) I am too stupid and I don’t know how; 2) I am too bonkers and I don’t know how; 3) I am too lazy and I can’t be fucked to find a knife; 4) I am patriarchal and we all know how much pleasure it gives men to kill us women, what right do I have to rob a man of the pleasure of killing me by offing myself?; 5) I am dazzled by all of these bright, beautiful unicorns. So sorry, my friends, you are all stuck with me until the day that a unicorn ahem sorry, male feminist, decides, out of the mercy and goodness of his heart, that my time in this world has come.
ZeldaQueen: I do not condone death threats. But you are seriously getting annoying by being all cutsey and passive agressive about the idea that men of all people would dare imply that they care about female rights, that is to say the rights of their mothers and sisters and female cousins and friends and girlfriends and wives (oh no wait, all men dominate and beat those last two. My bad).
And really? You're going to imply that male feminists will come after you and kill you? So nice of you to project your paranoid thoughts onto the rest of the world.
I am sorry to all of the unicorns out there, who are so oppressed by my words. But the show must go on. Let the aforementioned idiocy, lunacy, laziness, patriarchalness etc, etc be a warning to those whose reading ventures here. You enter a mad woman’s domain and you may not survive the encounter.
ZeldaQueen: I know *straps on helmet* Git'r done!
Umm… ok so now that is done with. Let’s get to the good part. Our Mrs. Reynolds is the sixth episode of the television series Firefly. This episode was written by the Great White Feminist himself, Joss Whedon. In this episode, Mal the captain of the ship finds out that he has married a woman when he finds a stowaway on his ship. The stowaway, whose name is Saffron, was traded to Mal as a gift because he helped the inhabitants of a planet to get rid of some bad guys.
ZeldaQueen: As said before, that's more or less what the episode's about. Again though, way to take yet another swipe at Whedon. You're just the paragon of subtlty.
The most disturbing reading of this particular episode is as an endorsement of male terrorism in the home. I’ll talk more about the potential for this reading in the second half of my analysis.
ZeldaQueen: That might have been a semi-valid point there, if it weren't for the big reveal at the end of the episode (more on that later).
The first scene of the episode is set on a river. A loaded carriage is coming down the river, with what is apparently a man and a woman occupying the front seats, the man driving. A bad guy stops the carriage.
BANDIT 1
(pissed) …I think maybe you’re gonna give me a little one-on-one time with the Mrs.
The Farmer lifts his head - it’s JAYNE, smiling.
JAYNE
You might wanna reconsider that last part. I married me a powerful ugly creature.
MAL looks up from under his bonnet, shocked.
MAL
How can you say that? How can you shame me in front of new people?
JAYNE
If I could make you prettier, I would.
MAL
You’re not the man I met a year ago.
So the ‘woman’ sitting by the driver of the carriage is actually Mal in drag. Shock, surprise, this is real funny shit huh, women? A man in drag, teeheehee. SO radical. And feminist, huh? What do you think, does Joss get a cookie?
ZeldaQueen: *rubs head* And here we go! Okay, Allecto? Whedon is a feminist, he expresses that with the characters who are - determined as you are to ignore it - tough and pretty darned self-reliant. That being said not every single bit in the series is meant to be an ode to feminism. I might also add that Allecto is apparently ignoring the fact that it's a disguise.
Sigh. There has been loads of work done on the anti-feminism of drag and I can’t be bothered to rehash. Suffice to say Jayne gets away with spouting a whole bunch of sexist, looksist crap and it is ‘funny’ because he directs it at a man in drag.
ZeldaQueen: Assuming that she's limiting this all to that bit of dialogue mentioned above, when does Jayne make any verbal swipes at womankind? He alludes to the fact that if Mal were a woman, he would be an ugly one. Mal is responding sarcastically (you keep having trouble with that one), pretending to be the wife.
I might also get up on a small soapbox here and make a comment about men in drag: Yes, it is used for humor. But consider - females in drag (clothes considered more masculine) are almost never played for the same kind of humor. It's just not funny in the same way and people almost always respond to a woman in a t-shirt and jeans with "oh that's normal". Men who dress feminine (dress, bonnet, that sort of thing) are considered hilarious. Why is that? Because society has long accepted women wearing both "gender" clothes, but not men. In other words, one could say that male drag being funny is a testimate to the fact that men have fewer social rights than women in some areas of life.
Not to mention, joking about rape. Drag is often used by men as a way of expressing woman-hatred and they dress it up as humour. Just a joke girls, now get over yourselves, right?
ZeldaQueen: Yet again on rape. I should count how many times it's used. And when the hell has drag been used for "woman-hatred"? I've seen it used to express a man's personality, for stress relief, or even personality disorders (Psycho), but never for woman-hatred. Unless Allecto is somehow counting kinky outfits used for sex, but seems like there's a mighty big difference between those and a man wearing a modest dress and bonnet to disguise himself for a heist.
Oh and in the comments section, Allecto apparently thinks that Mal's dressing in drag to be no better than if he did a blackface minstral show. Yeah...
Right.
A bit later Mal talks about how he likes to wear dresses with Inara. “Like woman,
I am a mystery,” he says of his enjoyment of wearing dresses. Sorry, Joss, score zero for that one. Women aren’t a mystery, WE ARE FULLY CONSCIOUS HUMAN BEINGS.
ZeldaQueen: Indeed, and how does women being a mystery imply that they aren't fully conscious human beings? There are plenty of women who find men a mystery (no wait, Allecto probably thinks that validates her argument). Point is, just because someone is found mysterious doesn't mean that no one thinks they are consious or human. It means that people find them hard to figure out.
And to go off a little bit, I might add that the idea of women being mysterious goes waaaaay back, which is why there are a good many myths and such about wives or women having mysterious powers that they use to save their family or husbands or what have you. Powers that include summoning assistance, changing herself into animals, or solving nearly impossible tasks overnight. Men have long found women a puzzle.
And Mal is a wanker and wankers aren’t a bit mysterious. At least they aren’t to me. Maybe wankers are mysterious to unicorns. Who knows. I think I’m starting to hate unicorns.
ZeldaQueen: And I'm starting to really hate you. And you're pretty mysterious to me, specifically how you got to be so crazy. I guess means that I don't consider you a fully functional human being?
And I'm also getting really tempted to make a comment about only virgins finding unicorns. I'm trying to hold off though.
So, Mal saves some colonists from the bad guys by killing them all while wearing a dress. Mal and the crew get back on the ship. As they take off, Mal surprises a stowaway, who tells him that she is his wife. Mal gets all panicky and calls Zoe.
ZeldaQueen: You're skipping something rather significant here, but I'll get to you on that in a bit.
Now, it is pretty obvious by this point that Saffron has been traded to Mal in exchange for his killing the bad guys. She is a wife in the sense of being a sexual and domestic slave. When Zoe is told that Saffron has been traded to Mal as a wife/slave she begins to laugh. She then calls the rest of the crew and invites them to join her in laughing at Mal’s newly acquired possession. Now, I don’t know about you, but I have never met a Black woman who laughs about slavery. I can’t believe that any woman, Black or white would laugh at an incidence of men trading women. Where the hell does Joss Whedon do his research on women????? What women does Joss know that he can portray them like this????
MAL
Zoe, why do I have a wife?
JAYNE
You got a wife?
ZOE
What’s she doing here?
JAYNE
All I got was that dumb-ass stick that sounds like it’s raining. How come you got a wife?
MAL
I didn’t. (to Saffron) We’re not married.
SAFFRON
I’m sorry if I shame you…
MAL
You don’t shame me! Zoe, get Wash down here.
ZOE
(hits comm) This is Zoe. We need all personnel in the cargo bay.
MAL
All - I said Wash!
ZOE
Captain. everyone should have a chance to congratulate you on your day of bliss.
MAL
There’s no bliss! I don’t know this girl.
JAYNE
Then can I know her?
ZOE
(tough) Jayne… (sensitive) Don’t sully this.
ZeldaQueen: Right. That bit that Allecto missed? Here's how it goes: After Mal saves the town, we see that the crew spends the night there, partying and drinking. Mal and Jayne get fairly hammered as the townsfolk clamor to give them gifts (hence Jayne's comment about the stick - it was his gift). This is why Mal is so shocked at the idea of him being married and why Zoe finds it so funny - they (and everyone else) assumes that Mal just got really drunk and married Saffron and forgot he did so. None of them have any idea that Saffron was sold or traded to him.
Allecto also skipped the bit about what the marriage ritual entailed - Book tells them that on that planet, all one has to do to get married is wear a wreath on one's head while drinking wine from a bowl. During the scene in which the crew parties, we see Saffron laughing and happily putting the wreath on Mal's head and offering him the wine to drink. He clearly assumes it's just a part of the festivities and goes at it. Hence why he's so shocked again - he had no idea that he engaged in a marriage ritual, especially since it was so subtle that it was easily mistakable for regular party action.
So, Saffron runs off crying because of how she is being treated. Mal goes after her. Now in the following scenes we see Mal being magically possessed by a unicorn. His transformation is astounding. In one second we see a man who screams at the female members of his crew and violently defends his position as alpha male, the next *pouf* a beautiful, gallant steed, shining white against the grey backdrop of the ship, spouting fine speeches while tossing his mane, nobly defending the Rights of the Fairer Sex. Watch.
SAFFRON
Are you going to kill me?
MAL
What? What kind of crappy planet is that? Kill you?
SAFFRON
In the maiden’s home, I heard talk of men who weren’t pleased with their brides, who…
MAL
Well I ain’t them. And don’t you ever stand for that sort of thing. Someone tries to kill you, you try to kill ‘em right back. Wife or no, you’re no one’s property to be tossed aside. You got the ight same as anyone to live and to try to kill people. I mean, you know. People that are… That’s a dumb planet.
Ah Mal, Mal, Mal. So gallant, so kind, so noble. But just one question, Joss. Do you know what happens to women who defend themselves from violent men? Have you heard of Patreese Johnson, Renata Hill, Terraine Dandridge, Venice Brown, Dixie Shanahan, Yana Ladgari, Mary Winkler, Sherry Mariana, Marva Wallace? (This list is by no means exhaustive.) Women who defend themselves from men who are trying to kill them have their children taken away from them and are locked up. That is the stark reality of what equality means for women who live under male supremacy.
ZeldaQueen: First of all, that "transformation"? So nice of you to notice, but it's only shocking to you because you have some insanely skewed view of Mal. Like I pointed out in the last sporking, you cheerfully ignored the various things he did in the pilot to defend Kaylee, stand up for his crew, etc. I might also wonder what in the pilot episode implied that Mal would be alright with killing a woman. Oh yeah, Allecto thinks he's an Evil Rapist.
Second of all, let's have a look at those names:
The 2006 Greenwich assault case, which Patreese Johnson, Renata Hill, Venice Brown, and Terraine Dandridge were involved in, was divided between the women's claims that a man assaulted them and the man's claims that the women insulted and attacked him first. Footage showed both the man attacking and Johnson calmly stepping away and pulling out a knife before returning to the group attack. Footage also apparently showed Vernice Brown chasing the man down. Three of the women pleaded guilty to charges of attempted assault.
Dixie Shanahan killed her husband in self defense, and then hid the body in her bedroom for a year. I might add that it is illegal to not report a corpse.
I honestly can't comment on the case of Yana Ladgari, because I haven't heard of it. Anything I Google comes up with hits to Allecto's report here.
Mary Winkler said that she shot her husband during an argument over money. That's not killing in self-defense. She also admited that while the shooting was an accident, she had the gun out because she was going to force her husband to work through their problems at gunpoint. And while she did claim abuse, that's not the same as killing in self defense
Sherry Mariana threatened her husband with the gun before shooting him. Again, while she claimed abuse, what she did would not fall under killing in self-defense. The fact that she believed he was coming after her to strangle her would, but then she had already shot him once so yeah...
Marva Wallace was given a second trial and released.
I might also add that it seems that usually if word is between a man claiming assault and a woman claiming assault, the woman is taken more seriously.
Second of all, Josh is advocating something that you think is wrong with the world. And you're complaining because it's not accurate. Why? You complain when he puts in things that are more realistic (like the idea that the future still has sexual services available) and you complain when he has characters promote ideas that by your own admission are well and good.
Finally, this is the future. The world in the show wouldn't work the same as ours does! There's also the fact that Mal is an outlaw who lives a hand-to-mouth existence. No duh his view on life is a lot more bottom-line than the ones in the cases you gave.
And just a tip Joss, from one writer to another. If you believe that women should kill men who try to kill them then, quite frankly, I agree with you. If you want to show your encouragement and support for women who defend themselves from men, then write a female character that kills a man who is trying to kill her AND GETS AWAY WITH IT.
ZeldaQueen: Flashbacks show that Zoe fought in a war and certainly killed people there. In War Stories, all of the female characters took up arms and killed several attackers, including little River Tam who shot three with her eyes closed (and yet again, River is missing. Wtf?) All of them get away with it. Including the famous scene in Serenity when River kills an entire roomful of Reavers.
Now, let’s see, do you actually show women getting away with being disloyal to men? We had Patience, a character in the first episode. How did she fare when she tried to cheat Mal? Hmm… let’s think. Oh, that’s right. You left her trapped under the carcass of a horse. Mmm. I just love that feminist empowerment, Joss.
ZeldaQueen: Erm, wasn't that more of the fact that she tried to cheat him on a deal? She would have been left in that position if she had been a guy.
What about Saffron? As we'll be finding out, Saffron takes advantage of Mal, practically jumps him, knocks him out, steals a shuttle, and leaves him and his crew to die. When she shows up in another episode, not only does she not suffer any particularly strong consequences (besides her newest sap leaving her), but she convinces Mal to get his crew to back her on a heist and ultimately leaves him naked in the desert. Yeah...
Anyways, Saffron bonds nicely with the gallant unicorn version of Mal and skips off to make Mal some dinner like a good little wife. We then have a brief scene between Mal and Book.
MAL
She’s a nice girl.
BOOK
Seems very anxious to please you.
MAL
That’s their way, I guess.
BOOK
(bright, casual) I suppose so. If you take sexual advantage of her, you’re going to burn in a very special level of hell. A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the
theater. (My emphasis.)
Now, that comment right there indicates to me that our dear Mr. Whedon is a porn user. And that it is highly likely that his pornography of choice is Hustler, given that he seems to think it funny to trivialise the sexual abuse of children. How many times has Joss wanked to our degradation in Hustler while chuckling away at Chester the Molester cartoons? I actually really want to know the answer to this question. Joss continues his race hatred by putting this ‘joke’ in the mouth of a Black man.
ZeldaQueen: Okay people, I'm going to spill some beans here - Saffron is, in fact, playing a stereotypical good little wife here. And if that were all, then I'd think that Allecto had a halfway-decent reason to be bothered (though not enough to call Whedon a rapist). There is a huge reason why I'm not giving her credit for this though, and here's why: Saffron is a con artist. In a nutshell, Saffron goes around, tricks men into marrying her to further her plans, and then dumps them at the opportune moment. So all of this little wifey stuff here? It's all a trick. A Wounded Gazelle Gambit. She was never locked up, never sold, and is only fixing Mal's dinner and being so domestic and subserviant because she's trying to trick him into thinking she's a meek person who can't stand up for herself.
Allecto ought to realize this, since I can only assume that she wrote this essay after watching the episode and not during. Yet she makes no note of the fact that this is all a ruse. Instead, she takes it at face value. I might also add that it's not like people have never faked fear or weakness to manipulate someone. Just look at the case of Clara Schwartz, who played the victim of sexual abuse to get a male friend to kill her father - twice. The first one figured out the con and backed out.
Second of all, I have no idea how she jumps from what Book is saying to the conclusion that Whedon frequents child porn. Books comment is partially in jest (hence lumping it with the movie theater talking), but he is clearly being serious and warning off Mal from taking advantage of his wife. And Allecto sees this warning as a sign of racism. Oh yes Allecto, the preacher who gently disapproved of Inarra's profession and is telling Mal that the Good Lord is not too fond of sex offenders is a clear sign that Whedon is racist. You do realize that people can show disapproval without screeching their heads off, don't you?
Lastly, so lovely of her to make yet another baseless accusation about Whedon. I seriously wonder what part of NOT EVERYTHING SAID IS AGREED WITH BY WHEDON she doesn't understand.
So, Saffron cooks Mal dinner and Mal eats while she stands by waiting on him, fetching refills etc. Does Mal use Saffron as a domestic slave because he enjoys being a slave owner? No, no. He uses Saffron in order to stop her from crying. Really, truly, it’s for her own good.
ZeldaQueen: I remind viewers that this is an act from Saffron. She is deliberately exaggerating her attitude. And there is a reason - she knows full well that Mal has no idea how to handle a weepy, helpless woman who throws herself at him. Because - and I repeat - all of the women he knows and is familiar with are more or less tough, capable, and self-reliant. Zoe does not sob and insist that he let her feed him. Kaylee does not huddle in the corner and think Mal will kill her out of displeasure. If Mal tried to take sexual advantage of Inarra, she'd probably impale him with her sword training.
From this point on I almost want to just copy and paste the whole script. It is full of so much contempt I don’t feel like it even needs analysis.
ZeldaQueen: Of course, keep in mind Allecto's previous, slanted views on the script.
ZOE
Having yourself a little supper, Captain?
MAL
Well, Saffron insisted on… I didn’t want to make her feel… it’s damn tasty.
He can’t figure out who to be careful around - so he just starts shoveling it in.
WASH
Any more where that came from?
SAFFRON
(downcast) I didn’t think to make enough for your friends. (to Zoe) But I’ve everything laid out if you’d like to cook for your husband…
Wash looks at Zoe for a microsecond of hope - her eyes narrow - and he laughs overcompensationally.
WASH
Ta-ha-ha- Isn’t she quaint? I’m just not hungry.
He sits, Zoe sitting as well. Her hilarious mood has abated. Saffron retires to the pantry.
White male husband wishing his black female wife was more submissive and cooked his dinner. Anyone else see a problem with this?
ZeldaQueen: Wash briefly expressed the desire that his wife would cook him a meal. He in no way pressed the issue and he clearly is uncomfortable for the suggestion when Zoe's expression says "hell no".
ZOE
So, are you enjoying your own nubile little slave girl?
MAL
(mouth full) I’m not… nubile… (swallows) Look, she wanted to make me dinner. At least she’s not crying…
WASH
I might. Did she really make fresh bao? (off Zoe’s glare) Quaint!
ZOE
Remember that sex we were planning to have ever again?
Black female wife being jealous of a woman she terms a ‘slave girl’. Anyone else see a problem with this?
ZeldaQueen: And here she is just making stuff up. Zoe is in no way jealous of Saffron. She is disgusted with her and disgusted with Mal for accepting Saffron's service. If Zoe were so jealous of Saffron, wouldn't she take up cooking as well, to get Mal's attention? Please answer me that.
After a brief scene with Inara, we come to a touching scene between Jayne and Mal, where Jayne offers to trade his favourite gun to Mal in exchange for ownership of Saffron. Mal once again transforms into a unicorn, delivering more impassioned speeches on The Rights of the Fairer Sex.
JAYNE
Six men came to kill me one time, and the best of them carried this. It’s a Callahan fullbore autolock, customized trigger and double cartridge thourough-gage. He holds it out to Mal.
JAYNE (cont’d)
It’s my very favorite gun.
MAL
The explosive diarrhea of an elephant, are you offering me a trade?
JAYNE
A trade? Hell, it’s theft! This is the best gun made by man, and its got extreme sentimental value! It’s miles more worthy’n what you got.
MAL
“What I got” - she has a name.
JAYNE
So does this! I call it Vera.
…
MAL
She’s not to be bought. Nor bartered, nor borrowed or lent. She’s a human woman, doesn’t know a damn thing about the world and needs our protection.
Here the audience is supposed to notice that there are two sorts of men in the world; good men: Mal, and bad men: Jayne. Me? I see two rapists. Only difference is that one is in a two-dollar-shop disguise as a unicorn.
ZeldaQueen: I honestly don't understand Allecto. She complains about everything and when anyone does anything that is clearly innocent or caring, she is suspicious and insists that there's ulterior motives.
Given that Mal nobly believes in protecting the female members on board his ship from the ravages of ‘the world’ (read: men), I find it hard to credit that he allows Jayne to stay on board his ship. In this scene Jayne talks of women as sexual and domestic property, obviously unaware that women are human beings. Men who think like this about women ARE DANGEROUS. If Mal did care about the protection of women, he would have spaced Jayne immediately, or at least locked the fucker up.
ZeldaQueen: Well, if you had acknowledged the scene in the pilot when Mal stands up and orders Jayne out of the room for making crude sexual comments to Kaylee, then you'd have some precedent. You also apparently gave the episode Ariel a skip, since that one showed that Mal was perfectly willing to drop Jayne out of the air lock for betraying the Tams. Granted, I myself am not too sure why Jayne is kept around (the only answer we get is clearly sarcastic), but it's still clear that Mal will not hesitate to shove him out of the way if he causes trouble.
Another thing to consider is that Mal is worried about Saffron because she's pretending to be meek and helpless. Jayne expressed a desire to barter for her. In no episode did he express a desire to "buy" or take Zoe and proved himself to be quite protective of Kaylee. Like I said, he didn't like River and tried to get rid of her, but Mal protected her.
On another level, the trading of women and the naming of Phallic weapons, the sharing of homoerotic tales of male violence (Jayne’s story of how he acquired his gun), this is part of the larger romance of the show, the homoerotic, masculine connection between Mal and Jayne.
ZeldaQueen: You know, even Freud's admitted that a cigar can just be a cigar.
Here concludes the first half of my analysis of Our Mrs. Reynolds. I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride. Join me for the second installment where Saffron transforms from an innocent country girl into an evil, manipulative killer woman and Mal decides to burn his two-dollar-shop unicorn outfit.
ZeldaQueen: "Transforms"? She was there all the time. And yes, let's watch that, if by "burn his unicorn outfit" you mean "fight off the crazy con artist who tries to kill his crew".
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Part 2- Onward and outward! :D
Return to the Sporking Chamber
ZeldaQueen: Yeah, but the first sporking was so therapeutic that I just had to work things out with this other one.
Projection Room Voices: Alrighty then...
ZeldaQueen: *to viewers* Howdy, folks! Yes, I'm doing another one of Allecto's essays. If the last one was too weird or intense for you, you might want to give this a pass. She runs rampant with her Whedon-bashing, rape accusations, and male hatred. Anyway, like I said before, the essay belongs to Allecto and not me, Firefly belongs to Whedon and not me, and for my sake and sanity please don't link Allecto to this. I don't want to deal with her in person, second-hand is surreal enough.
Projection Room Voices: Starting Media in 3...2...1...
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A Rapist's View of the World: Our Mrs. Reynolds - Part 1
*Sorry everyone. This post became so long and unwieldy I decided to split it into two. Comments will be harshly moderated. Because I am cruel and heartless. I think EVIL Saffron might be manifesting herself in me. :p*
ZeldaQueen: In other words, you got tired of people disagreeing with you. Very classy.
Because I have had such an enthusiastic response to the first part of my A Rapist’s View of the World post on Joss Whedon and Firefly, I decided to continue on with part two. It was such a pleasure to write the first part (wanting to throw up for two weeks after having watched the trash notwithstanding)
ZeldaQueen: Just like it was a pleasure to go at your first part with a sharpened spork, wanting to stab myself in the head for two weeks after notwithstanding.
that I just really thought I should get on with the second part. Apart from the helpful response from no less than five happy commenters who gave me the very sage advice that I should kill myself at the earliest possible convenience, commenters varied in their response to my argument (rad fem commenters aside).
ZeldaQueen: In your last part you outright stated (among other things) that Josh Whedon certainly locked up and raped his wife and that you did not believe that interracial relationships were possible and thus bashed Whedon for showing one. Not to mention that you vastly misinterpreted/made up/conveniently ignored a good deal of stuff from the episodes you allegedly were watching. Were you honestly surprised that people would be angry?
Before I proceed any further I must share with you the things that I have learnt from my dear commenters.
Firstly, I am an idiot,
ZeldaQueen: No comment
I am also lazy and apparently I have not actually watched the show (news to me I can tell you, must have imagined those torturous hours).
ZeldaQueen: Oh, poor you. Given what you claimed War Stories was about (as well as this episode we'll be getting to), I'm thinking that you watched the show with your fingers in your ears and your eyes closed.
Moreover, I am dead-set, completely and obviously deliberately WRONG.
ZeldaQueen: On some points, YES YES YOU ARE! Making baseless and terrible accusations about people gets you that.
Also, I am absolutely bonkers/off my rocker/insane
ZeldaQueen: Again, no comment.
Finally, I am… wait for it… PATRIARCHAL… in my approach to deleting comments.
ZeldaQueen: I can't say if that's patriarchal or not (though it sounds mighty totalitarian to me), but if that's coming from other feminists then you might take a clue.
Oh, oh and a male feminist (no, no they really do exist, like unicorns and fairies, don’t be so patriarchal) disagrees with me about all sex being rape.
ZeldaQueen: First, way to be a bitch towards an entire sex. Believe it or not, not all guys are trying to chain their wives to the kitchen and there are plenty of men who support women getting equal rights.
Second, all sex is not rape! Rape is sex without consent - that is if a person is physically overpowered or put in a position where her judgement was impaired. You seem to find it impossible to believe that a woman can desire sex with a man without being brainwashed and forced and thus don't believe that there is any non-rape sex, I know. But there is. And quite frankly, calling all sex "rape" is degrading and insulting to people who really were raped.
(I’m not sure where it is that I said that but if you find it, dear readers, let it be known that a unicorn ahem sorry, I mean a male feminist, disagrees with me.) So, dear readers, it has been put to me that the world really would be a better place if I offed myself. Unicorns would be free to roam, Whedons and Whedonites would be free to rape and daisies would sprout magically from the side-walk.
ZeldaQueen: Oh stuff it you smugh son of a - ugh! And again SHUT UP AGAIN RAPE! For someone who's entire female family was apparently abused while you watched, you're being extraordinarily insensitive towards the subject.
Too bad.
I can’t off myself, dear readers, because… 1) I am too stupid and I don’t know how; 2) I am too bonkers and I don’t know how; 3) I am too lazy and I can’t be fucked to find a knife; 4) I am patriarchal and we all know how much pleasure it gives men to kill us women, what right do I have to rob a man of the pleasure of killing me by offing myself?; 5) I am dazzled by all of these bright, beautiful unicorns. So sorry, my friends, you are all stuck with me until the day that a unicorn ahem sorry, male feminist, decides, out of the mercy and goodness of his heart, that my time in this world has come.
ZeldaQueen: I do not condone death threats. But you are seriously getting annoying by being all cutsey and passive agressive about the idea that men of all people would dare imply that they care about female rights, that is to say the rights of their mothers and sisters and female cousins and friends and girlfriends and wives (oh no wait, all men dominate and beat those last two. My bad).
And really? You're going to imply that male feminists will come after you and kill you? So nice of you to project your paranoid thoughts onto the rest of the world.
I am sorry to all of the unicorns out there, who are so oppressed by my words. But the show must go on. Let the aforementioned idiocy, lunacy, laziness, patriarchalness etc, etc be a warning to those whose reading ventures here. You enter a mad woman’s domain and you may not survive the encounter.
ZeldaQueen: I know *straps on helmet* Git'r done!
Umm… ok so now that is done with. Let’s get to the good part. Our Mrs. Reynolds is the sixth episode of the television series Firefly. This episode was written by the Great White Feminist himself, Joss Whedon. In this episode, Mal the captain of the ship finds out that he has married a woman when he finds a stowaway on his ship. The stowaway, whose name is Saffron, was traded to Mal as a gift because he helped the inhabitants of a planet to get rid of some bad guys.
ZeldaQueen: As said before, that's more or less what the episode's about. Again though, way to take yet another swipe at Whedon. You're just the paragon of subtlty.
The most disturbing reading of this particular episode is as an endorsement of male terrorism in the home. I’ll talk more about the potential for this reading in the second half of my analysis.
ZeldaQueen: That might have been a semi-valid point there, if it weren't for the big reveal at the end of the episode (more on that later).
The first scene of the episode is set on a river. A loaded carriage is coming down the river, with what is apparently a man and a woman occupying the front seats, the man driving. A bad guy stops the carriage.
BANDIT 1
(pissed) …I think maybe you’re gonna give me a little one-on-one time with the Mrs.
The Farmer lifts his head - it’s JAYNE, smiling.
JAYNE
You might wanna reconsider that last part. I married me a powerful ugly creature.
MAL looks up from under his bonnet, shocked.
MAL
How can you say that? How can you shame me in front of new people?
JAYNE
If I could make you prettier, I would.
MAL
You’re not the man I met a year ago.
So the ‘woman’ sitting by the driver of the carriage is actually Mal in drag. Shock, surprise, this is real funny shit huh, women? A man in drag, teeheehee. SO radical. And feminist, huh? What do you think, does Joss get a cookie?
ZeldaQueen: *rubs head* And here we go! Okay, Allecto? Whedon is a feminist, he expresses that with the characters who are - determined as you are to ignore it - tough and pretty darned self-reliant. That being said not every single bit in the series is meant to be an ode to feminism. I might also add that Allecto is apparently ignoring the fact that it's a disguise.
Sigh. There has been loads of work done on the anti-feminism of drag and I can’t be bothered to rehash. Suffice to say Jayne gets away with spouting a whole bunch of sexist, looksist crap and it is ‘funny’ because he directs it at a man in drag.
ZeldaQueen: Assuming that she's limiting this all to that bit of dialogue mentioned above, when does Jayne make any verbal swipes at womankind? He alludes to the fact that if Mal were a woman, he would be an ugly one. Mal is responding sarcastically (you keep having trouble with that one), pretending to be the wife.
I might also get up on a small soapbox here and make a comment about men in drag: Yes, it is used for humor. But consider - females in drag (clothes considered more masculine) are almost never played for the same kind of humor. It's just not funny in the same way and people almost always respond to a woman in a t-shirt and jeans with "oh that's normal". Men who dress feminine (dress, bonnet, that sort of thing) are considered hilarious. Why is that? Because society has long accepted women wearing both "gender" clothes, but not men. In other words, one could say that male drag being funny is a testimate to the fact that men have fewer social rights than women in some areas of life.
Not to mention, joking about rape. Drag is often used by men as a way of expressing woman-hatred and they dress it up as humour. Just a joke girls, now get over yourselves, right?
ZeldaQueen: Yet again on rape. I should count how many times it's used. And when the hell has drag been used for "woman-hatred"? I've seen it used to express a man's personality, for stress relief, or even personality disorders (Psycho), but never for woman-hatred. Unless Allecto is somehow counting kinky outfits used for sex, but seems like there's a mighty big difference between those and a man wearing a modest dress and bonnet to disguise himself for a heist.
Oh and in the comments section, Allecto apparently thinks that Mal's dressing in drag to be no better than if he did a blackface minstral show. Yeah...
Right.
A bit later Mal talks about how he likes to wear dresses with Inara. “Like woman,
I am a mystery,” he says of his enjoyment of wearing dresses. Sorry, Joss, score zero for that one. Women aren’t a mystery, WE ARE FULLY CONSCIOUS HUMAN BEINGS.
ZeldaQueen: Indeed, and how does women being a mystery imply that they aren't fully conscious human beings? There are plenty of women who find men a mystery (no wait, Allecto probably thinks that validates her argument). Point is, just because someone is found mysterious doesn't mean that no one thinks they are consious or human. It means that people find them hard to figure out.
And to go off a little bit, I might add that the idea of women being mysterious goes waaaaay back, which is why there are a good many myths and such about wives or women having mysterious powers that they use to save their family or husbands or what have you. Powers that include summoning assistance, changing herself into animals, or solving nearly impossible tasks overnight. Men have long found women a puzzle.
And Mal is a wanker and wankers aren’t a bit mysterious. At least they aren’t to me. Maybe wankers are mysterious to unicorns. Who knows. I think I’m starting to hate unicorns.
ZeldaQueen: And I'm starting to really hate you. And you're pretty mysterious to me, specifically how you got to be so crazy. I guess means that I don't consider you a fully functional human being?
And I'm also getting really tempted to make a comment about only virgins finding unicorns. I'm trying to hold off though.
So, Mal saves some colonists from the bad guys by killing them all while wearing a dress. Mal and the crew get back on the ship. As they take off, Mal surprises a stowaway, who tells him that she is his wife. Mal gets all panicky and calls Zoe.
ZeldaQueen: You're skipping something rather significant here, but I'll get to you on that in a bit.
Now, it is pretty obvious by this point that Saffron has been traded to Mal in exchange for his killing the bad guys. She is a wife in the sense of being a sexual and domestic slave. When Zoe is told that Saffron has been traded to Mal as a wife/slave she begins to laugh. She then calls the rest of the crew and invites them to join her in laughing at Mal’s newly acquired possession. Now, I don’t know about you, but I have never met a Black woman who laughs about slavery. I can’t believe that any woman, Black or white would laugh at an incidence of men trading women. Where the hell does Joss Whedon do his research on women????? What women does Joss know that he can portray them like this????
MAL
Zoe, why do I have a wife?
JAYNE
You got a wife?
ZOE
What’s she doing here?
JAYNE
All I got was that dumb-ass stick that sounds like it’s raining. How come you got a wife?
MAL
I didn’t. (to Saffron) We’re not married.
SAFFRON
I’m sorry if I shame you…
MAL
You don’t shame me! Zoe, get Wash down here.
ZOE
(hits comm) This is Zoe. We need all personnel in the cargo bay.
MAL
All - I said Wash!
ZOE
Captain. everyone should have a chance to congratulate you on your day of bliss.
MAL
There’s no bliss! I don’t know this girl.
JAYNE
Then can I know her?
ZOE
(tough) Jayne… (sensitive) Don’t sully this.
ZeldaQueen: Right. That bit that Allecto missed? Here's how it goes: After Mal saves the town, we see that the crew spends the night there, partying and drinking. Mal and Jayne get fairly hammered as the townsfolk clamor to give them gifts (hence Jayne's comment about the stick - it was his gift). This is why Mal is so shocked at the idea of him being married and why Zoe finds it so funny - they (and everyone else) assumes that Mal just got really drunk and married Saffron and forgot he did so. None of them have any idea that Saffron was sold or traded to him.
Allecto also skipped the bit about what the marriage ritual entailed - Book tells them that on that planet, all one has to do to get married is wear a wreath on one's head while drinking wine from a bowl. During the scene in which the crew parties, we see Saffron laughing and happily putting the wreath on Mal's head and offering him the wine to drink. He clearly assumes it's just a part of the festivities and goes at it. Hence why he's so shocked again - he had no idea that he engaged in a marriage ritual, especially since it was so subtle that it was easily mistakable for regular party action.
So, Saffron runs off crying because of how she is being treated. Mal goes after her. Now in the following scenes we see Mal being magically possessed by a unicorn. His transformation is astounding. In one second we see a man who screams at the female members of his crew and violently defends his position as alpha male, the next *pouf* a beautiful, gallant steed, shining white against the grey backdrop of the ship, spouting fine speeches while tossing his mane, nobly defending the Rights of the Fairer Sex. Watch.
SAFFRON
Are you going to kill me?
MAL
What? What kind of crappy planet is that? Kill you?
SAFFRON
In the maiden’s home, I heard talk of men who weren’t pleased with their brides, who…
MAL
Well I ain’t them. And don’t you ever stand for that sort of thing. Someone tries to kill you, you try to kill ‘em right back. Wife or no, you’re no one’s property to be tossed aside. You got the ight same as anyone to live and to try to kill people. I mean, you know. People that are… That’s a dumb planet.
Ah Mal, Mal, Mal. So gallant, so kind, so noble. But just one question, Joss. Do you know what happens to women who defend themselves from violent men? Have you heard of Patreese Johnson, Renata Hill, Terraine Dandridge, Venice Brown, Dixie Shanahan, Yana Ladgari, Mary Winkler, Sherry Mariana, Marva Wallace? (This list is by no means exhaustive.) Women who defend themselves from men who are trying to kill them have their children taken away from them and are locked up. That is the stark reality of what equality means for women who live under male supremacy.
ZeldaQueen: First of all, that "transformation"? So nice of you to notice, but it's only shocking to you because you have some insanely skewed view of Mal. Like I pointed out in the last sporking, you cheerfully ignored the various things he did in the pilot to defend Kaylee, stand up for his crew, etc. I might also wonder what in the pilot episode implied that Mal would be alright with killing a woman. Oh yeah, Allecto thinks he's an Evil Rapist.
Second of all, let's have a look at those names:
The 2006 Greenwich assault case, which Patreese Johnson, Renata Hill, Venice Brown, and Terraine Dandridge were involved in, was divided between the women's claims that a man assaulted them and the man's claims that the women insulted and attacked him first. Footage showed both the man attacking and Johnson calmly stepping away and pulling out a knife before returning to the group attack. Footage also apparently showed Vernice Brown chasing the man down. Three of the women pleaded guilty to charges of attempted assault.
Dixie Shanahan killed her husband in self defense, and then hid the body in her bedroom for a year. I might add that it is illegal to not report a corpse.
I honestly can't comment on the case of Yana Ladgari, because I haven't heard of it. Anything I Google comes up with hits to Allecto's report here.
Mary Winkler said that she shot her husband during an argument over money. That's not killing in self-defense. She also admited that while the shooting was an accident, she had the gun out because she was going to force her husband to work through their problems at gunpoint. And while she did claim abuse, that's not the same as killing in self defense
Sherry Mariana threatened her husband with the gun before shooting him. Again, while she claimed abuse, what she did would not fall under killing in self-defense. The fact that she believed he was coming after her to strangle her would, but then she had already shot him once so yeah...
Marva Wallace was given a second trial and released.
I might also add that it seems that usually if word is between a man claiming assault and a woman claiming assault, the woman is taken more seriously.
Second of all, Josh is advocating something that you think is wrong with the world. And you're complaining because it's not accurate. Why? You complain when he puts in things that are more realistic (like the idea that the future still has sexual services available) and you complain when he has characters promote ideas that by your own admission are well and good.
Finally, this is the future. The world in the show wouldn't work the same as ours does! There's also the fact that Mal is an outlaw who lives a hand-to-mouth existence. No duh his view on life is a lot more bottom-line than the ones in the cases you gave.
And just a tip Joss, from one writer to another. If you believe that women should kill men who try to kill them then, quite frankly, I agree with you. If you want to show your encouragement and support for women who defend themselves from men, then write a female character that kills a man who is trying to kill her AND GETS AWAY WITH IT.
ZeldaQueen: Flashbacks show that Zoe fought in a war and certainly killed people there. In War Stories, all of the female characters took up arms and killed several attackers, including little River Tam who shot three with her eyes closed (and yet again, River is missing. Wtf?) All of them get away with it. Including the famous scene in Serenity when River kills an entire roomful of Reavers.
Now, let’s see, do you actually show women getting away with being disloyal to men? We had Patience, a character in the first episode. How did she fare when she tried to cheat Mal? Hmm… let’s think. Oh, that’s right. You left her trapped under the carcass of a horse. Mmm. I just love that feminist empowerment, Joss.
ZeldaQueen: Erm, wasn't that more of the fact that she tried to cheat him on a deal? She would have been left in that position if she had been a guy.
What about Saffron? As we'll be finding out, Saffron takes advantage of Mal, practically jumps him, knocks him out, steals a shuttle, and leaves him and his crew to die. When she shows up in another episode, not only does she not suffer any particularly strong consequences (besides her newest sap leaving her), but she convinces Mal to get his crew to back her on a heist and ultimately leaves him naked in the desert. Yeah...
Anyways, Saffron bonds nicely with the gallant unicorn version of Mal and skips off to make Mal some dinner like a good little wife. We then have a brief scene between Mal and Book.
MAL
She’s a nice girl.
BOOK
Seems very anxious to please you.
MAL
That’s their way, I guess.
BOOK
(bright, casual) I suppose so. If you take sexual advantage of her, you’re going to burn in a very special level of hell. A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the
theater. (My emphasis.)
Now, that comment right there indicates to me that our dear Mr. Whedon is a porn user. And that it is highly likely that his pornography of choice is Hustler, given that he seems to think it funny to trivialise the sexual abuse of children. How many times has Joss wanked to our degradation in Hustler while chuckling away at Chester the Molester cartoons? I actually really want to know the answer to this question. Joss continues his race hatred by putting this ‘joke’ in the mouth of a Black man.
ZeldaQueen: Okay people, I'm going to spill some beans here - Saffron is, in fact, playing a stereotypical good little wife here. And if that were all, then I'd think that Allecto had a halfway-decent reason to be bothered (though not enough to call Whedon a rapist). There is a huge reason why I'm not giving her credit for this though, and here's why: Saffron is a con artist. In a nutshell, Saffron goes around, tricks men into marrying her to further her plans, and then dumps them at the opportune moment. So all of this little wifey stuff here? It's all a trick. A Wounded Gazelle Gambit. She was never locked up, never sold, and is only fixing Mal's dinner and being so domestic and subserviant because she's trying to trick him into thinking she's a meek person who can't stand up for herself.
Allecto ought to realize this, since I can only assume that she wrote this essay after watching the episode and not during. Yet she makes no note of the fact that this is all a ruse. Instead, she takes it at face value. I might also add that it's not like people have never faked fear or weakness to manipulate someone. Just look at the case of Clara Schwartz, who played the victim of sexual abuse to get a male friend to kill her father - twice. The first one figured out the con and backed out.
Second of all, I have no idea how she jumps from what Book is saying to the conclusion that Whedon frequents child porn. Books comment is partially in jest (hence lumping it with the movie theater talking), but he is clearly being serious and warning off Mal from taking advantage of his wife. And Allecto sees this warning as a sign of racism. Oh yes Allecto, the preacher who gently disapproved of Inarra's profession and is telling Mal that the Good Lord is not too fond of sex offenders is a clear sign that Whedon is racist. You do realize that people can show disapproval without screeching their heads off, don't you?
Lastly, so lovely of her to make yet another baseless accusation about Whedon. I seriously wonder what part of NOT EVERYTHING SAID IS AGREED WITH BY WHEDON she doesn't understand.
So, Saffron cooks Mal dinner and Mal eats while she stands by waiting on him, fetching refills etc. Does Mal use Saffron as a domestic slave because he enjoys being a slave owner? No, no. He uses Saffron in order to stop her from crying. Really, truly, it’s for her own good.
ZeldaQueen: I remind viewers that this is an act from Saffron. She is deliberately exaggerating her attitude. And there is a reason - she knows full well that Mal has no idea how to handle a weepy, helpless woman who throws herself at him. Because - and I repeat - all of the women he knows and is familiar with are more or less tough, capable, and self-reliant. Zoe does not sob and insist that he let her feed him. Kaylee does not huddle in the corner and think Mal will kill her out of displeasure. If Mal tried to take sexual advantage of Inarra, she'd probably impale him with her sword training.
From this point on I almost want to just copy and paste the whole script. It is full of so much contempt I don’t feel like it even needs analysis.
ZeldaQueen: Of course, keep in mind Allecto's previous, slanted views on the script.
ZOE
Having yourself a little supper, Captain?
MAL
Well, Saffron insisted on… I didn’t want to make her feel… it’s damn tasty.
He can’t figure out who to be careful around - so he just starts shoveling it in.
WASH
Any more where that came from?
SAFFRON
(downcast) I didn’t think to make enough for your friends. (to Zoe) But I’ve everything laid out if you’d like to cook for your husband…
Wash looks at Zoe for a microsecond of hope - her eyes narrow - and he laughs overcompensationally.
WASH
Ta-ha-ha- Isn’t she quaint? I’m just not hungry.
He sits, Zoe sitting as well. Her hilarious mood has abated. Saffron retires to the pantry.
White male husband wishing his black female wife was more submissive and cooked his dinner. Anyone else see a problem with this?
ZeldaQueen: Wash briefly expressed the desire that his wife would cook him a meal. He in no way pressed the issue and he clearly is uncomfortable for the suggestion when Zoe's expression says "hell no".
ZOE
So, are you enjoying your own nubile little slave girl?
MAL
(mouth full) I’m not… nubile… (swallows) Look, she wanted to make me dinner. At least she’s not crying…
WASH
I might. Did she really make fresh bao? (off Zoe’s glare) Quaint!
ZOE
Remember that sex we were planning to have ever again?
Black female wife being jealous of a woman she terms a ‘slave girl’. Anyone else see a problem with this?
ZeldaQueen: And here she is just making stuff up. Zoe is in no way jealous of Saffron. She is disgusted with her and disgusted with Mal for accepting Saffron's service. If Zoe were so jealous of Saffron, wouldn't she take up cooking as well, to get Mal's attention? Please answer me that.
After a brief scene with Inara, we come to a touching scene between Jayne and Mal, where Jayne offers to trade his favourite gun to Mal in exchange for ownership of Saffron. Mal once again transforms into a unicorn, delivering more impassioned speeches on The Rights of the Fairer Sex.
JAYNE
Six men came to kill me one time, and the best of them carried this. It’s a Callahan fullbore autolock, customized trigger and double cartridge thourough-gage. He holds it out to Mal.
JAYNE (cont’d)
It’s my very favorite gun.
MAL
The explosive diarrhea of an elephant, are you offering me a trade?
JAYNE
A trade? Hell, it’s theft! This is the best gun made by man, and its got extreme sentimental value! It’s miles more worthy’n what you got.
MAL
“What I got” - she has a name.
JAYNE
So does this! I call it Vera.
…
MAL
She’s not to be bought. Nor bartered, nor borrowed or lent. She’s a human woman, doesn’t know a damn thing about the world and needs our protection.
Here the audience is supposed to notice that there are two sorts of men in the world; good men: Mal, and bad men: Jayne. Me? I see two rapists. Only difference is that one is in a two-dollar-shop disguise as a unicorn.
ZeldaQueen: I honestly don't understand Allecto. She complains about everything and when anyone does anything that is clearly innocent or caring, she is suspicious and insists that there's ulterior motives.
Given that Mal nobly believes in protecting the female members on board his ship from the ravages of ‘the world’ (read: men), I find it hard to credit that he allows Jayne to stay on board his ship. In this scene Jayne talks of women as sexual and domestic property, obviously unaware that women are human beings. Men who think like this about women ARE DANGEROUS. If Mal did care about the protection of women, he would have spaced Jayne immediately, or at least locked the fucker up.
ZeldaQueen: Well, if you had acknowledged the scene in the pilot when Mal stands up and orders Jayne out of the room for making crude sexual comments to Kaylee, then you'd have some precedent. You also apparently gave the episode Ariel a skip, since that one showed that Mal was perfectly willing to drop Jayne out of the air lock for betraying the Tams. Granted, I myself am not too sure why Jayne is kept around (the only answer we get is clearly sarcastic), but it's still clear that Mal will not hesitate to shove him out of the way if he causes trouble.
Another thing to consider is that Mal is worried about Saffron because she's pretending to be meek and helpless. Jayne expressed a desire to barter for her. In no episode did he express a desire to "buy" or take Zoe and proved himself to be quite protective of Kaylee. Like I said, he didn't like River and tried to get rid of her, but Mal protected her.
On another level, the trading of women and the naming of Phallic weapons, the sharing of homoerotic tales of male violence (Jayne’s story of how he acquired his gun), this is part of the larger romance of the show, the homoerotic, masculine connection between Mal and Jayne.
ZeldaQueen: You know, even Freud's admitted that a cigar can just be a cigar.
Here concludes the first half of my analysis of Our Mrs. Reynolds. I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride. Join me for the second installment where Saffron transforms from an innocent country girl into an evil, manipulative killer woman and Mal decides to burn his two-dollar-shop unicorn outfit.
ZeldaQueen: "Transforms"? She was there all the time. And yes, let's watch that, if by "burn his unicorn outfit" you mean "fight off the crazy con artist who tries to kill his crew".
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Part 2- Onward and outward! :D
Return to the Sporking Chamber