This is a fleshing out of thoughts I've had today, some being blatantly lifted from others I've read on LJ. If you see your thoughts here, I do not make any claim to them, they were a jumping off point for my thoughts this afternoon. Also, as this is a fleshing out, please forgive any misspeaking or mistakes I may make. Also, please know that I am not casting any judgment or what have you on anyone else’s issues with Dollhouse. I totally get the skeevy-ness. But I just got to thinking today that I’m not that surprised that Joss wrote what seems to be a horribly misogynistic show. And with that, Thoughts!!
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So. I've been reading a lot about Dollhouse. Some good, some bad, some disgust, and none indifferent. I've noticed a trend to wonder what the flipping hell Joss Whedon was thinking when coming up with this premise, and I, too wonder. Now, I've not watched Dollhouse. Not because I have any deep, feminist issues with the show, but because it quite simply didn't interest me. I do see the points that various people have made about it and how the women in the Dollhouse are chattel for rent for all sorts of skeevy and male-driven yukkiness. And I can agree with them, even not having seen the show.
I was one of the few women that I know that didn't have a problem with Penny's role and lack of agency in Dr. Horrible. Not every woman, in my opinion, needs to have agency as not every woman in the world has agency. She died because idiots were doing idiotic things and she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I had no issue with it because ultimately, Dr. Horrible and Captain "It's My Penis" Hammer got what was coming to them by way of their shared love interest being sacrificed because of their own stupidity. This happens quite a bit in real life in varying degrees. Both by some women's choice and some not. That, to me, was shown with Penny's death. [I am deliberately not talking about Tara’s death because that is a whole ‘nother Oprah.] And a lot of people expressed disappointment in Joss for that lack of Penny's agency considering that he has a history of writing strong, agency-filled women, most notably, Buffy Summers.
But in thinking about it today, I've come to believe that Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible, Angel, and Buffy are not all that different. It's Firefly that's the anomaly. This would, therefore, make the rest the norm as far as Joss’ writing women is concerned.
(This is the thought I did not have on my own that led to the rest of these thoughts)In Buffy, NONE of the women in the show or in AtS had any power that was of their own making, save maybe Willow who sought out her power and nurtured it and grew it to epic proportions. I don't remember if Tara's power came to her genetically or not, so I defer to others' better knowledge. Buffy was given her super strength. So was every alsyer, ever. She, in turn, gave that power to the potentials. None of their strength really came from within. We see several times that Buffy's inner strength to keep fighting the good fight and not just commit suicide-by-demon came from her very stereotypical female nurturing, caring, and protection of her friends and family. She is a perfect example of a mother-goddess. Even all of the ancillary female characters either got their powers from someone else or sought out the power they had for again, very stereotypical female reasons. Need to live vicariously through your teenage daughter? Learn witchcraft and take over her body. Easy peasy George and Weezy. Cordy was given her power by the PTB. And Fred, well, I personally had so many issues with simpering, whimpering Fred that I am afraid they color my ability to look at her subjectively. She didn't survive for 5 years in Pylea because of her extraordinary intelligence. She survived by hiding in a cave and then falling all over the "nice handsome man" that saved her. For the most part, the women in BtVS and AtS were at the mercy of whoever decided that they should have agency. These women did not, for the most part, go out and seek that agency.
So then I started thinking about Firefly. Women with agency GALORE. And while none of them are main protagonist, Cap’n Mal would have lost his complete ass several times over if it hadn’t been for the women aboard his ship. Zoe’s power is ALL from within. She is a kick-ass and take names, no guff taking, no shit strong women all of her own making. She was, and is, a soldier. She takes orders from Mal because to her that’s rank. If it were a woman giving them, she’d take them the same way. For Zoe, it’s about respect and self-awareness. With Kaylee, true – she can totally be a dunderhead. What person of any gender isn’t at several points in their lives – but she knows her ships, she can draw out the strength when she needs it, she is very self aware and has no problem doing what she needs to to get what she wants. For her, it’s Simon and after having nothing “twixt her nethers weren’t run on batteries” for almost a year, I would totally grab a gun and start shooting at some flipping reavers; Girl’s gotta get some pipe laid. Inarra chose her life of being a companion. She is as strong a woman as Zoe is; Inarra is just more subtle about it. Zoe’s is a in your face you know it immediately strength while Inarra’s is more withheld but freely comes out when it needs to. And here, Mal is also very dependent on her to save his beautiful arse on more than one occasion. And then there’s River. If she had been left alone by the Alliance and was able to develop her inherent gifts to her own choosing, I have no doubt that she would have become as strong as she is after the brain studies and torture, only with a bit less whack-a-doo. Or, maybe not. Maybe the whack-a-doo was also inherent.
And so it seems to me that, and I say this as a HUGE fan of Joss’, his cred for writing strong women isn’t all that strong. He has proven that he can do it and by gosh, he *should* do it since when he does it, he does it well. But, to me, it’s not the norm for him. And so, not surprised that he didn’t write a great female-centric show.
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