More Allecto: Our Mrs. Reynolds, Pt. 1

Hey, guys, it's my 600th post, and what better way to spend it then trashing a proselytizing lunatic feminist that I don't like? My first Allecto rebuttal is here: http://thelightsandbuzz2.blogspot.com/2009/03/response-to-rapists-view-of-world-by.html

So today's article deals with the Firefly episode Our Mrs. Reynolds. You can read the original here: http://allecto.wordpress.com/2008/04/06/a-rapists-view-of-the-world-our-mrs-reynolds-part-one/ and get the full effect of the batshit that I am watering down for you now. I wish I had time to refresh my memory by watching the episode, but unfortunately I'm in university and I barely have enough time to shower. So I'll go from memory as best as I can.

I like to go into these recaps with no prior knowledge of what I'm reading. The Host was great fun to do because I had absolutely no spoilers. I had read the first Allecto article before I recapped it so I had a pretty good idea of what I was rebutting. However, I haven't read this article, so it's kind of akin to going onto a battlefield with no weapon and no armour. I feel a little apprehensive.

Before I start, I urge everyone to watch Firefly. It's an awesome show and you will also get a better idea of exactly how much nonexistent subtext Allecto reads into it. Especially the stuff about the "intense homoeroticism" that SPOILER doesn't actually exist.

It was such a pleasure to write the first part (wanting to throw up for two weeks after having watched the trash notwithstanding)...
Much as I felt after rebutting your first article.

Allecto starts by mentioning that comments will be harshly moderated, which roughly translates to "I hate people who disagree with me, so I will essentially pretend that they don't exist." She also mentions the "enthusiastic response" to her first article. Well, DUH. The only people who read her livejournal are radical feminists like herself. Of course they're going to agree. If the link was posted on Whedonesque, then it would be ripped apart.

Then she launches into an attack against the commenters who disagreed with her. Blah blah blah, Allecto, come ON. And then I'm not quite sure here...I THINK she's saying that there is no such thing as a male feminist (ha ha ha, she compares them to unicorns, and I almost wrote "a male unicorn") but I don't know if she's being sarcastic? Who really knows with her.

Okay, in the scene she's referring to, Mal is dressing up as a woman so these bandits that they are confronting will be put off their guard. He pretends to be married to Jayne. Jayne says he married an ugly creature, Mal gets fake mad, and then they start shooting things.

Allecto says that's it's super anti-feminist because Jayne jokes about making Mal prettier? Even though the joke here is that Mal is a man, and as such makes an ugly woman. I don't know, I just don't see the anti-feminism. And then she says they're joking about rape but I don't see that in this scene either, unless she's just referring to Firefly in general. If so, that's bad writing.

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?
Well...it's funny. But I don't think it's MEANT to be radical or feminist.

Drag is often used by men as a way of expressing woman-hatred and they dress it up as humour.
Except...Mal dressed up as a woman to surprise the bandits so they would be caught off guard and Mal and Jayne could get the upper hand. I HIGHLY doubt that they just manipulated the whole situation and engineered it so they would fight bandits JUST so Mal could dress up as a woman and "express woman-hatred". That seems like a lot of effort, not to mention it kind of endangers their lives.

Also, I thought cross dressing was what men who were confused about their sexual identity did. It has nothing to do with hating women. If anything, it's an extension of self-loathing and self-conflict.

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.
I'm sorry, I don't even know what to say to this one. First, he doesn't ACTUALLY dress up in drag all the time. That's the joke. And how does being mysterious=unconscious? I don't get how being a mystery is a bad thing.

Where the hell does Joss Whedon do his research on women????? What women does Joss know that he can portray them like this????
Allecto!!!! Multiple punctuation does not help get your point across any clearer!!!! Please stop, as it is giving me a headache!!!!!

So then the crew of Serenity finds a woman on the ship who has been traded to them. She is now apparently married to Mal. Allecto loses her shit because Zoe thinks it's funny. She goes into one of her diatribes about black women's personalities and thoughts and feelings. First, I don't like how she keeps bringing race into her articles because race isn't an issue on Firefly and it kind of undermines her argument and is very jarring when she does talk about it. Second, I don't know whether or not she's black, but I do know that she is assuming to know the thoughts, feelings, and hypothetical reactions of millions of individual black women. It seems to me that she is now the anti-feminist, as she is assuming that all black women are basically robots with their thoughts and feelings programmed into them with no individuality. I don't know, it just strikes me as counter-intuitive.

Saffron is all, "Are you going to kill me? Am I not pleasing?" and Mal is like, "Dude, of course I'm not going to kill you.

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.
Here she goes again, assuming that every single female who tries to stand up to violent men will suffer the same fate. I don't understand this. It's like she's telling us that any woman who tries to stand up to a man will suffer harshly. Hasn't she heard of Harriet Tubman, Zora Neale Hurston (BOTH BLACK, might I add), Cloelia (http://www.badassoftheweek.com/cloelia.html), Jeanne Hachette (http://www.badassoftheweek.com/hachette.html), Agustina d'Aragon (http://www.badassoftheweek.com/agustina.html), Anne Bonny (http://www.badassoftheweek.com/bonny.html), Joan of Arc, Grace O'Malley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_O%27Malley), Chen I Sao (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ching_Shih), and for a more contemporary example, Susan Kuhnhausen, who fucking killed a (male) killer hired by her husband and she's like 50, all after being clubbed in the head with a claw hammer? And why exactly am I being forced to find examples of strong women for Allecto? Isn't that her job? You know you have a flawed argument when...

Moving on.

And just a tip Joss, from one writer to another.
Allecto, writing manifestos and posting them on your livejournal doesn't qualify as being a writer. Also, I'm not going to write down the tip, because it's stupid.

So Book (WHO IS A BLACK MAN. This is apparently very important to Allecto but really doesn't matter at all in the context of the story) says that if Mal takes advantage of Saffron, he's going to the special hell. One they reserve for child molesters and people who talk in the theatre. So, here's a guy saying that taking advantage of a girl is wrong. Allecto's response? Well, duh, OBVIOUSLY this shows that Joss watches porn!

Yeah, I don't get it either.

Then we get to her pet hate, the Zoe/Wash relationship. As we know, since Zoe is black and Wash is white, it doesn't matter what outward appearances are: he must be raping/subjugating her behind closed doors. Allecto has never personally seen a healthy relationship between a black woman and white man, so obviously they don't exist. I've never seen a wildebeest, etc. Saffron cooks for Mal, Wash looks to Zoe hopefully, but she is taking none of his shit. Allecto skips right over Zoe being strong and not bending to Wash's desires, and just says it's anti-feminist because Wash wants Zoe to cook for her. Whatever, it's just a joke, etc.

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.
Hee. Not much I can say about this. She's like those insane shippers who are all HARRY/RON FOREVER. Just...no. Very rarely are there genuine gay relationships on TV shows. I know. I watch a lot of TV.

Part 2 will come...later. Tomorrow is a planned Labyrinth breakdown. I usually need a few weeks between Allecto dissections, and David Bowie and his magical tight pants are just what I need to recover from today.

Response to "A Rapist's View Of The World" by Allecto

So awhile ago, Allecto wrote an infamous militant feminist rant about Joss Whedon's Firefly.

It's batshit. I'm just throwing that out now. I read it and I wanted to reply to her but I don't have a livejournal so I couldn't. So I'm going to do an in depth discussion here.

First thing: I think you will all agree that I am a feminist. But things can go TOO FAR. Sometimes feminists look too hard for sexism, and it results in this: A Rapist's View of the World.

Second: The one thing I hate almost as much as actual misogynists is feminists who go looking for misogyny that is NOT THERE.

I have to say that now that I have subjected myself to the horror that is Firefly, I really am beyond worried about how much men hate us, given that this was written by a man who calls himself a feminist.
Okay, I will just say this: You don't get considered a feminist by thousands of people unless there is some sort of reason for it.

I find much of Joss Whedon’s work to be heavily influenced by pornography, and pornographic humour.
Really? Since when? I've seen Buffy, Angel, and Firefly and I wasn't all "ZOMG THIS IS PORNO!" I haven't seen much of Buffy or Angel so I can't say how many sex scenes there are there (although in Angel my guess is: not that many) but Firefly has maybe...um...I remember one that happened offscreen and we just see the morning after, which is probably true for the only other two that I can remember happening. So...I'm a little confused here.

For myself, I’m not sure that I will recover from the shock of watching the malicious way in which Joss stripped his female characters of their integrity, the pleasure he seemed to take from showing potentially powerful women bashed, the way he gleefully demonized female power and selfhood and smashed women into little bits, male fists in women’s faces, male voices drowning out our words.
Well okay, let's take a look at the women in Firefly.
Zoe: Badass second in command (which, granted, COULD be a problem for Allecto, but I think it's pretty sweet). She clearly wears the pants in her relationship, she doesn't shy from anything, she's good to have in a fight, she doesn't take shit from Mal or anyone else, and she was in a war. I'm not seeing the anti-feminism yet.
Kaylee- This one is a little more iffy (again, trying to look from a militant feminist's point of view). She IS a little child-like and not really a fighter, but is that always a bad thing? She IS a mechanic, a traditionally male occupation. She is also the one that everyone likes, which has to say something.
Inara- Yes, she does have sex for money. But she is more of a geisha. And you have to remember, in the Fireflyverse, this is a noble occupation, for people of high status. Personality wise, she is highly intelligent, witty, doesn't take shit from anyone (except for Atherton) and is also very kind.
River- Unquestionably the smartest person on the ship who can take out two men WITH HER EYES CLOSED. In Serenity, she takes out a whole roomful of them. Still not seeing the anti-feminism.
The old woman whose name is not currently coming to mind- She is an old lady in charge of a moon who shot Mal and can use a gun. If that's not badass, I don't know what is.
YoSaffBrig- An extremely smart and witty con artist who tricked Mal twice.
The staff of the brothel- Mal and the gang went to save them from a guy who was going to kidnap a girl who was having his child. If I recall correctly, the girls were all trained to fight, the main prostitute was smart and calm in a crisis, and the girl with said baby shot the guy who was trying to kidnap her.
So yeah. I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

The first scene opens in a war with Mal and Zoe. Zoe runs around calling Mal ‘sir’ and taking orders off him. I roll my eyes. Not a good start.
I refer to someone else who said, "I suppose having ranks in the military is anti-feminist." Mal is the commander of their army. Zoe is his second command. She is SUPPOSED to call him sir and take orders from him. If Zoe was a guy she would be doing the exact same thing. Carter calls O'Neill "sir" throughout the whole run of Stargate SG-1 and I wouldn't call her an anti-feminist character. She's the smartest one at the SGC and pretty badass in a fight.

Zoe says, “This ship's been derelict for months. Why would they –”

Mal replies, (in Chinese) “Shut up.”

So in the very second scene of the very first episode, an episode written and directed by the great feminist Joss, a white man tells a black woman to ‘shut up’ for no apparent reason. And she does shut up. And she continues to call him sir. And takes his orders, even when they are dumb orders, for the rest of the series.
First of all, I'm confused as to why she knows the Chinese. They don't have subtitles. Maybe he's going "You're right!" Since we don't know exactly, I'm not going to comment on that. Also, RACE IS IRRELEVANT IN FIREFLY. They don't care about race! GODDAMMIT, Allecto, I'm trying to remain calm but IT'S GETTING PRETTY HARD. And yes, she takes his orders because SHE IS HIS SECOND IN COMMAND. He is captain of the ship. She is a second in command. Is that clear yet? Again, if she was a guy she would be doing the exact same thing. And I think you'll recall that every single other character follows his orders, even if they're male. She only calls him sir because they were in the army together.

The next scene we meet Kaylee, the ship’s mechanic. <- Lookee, lookee, feminist empowerment. In this scene Mal and Jayne are stowing away the cargo they just stole. Kaylee is chatting to them, happily. Jayne asks Mal to get Kaylee to stop being so cheerful. Mal replies, “Sometimes you just wanna duct tape her mouth and dump her in the hold for a month.” Yes, that is an exact quote, “Sometimes you just wanna DUCT TAPE HER MOUTH and DUMP HER IN THE HOLD FOR A MONTH.” Kaylee responds by grinning and giving Mal a kiss on the cheek and saying, “I love my Captain.”

What the fuck is this feminist man trying to say about women here? A black woman calling a white man ‘sir’. A white male captain who abuses and silences his female crew, with no consequences.
Whoa. Allecto has no concept of humour. The whole thing with Mal and Kaylee was A JOKE. Like I said before, everyone likes Kaylee. Kaylee knows it's a joke and knows that Mal would never hurt her, which is why she kisses him on the cheek. Since the show is primarily a humourous one, I don't think this bodes well.

The women are HAPPY to be abused. They enjoy it. What does this say about women, Joss? What does this say about you? Do you tell your wife to shut up? Do you threaten to duct tape her mouth? Lock her in the bedroom? Is this funny to you, Joss? Because it sure as fuck ain’t funny to me.
They aren't abused, and if Mal ever does get out of line (Later in the series. If she mentions the episode, I'll talk about it then, if not, I'll talk about it at the end) he is quickly put in his place. I also think that personal attacks undermine her flawed argument, such that it is.

Now we get to Inara, who is a little trickier to defend. She is basically a prostitute. But I will try.
So, Joss Whedon refers to rapist/fuckers who buy women as sex, as ‘eager, inexperienced but pleasingly shaped’ who ‘make love’ to women in prostitution. Obviously, ‘love’ to men like Joss Whedon, requires female powerlessness, force and coercion. Women in prostitution enjoy the experience of being bought for sex. They feel ‘motherly’ towards the men who have just treated them as property and bought them as sex.
As she mentions later, the women choose their partners, NOT the other way around. There is no powerlessness, force, or coercion. If the woman felt they were being forced, I'm fairly certain they could just leave. In "Shindig" a man is a huge asshole to Inara and she blacklists him so he can't get a Companion ever again. Is that being forced to do anything? I think not.

In Joss Whedon’s future world prostituted women are powerful and respectable. They go to an Academy, to train in the arts of being a ‘Companion’. They belong to a Guild which regulates prostitution, forces women to endure yearly health tests and comes up with rules to make prostitution sound empowering for women. For example, one Guild rule is that the ‘Companion’ chooses her rapist, not the other way around.
"Forced" to "endure" yearly health tests? I'm fairly certain that half the world does that. It's not exactly anything new. So she would rather that women who regularly have sex DON'T have check-ups? I'm not seeing her logic here.

But there is one really big question that does not get answered. The women who ‘choose’ to be ‘Companions’ are shown as being intelligent, accomplished, educated, well-respected and presumably from good families. If a woman had all of these qualities and opportunities then why the fuck would she ‘choose’ to be a man’s fuck toy? Would being a fuck toy for hundreds of men give a woman like Inara personal fulfillment? Job satisfaction? A sense of purpose? Fulfill her dreams? Ambitions?
Because BEING a companion REQUIRES you to be all those things. You have to be intelligent to banter with the men. You have to be educated to have conversations with them. You have to be from good families because a Companion is a fairly exclusive job. Besides, Inara gets to travel all over, attend different social events, and meet new people. Maybe these are things that she wants. I refer Allecto to "Memoirs of a Geisha" to fully get into the mindset of someone like Inara, since she is basically a geisha.

Then she complains that Mal calls her a whore (he just wants to make her mad for the attention because he likes her DUH) and that he goes into her shuttle without asking after she asked him not to. Same reasons. He likes her, so he's an asshole. Basic elementary school psychology, but I'm beginning to doubt that Allecto even went to school since she doesn't seem socialized in the ways of the human race.

But Mal delights in pointing out Inara’s powerlessness, it makes him feel all manly.
I don't see any evidence of this ever happening. If Mal ever wanted to feel manly, he could just go out and shoot things. He goes into Inara's shuttle because HE WANTS TO BE NEAR HER but can't admit it.

HA HA HA HA HA HA. I don't remember reading this next part but it's AWESOME. Allecto says that Inara has three rules: Don't call her a whore, don't enter her shuttle, and she won't service anyone on the ship. Allecto then says that all three rules are broken. I was confused because I don't remember her having sex with anyone on the ship, but apparently the following is akin to sex for Allecto:
BOOK Is this what life is, out here?

INARA Sometimes.

BOOK I've been out of the abbey two days, I've beaten a Lawman senseless, I've fallen in with criminals... I watched the captain shoot a man I swore to protect. And I'm not even sure if I think he was wrong.

INARA Shepherd...

He is shaking a bit, tearing up.

BOOK I believe I just... (a pained smile) I think I'm on the wrong ship.

INARA Maybe. Or maybe you're exactly where you ought to be.

He lowers his head. She puts her hand on it, a kind of benediction. We hold on them a second.
So...giving people advice is akin to prostitution? DAMMIT, I FEEL LIKE SUCH A SLUT NOW. Seriously. Is she fucking joking? Allecto rationalizes that giving emotional help to people is providing a service, but I HIGHLY doubt that's what Inara meant when she set down her rules.

She also services Kaylee but the relationship between them is a little more reciprocal.
Services her how? By doing her hair? Goddamn I've apparently had sex more times than I realized.

In any case, Mal makes it pretty obvious that he expects his emotional needs to be serviced by Inara and she willingly obliges. Mal also allows the male passengers to demand her emotional services and does not tell them to stop, despite the terms of his agreement with Inara.
When? When does this EVER happen? Goddammit Allecto, I can't keep rebutting things when you keep making them up!

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Joss uses his own wife in this way. Expects her to clean up his emotional messes. Expects her to be there, eternally supportive, eternally subservient and grateful to him in all his manly glory. I hope the money is worth it, Mrs. Whedon.
You know you don't have an actual argument when you resort to ad hominem ones. Also, no offense Joss, but "his manly glory"? Has Allecto even seen a picture of him? He also freely admits that he was an outcast in school and he never could get a date.

Aside from women being fuck toys, property and punching bags for the men, the women have very little importance in the series. I counted the amount of times women talk in the episode Serenity compared to the amount of times men talk. The result was unsurprising. Men: 458 Women: 175.
Well DUH. The men outnumber the women 5:3 for the most part and I don't know if I should count Inara since she doesn't really have anything to do with the crew, so it's 5:2. I think it would be weird if men DIDN'T talk more than women.

Given the fact that women are largely absent from the action and the dialogue of the majority of scenes it is unsurprising that the action onscreen is highly homoerotic. Men jostle with each other for power. Pushing each others buttons, and getting into scuffles. This intense homoeroticism is present from the outset as Mal asserts his rights as alpha male on the ship.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA whoa, sorry. Gotta take a minute after that one.

Violence is a part of the landscape throughout the whole series and Mal is often the instigator. He is constantly rubbing himself up against other men, and punishing wayward women, proving and solidifying his manliness through bashing the shit out of anyone and everyone.
HAHAHAHAHA. "Rubbing himself up against other men"? WTF? I wonder what kind of crack Allecto is on because I WANT some.

Zoe, the token black woman, acts as a legitimiser. Her role is to support Mal’s manly obsession with himself by encouraging him, calling him ‘sir’, and even starting the fights for him. Zoe is treated as a piece of meat by both her husband (Wash, another white male) and the Captain.
Oh, wow. Okay, she calls him "sir" because HE WAS HER FUCKING SUPERIOR IN THE ARMY HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY IT? I don't recall her ever starting fights for him. And I think it's pretty clear that Mal highly values her as a fighter and as his second in command. And Wash? Are you serious? He clearly loves her for who she is and realizes completely that she is stronger than he is.

Wash and Mal fight each other for Zoe’s attention and admiration, both relying on her submission to them to get them hard and manly. In fact there is a whole episode, War Stories, devoted to Wash and Mal’s ‘rivalry’. By the word rivalry, I mean violent, homoerotic male/male courtship conducted over the body of a woman.
War Stories starts when Wash somehow gets it into his head that there is sexual tension between Zoe and Mal (which there CLEARLY isn't) and Mal is trying to get him to think normally again. It's not homoerotic or violent (except on the part of Niska [can't remember if that's his actual name], who's a sociopath and a villain anyway). I'm so sick of this article.
Edited: I'm watching War Stories right now and I noticed something that I forgot. Allecto talks about Mal and Wash's "rivalry" over Zoe. The only reason Mal is fighting with Wash over Zoe at all is to keep Wash from breaking under the torture. He knows that Zoe is the only thing that will cause Wash to fight for his life and he utilizes that. This negates Allecto's whole "manly rivalry" thing and also her later assertion that Wash is a rapist.

Zoe is not shown to have a personality of her own. She has no outside interests, no ideas or beliefs, no conversation with anyone other than Wash or Mal. She has no female friends, in fact she tends to dislike women. For example, she is the first one to insult Saffron in the episode Our Mrs. Reynolds, calling her ‘trouble’.
I think Zoe's personality can be described as stoic, strong, fearless, etc. She is also secretly hilarious, as evidenced by War Stories. She is never shown to dislike Inara or Kaylee. She just doesn't interact with them much because she doesn't have much in common with them. And she calls Saffron trouble because...well, you'll have to see the episode. But Zoe clearly turns out to be correct, so what's the problem?

So you will forgive me for believing that the character, Wash, is a rapist and an abuser, particularly considering that he treats Zoe like an object and possession.
Her basis for condemning the relationship is that she, personally, has never known a happy relationship between a white man and a black woman. Yeah, yeah, that's some great logic. I've never personally seen a wildebeest. Do they also not exist?
Also, Wash as a rapist and an abuser? Please. Wash is the timid comic relief guy. Did she even watch the show or just read the script and make assumptions?

Joss Whedon does not share my view, of course, and he paints the relationship between Zoe and Wash as a perfectly happy, healthy union. If anyone is interested in portrayals of relationships between white men and black women written from black women’s point of view, I would suggest watching Radiance, Rabbit-Proof Fence and Serenades, skip Joss Whedon’s shit.
I don't think Allecto gets that not all relationships are the same. She's reading subtext that doesn't exist and projecting her on biases onto a relationship that is only ever portrayed as loving and mutually equal.

Oh dear God, there are three more articles about Firefly. Those will have to be done another day.

Oh right, I almost forgot. In one episode, Mal is mean to Kaylee without provocation. Everyone except Jayne (who is too stupid anyway) ostracizes Mal and clearly lets him know that he was out of line. He becomes remorseful IMMEDIATELY and later makes it up to Kaylee. Are these the actions of a man who is only concerned with being manly and subjugating women? I think not.

I just wish her rants were on The X-Files, since I have a more encyclopedic knowledge of that show. I should go onto her livejournal and be like, "Hey, have you seen the X-Files? It's the most misogynistic show I've ever seen. CHRIS CARTER MUST BE A RAPIST" and then just let nature take its course. I'm also considering posting this link on her livejournal. Kind of the electronic equivalent of throwing down the gloves, but I'm going to be honest here: I'm a little scared of her.

In my Twilight and Feminism post awhile ago, I talked about how girls are under the impression that being a feminist is a bad thing. They think that feminists are insane, non-shaving lesbian lunatics. Allecto is certainly not helping. So thanks, Allecto, for setting your OWN MOVEMENT back a few years.

Maybe after I recover from this festival of loony, I will reply to her other posts. But that might take awhile.