Agency, Chivalry, and Self-Replicating Men: Another Look at Gender in the ‘Verse

by Ariel Wetzel

Introduction

This is another post on Joss Whedon’s Serenity, originally written as an essay for an undergrad anthropology class. I haven’t see Firefly in ages, so this is mostly a reading of the film, and not my usual blog writing style because I wrote it for class.

Serenity is a future rift with classism and a colorblind “solution” to racism, and in this system, men are still the movers and shakers in the patriarchal ‘verse that is an extrapolation of contemporary American culture. This post examines how the characters of Serenity participate in this gendered system: the film’s strong, autonomous women do well despite their oppressive disadvantages, while men struggle with class-based honor. Although women and men are both oppressed in the ‘verse society, stepping out of it can be deadly for women, as we see with the bands of Reavers, which replicate themselves without females.

Women’s Agency in a Patriarchy

The ‘verse may seem egalitarian at first—nearly half of Serenity’s crew is female. However, they are only nearly half, not entirely, and outside of the ship crowd shots (especially of the Alliance ships and the laboratory in which River is held) show mostly men in positions of power. “Men” is still the default word for “people”; the contemporary patriarchal system has continued. Because the world of the movie is sexist does not mean the film itself is sexist; the women in Serenity fair well through their own agency within the confines of their world. They are not passive or sitting quietly in the background. Writer/director Joss Wheon characterizes them as autonomous, fully developed people (which reflects on his own devotion to gender equality).

This begins with the character Kaylee. The lives of the crew are in her hands in the opening of Serenity: she must patch up the spaceship as it literally falls apart during descent. Kaylee may be a mechanic—it seems fair to guess the trades are male dominated in the ‘verse—but she is not a man in drag; Kaylee’s dress is both practical and feminine without being overly sexualized. (Mal, whose nickname among fans is Cap’n Tightpants, wears more form fitting clothes that Kaylee.) Jewel Staite even gained weight for her role, bringing Kaylee up to a fit, healthy-looking size. Kaylee is not caught in the virgin/whore archetypes; she is open about enjoying sex but is not promiscuous. One of the most memorable lines in the film is from the mouth of Kaylee when she complains, “Goin’ on a year now I ain’t had nothing twix my nethers that ain’t run on batteries.” How unusual for a woman to discuss masturbation in American media! Mal’s discomfort with his platonic friend’s open sexuality (Mal also has issues with his friend Inara’s profession; Inara is an upper-class prostitution called a companion) and crewperson Jayne’s interest in hearing more reflect the contemporary paradigm that both encourages women to flaunt their sexuality for male entertainment while being prudishly uncomfortable with it.

Path of Least Resistance: Chivarly

Men in the ‘verse, despite being the ones in power, seem especially forced into their gender-roles as they choose to maintain a sense of chivalrous honor (especially towards women). The film’s villain, the Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor), kills a scientist by causing him to fall onto his sword. “This is an honorable death,” the Operative says (and he attempts to kill Mal in the same way later in the film). The Operative kills the scientist’s male assistants, but spares the female secretary that he refers to as “young miss” and asks to aid him in clean up. This chivalry has class ties, since characters like Mal, Zoe, Jayne, and Wash, who apparently come from working-class backgrounds, are quicker to take the less honorable route for the sake of survival (for example, Mal shoots a boy who tries to escape the Reavers with his crew; the boy would have slowed them down). Honor is not entirely foreign to the working class, however, they just have a more ambiguous sense of it. During the heist at the beginning of the film, a guard asks Mal to punch him so he’ll look like he put up a good fight. Jayne, later in the film, criticizes Mal, “Hiding under the Sheppard’s skirts, that’s a manful scheme.” Jayne uses emasculation to manipulate Mal. The idea of what’s honorable and chivalrous is colored by class, and men in the ‘verse meet resistance when they fail to conform to their class’s idea of it.

Reavers: Men Reproducing Without Women

When people step outside the system, there is the threat of Reavers. In the ‘verse’s cautionary folklore, it’s believed Reavers are people who looked too deeply into the darkness of space and went crazy from isolation. During the film, the Serenity crew learns of the Reaver’s true origin: some years earlier, the Alliance tried to pacify the population of Miranda through medication. To weed out violence, most of the population lost its drive to live: they cease to eat, care for themselves, or breed, until they lie down and die. .1% of the population, however, has the opposite reaction to the medication: they become violent cannibals that reproduce themselves by torturing others until their victims in turn become Reavers—if they survive. Reavers are an efficient threat against stepping outside the Alliance and the status quo.

There are several scenes with Reavers in Serenity, and they are all male. No explanation is given in the film, but the male Reavers raise some important questions: Is there something essential about male aggression that makes only men capable of becoming violent to the extreme? Or are women (for biological or reasons among the Reaver culture) unable to survive the Reaver lifestyle long enough to propagate it? Either way, these hyper-violent people have the power to sexually and physically dominate people of all genders as they rape and consume, and women have no place in the reproduction of Reavers. The patriarchy of the ‘verse may be a disadvan-tage for both women, who are secondary to males, and men, who are forced to act as men “ought to”, but stepping outside of the ‘verse civilization is even deadlier.

- More blogging by Ariel Wetzel at http://www.lake-desire.com

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