why not Mal?

POSTED BY: SouthernSlayer
UPDATED: Saturday, February 26, 2005 14:58
VIEWED: 10652
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GWENHARKER

Saturday, February 19, 2005 8:55 PM

Don't forget, Mal grew up with his momma who from the way I see it, taught him how to treat ladies right and how instead of sleeping around and leaving women behind him (like Jayne), He respects them and treats them proper.

Due to the lack of a father, it was either a widow situation or the guy up and left her with Mal. It makes sense to me.

Mal sees Inara for what she really is and he doesn't like it. I don't think he likes to see women so low on their luck that they resort to such a profession be it "common whoring" or companionship.

Admitting his feelings would do just what he doesn't want: Admit that he cares for someone who sells themselves and with those feelings out in the open, they will become true and how will he feel? He like a woman of such a lowly profession and what does that make him?

Complicates things.

KAYSKY

Monday, February 21, 2005 3:17 AM

Love is complicated. It's not easy to say the things we want to say to the person we are in love with.

Mal and Inara are both stubborn and set in their ways which only makes it harder for them to confront their true feelings with each other.

EBONEZER

Monday, February 21, 2005 3:41 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SouthernSlayer:
Why do you suppose we have difficulty telling those we care for deeply that we do?

You know, I did that once. It worked out surprisingly well. The relationship began with the lines of communication wide open, so we can talk about anything.

This is totaly unrelated to the thread, sorry. But I felt compelled to share.

-----------------------------------

Four out of five gynecologists recommend calling Ebo a girl.

CALHOUN

Monday, February 21, 2005 3:50 AM

Quote:
thatweirdgirl wrote:
Monday, February 14, 2005 13:00

Been there. You express your wants and desires in mostly acceptable ways and hope that you do not offend your love. You hope that they reciprocate your advances without causing more damage than you have by admitting your desire. You're unavailable, he’s unavailable and yet you hope against hope knowing it never can be.

Been there? Elaborate for us please.

Fancied the boy next door when you were too young for real love to be acceptable?

Have a crush on your husbands brother or some such?

THEGREYJEDI

Monday, February 21, 2005 4:01 AM

*nods*

Wow. That sounds familiar.

But as for Mal, he, much against his will, fell in love with the graceful and beautiful Inara. But her profession is an immorality he just can't reconcile with.

It's similar to situations I've run across, most recently this past fall. But thanks to being able to talk about the feelings, and also finding Holly, there's no where near the tension that there exists between Mal and Inara.

------------------------------------------------------------
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http://tomeofgrey.blogspot.com
Real Fans Wait - 09/30/05

FINN MAC CUMHAL

Monday, February 21, 2005 4:21 AM

An opinion on Mal’s depiction of Inara’s profession:

Is Inara’s profession any different then a prostitute? Certainly sex is one of her services as it were, but my impression is that Companions are considered by the established political culture as distinctly different from prostitutes, specifically trained to offer more then just sex. Although this may make her just a high-end model; sex is afterall being sold, the difference is really who it is being sold to. Companions move in circles of the very elite; they have credentials and an established administrative base. They offer sex, among other things perhaps, to the gentry of an aristocratic culture, and most surprisingly of all, they seem to wield considerable aristocratic power themselves, based purely on their profession. Indeed they are part of a caste system not unlike, it seems to me, the sociopolitical hierarchy of the former soviet union. The most powerful members of the society are those associated with the government, while the vast majority is composed of slaves and a working class, and there is considerable disparity between the upper aristocratic castes and the working class. Inara falls into the sociopolitical structure somewhere near the top.

Is Inara’s profession necessarily accepted? Certainly in political terms, since the Alliance appears to rule somewhat heavy-handedly, we can say that her profession is accepted, because the Alliance accepts it. But does that necessarily make her accepted by the people? Given my description of the sociopolitical structure of the Alliance, I think it is fair to assume that most people live in a fair degree of ignorance about their government. So would the average person, that is the oppressed, uneducated and poverty-stricken masses, really be in a position to understand or know what Inara did for a living? Or instead would they view her as a powerful aristocrat of an oppressive government? Someone who, perhaps carries no legal authority, but still, due to the nature of the culture, wields considerable influence, and if that influence she commands can bring down the aristocratic arm of a totalitarian regime, would anyone who wasn’t an aristocrat, and by definition a part of that culture, question her?

So my last question is why does Mal view Inara’s profession so disapprovingly? Is it really because he is necessarily prudish, though he may be? Does he really have that much of a problem with prostitutes? Or rather is Mal’s discontent more political in nature. Perhaps it is not so much what Inara does for a living that bothers him, although that might be a part of it, but rather it is the culture that she is a part of. Perhaps, Mal sees Inara, by way of her profession, as someone who is complacent with a totalitarian regime and profiting from a aristocratic culture, while the vast majority of people struggle just to survive under the weight of this despotism.

ASTRIANA

Tuesday, February 22, 2005 4:08 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:
So my last question is why does Mal view Inara’s profession so disapprovingly? Is it really because he is necessarily prudish, though he may be? Does he really have that much of a problem with prostitutes? Or rather is Mal’s discontent more political in nature. Perhaps it is not so much what Inara does for a living that bothers him, although that might be a part of it, but rather it is the culture that she is a part of. Perhaps, Mal sees Inara, by way of her profession, as someone who is complacent with a totalitarian regime and profiting from a aristocratic culture, while the vast majority of people struggle just to survive under the weight of this despotism.

And from this, let us not forget that not only is Inara part of the "aristocratic culture," but that she openly admitted (in OOG) that she supported unification during the war... the unification that Mal fought so hard against and lost his faith to... I imagine it'd be difficult to reconcile loving someone who supported something you felt so strongly against that you killed and saw others killed to keep it from happening.

~Astriana~

...I'm still free,
You can't take the sky from me.

MALICIOUS

Tuesday, February 22, 2005 8:09 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SimonWho:
...when you're in love with someone with whom it's never going to work, it's better to just live with the fantasy than actually do anything about it.

SimonWho, I know, I'm sorry. It can never be between us.

Mal is married to his ship. He is connected to the rest of the people on it only because they are on his ship. He would only be connected to Zoe if there were no Serenity. He was attracted to Inara at their first meeting and, after all the time on the ship together, he perhaps fell in love with her. But he wants a woman who is all his, like the ship is. And Inara is her own woman who, say hey and by the by, has sex with other people for a living. As much as her independence attracts him, it is also a part of what repels him.

Mal-licious

Co-Holder of the Red Bell from Hell

SHINYSEVEN

Wednesday, February 23, 2005 3:51 AM

There's a lot going on here (apart from the well-known tendency of TV shows to fall apart once Unresolved Sexual Tension gets resolved).
1. Mal and Inara have *nothing* in common, and they inevitably bring out the worst in each other.
2. Which is OK with me, because Mal/Kaylee is my favorite Firefly het ship.
4. OK, in *our* world being a call girl or even a geisha is not accepted; in their world, being a Companion is not only tolerated but respected.
5. I think a lot of Mal's attitude is that he's just mad at anybody who has $500 or whatever it costs to engage a Companion.

SIMONWHO

Wednesday, February 23, 2005 4:16 AM

For the one above, I can only say "Three sir."

Quote:
Originally posted by Malicious:

SimonWho, I know, I'm sorry. It can never be between us.

What is the problem? The drinking? The late nights? The womanising? The bizarre sexual practices? The random acts of violence? Honey, those are the things I love about you, I don't want you to change.

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