Why is Mal anti-companion?

POSTED BY: akredhead
UPDATED: Thursday, December 28, 2006 01:27
VIEWED: 17411
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AKREDHEAD

Saturday, August 12, 2006 4:51 AM

I've seen the movie three times and the episodes twice...

So...WHY is Mal so disrespectful towards companions as a profession?

I mean...her certainly didn't have a problem sleeping with one (albeit a special situation)...is it just jealousy?

He is also inconsistant because at one time I think (if my pot addled brain can remember) he says that Inara is atleast making honest work.

Your input and opinion?

JOSSISAGOD

Saturday, August 12, 2006 5:00 AM

I'm not really sure, I think Mal might have a problem with the idea of people getting payed for sex.

well, that's all I have to say about that

JOSSIS(Most Definitely)AGOD

Self appointed Forsaken! Been on the list for a while now!
98% of teens have smoked pot, if you are one of the 2% that haven't, copy this into your signature.
"Look at me, I'm STUPID!" The Doctor.

PINBALLWIZARD

Saturday, August 12, 2006 5:40 AM

To Mal, Companions are one of the many symbols of Civilization the Alliance is forcing upon the verse. That fact that Nandi rebeled against that establishment appealed to him. Like he said, "You're my kind of stupid."

No, I am not insane, I am crazy. Thank you for asking.

TRAVELER

Saturday, August 12, 2006 8:19 AM

I noticed in "Out Of GAS" his attitude toward Inara was already rough going. So love interest wasn't there yet. So it probably is more like Pinballwizard said. She was establishment. Remember she said she supported the Alliance.
So that must have ruffled his feathers. And he used whore right from the start.

Hard to beleave you can love someone and treat them so shabbily. But Inara doesn't back down. I think Mal secretly respects that.

SPACEANJL

Saturday, August 12, 2006 8:55 AM

I think it might be a geographical attitude. The Core sees Companions as a profession and a respected one, similar to geisha. But Mal isn't Central Planets, and I think the attitude there might be a bit more inclined to view the profession as simply prostitution.

Add in the fact that Mal is the kind of man who doesn't like to share his toys, and I think it might be more that he is anti- Inara being a Companion.

AGENTROUKA

Saturday, August 12, 2006 9:53 AM

It's hard to be sure. We haven't seen Mal meet other Companions - WE haven't met other Companions.

We also haven't seen Mal have an honest and earnest discussion about his opinions with anyone neutral.

What we know is:
1) Mal has no problem with prostitution in general, or he would be chewing out Jayne on a regular basis and would have said something to Nandi.
2) Mal states that he dislikes the "dishonesty" of pretending affection for money.

However, if he wasn't biased, a business-savvy mind like his should be able to appreciate a women doing what the hell ever she wants and making good money with it. Companioning doesn't harm anyone. Unlike thieving. Or killing. And I think Mal knows that.

So, personally, I think Mal doesn't actually have a problem with Companions, at all. They are educated professionals, and while they are a part of the society he hates, so was Warrick Harrow, and Mal had no problem with him. Conversely, he did keep pushing down Simon for simply having been rich, even though he was a trauma surgeon, a highly respectable job that even now benefits Mal immensely. It's the being rich that Mal detests in general.

Inara's job is a convenient target for Mal's sarcasm (that contradiction as he sees it, of a "whore" being respected by one name when they aren't by another) and it becomes a conveninient way to lash out at Inara when they grow closer, because... that's when her job and the connected sexual and status issues start becoming a problem.

XITWOUND117

Sunday, August 13, 2006 12:59 AM

I think its a number of things. The fakeness of it, for one; he makes numerous comments about the dishonesty of it all. Mal respects people who are upfront and truthful. Secondly, he doesn't like that Inara is one.

Really, I think its that Mal is just more of an old-world kind of person, and therefore views the job of a "companion" as unprestigious and something to look down on.

WHITEFALL

Sunday, August 13, 2006 3:07 AM

Now I know I'm biased cause I'm something of a feminist my self, but then again, so's Joss, so that's my theory.

Mal believes (as evidenced by his acceptance of Kaylee in OoG, his treatmeant of Saffron before she was YoSafBridge, etc) that women are the equal of men, and it's only their character (namely the honest kind that Mal respects, as mentioned above) that matters. So, as he says in Shindig, 'the lie of it', that the man gets to parade Inara around (either in public or in bed) as if he'd won her affections, but he respects her and her affections to the point that he thinks she is beneath that. Hence he does not understand why she does it.

"But, these strong women characters?"

"Why aren't you asking 100 other guys why they don't write strong women characters?" -Joss Whedon

AGENTROUKA

Sunday, August 13, 2006 8:37 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Whitefall:
Now I know I'm biased cause I'm something of a feminist my self, but then again, so's Joss, so that's my theory.

Mal believes (as evidenced by his acceptance of Kaylee in OoG, his treatmeant of Saffron before she was YoSafBridge, etc) that women are the equal of men, and it's only their character (namely the honest kind that Mal respects, as mentioned above) that matters. So, as he says in Shindig, 'the lie of it', that the man gets to parade Inara around (either in public or in bed) as if he'd won her affections, but he respects her and her affections to the point that he thinks she is beneath that. Hence he does not understand why she does it.

"But, these strong women characters?"

"Why aren't you asking 100 other guys why they don't write strong women characters?" -Joss Whedon

But what I find a little short-sighted in Mal's suppossed "feminism" that he refuses to aknowledge that this is a mutually agreed-upon illusion. Everyone, as he says, knows it - and is getting along with it. The client, as well. No one is actually being lied to. It's a clear and obvious service.

And always, always, always, it's just another way of oppression for Mal to stand there and basically dictate to Inara how she should live her live in order to be "respectable" to him. He doesn't accept her personal choices, her perception of her job. It's what he thinks she should do that counts to him.

Which is not exactly feminist.

But, of course, that's probably just an aspect of Mal attacking her job for standing between them, rather than out of principle.

WINDSTRUCK

Sunday, August 13, 2006 8:52 AM

Mal hates the alliance.
He also hated the society they created.
He wanted freedom. A companion is a creation of the alliance. And in a way bound by it.
He likes Inara but hates her profession.Mal thinks Inara can do better than being a Companion.
Although he cannot take Inara away from being a companion and lead an honest/different life. He cannot afford it. He does not want her to be a "petty thief" either.
Inara offered to fence the Lassater. Mal declined.
He does have feelings for Inara but cannot say it. Instead he take it out on her profession and the society that made it.

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