Mal's issue with Companions &/or whores
POSTED BY: Ankhagogo
UPDATED: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 12:55
VIEWED: 6033
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Another thread got me to thinking about this: so why is Mal so against Companions &/or whoring?
Or is he not so much against Companion as a profession as he is against Inara specifically making a living that way?
No-one else seems to have a big issue with it --
Book doesn't appear to have any day to day issues with Inara, but he sure was taken off guard when he first met her.
Personally, I suspect part of Mal's issue with Companions is religious. He's rejected God, but often, the moral stuff you learn when you're small is the hardest to reject.
Another part of Mal's Companion issue is, I think, the fact that he wants to be more than friends with Inara, and he doesn't like the idea of a woman he's (seriously) interested in sharing herself with random strangers. Perhaps it's a trust thing -- I wouldn't guess that Inara actually trusts all her clients,and that doesn't seem to be necessary for her, while I suspect that Mal doesn't randomly bed-hop because it
is necessary for him. Lord knows I don't believe it's because he doesn't get the offers........
"We're just happy to be doin' good works."
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Ankhagogo:
Well, to borrow from the other thread, maybe Mal hates prostitution because his mother was a prostitute! He says his mom ran a 'ranch' (like the Palomino in Vegas?) with "about 40 hands" -- he never specifies that they were men, we just assume that -- and that they were like family to him. Maybe that's why he was so quick to help out the HoG girls: Because his mother was a whore, he felt an obligation to people he saw as family, so he offered Serenity's services for free. Maybe...
Nah. I'm just joshin'.
I reckon Mal might dislike prostitution because nobody should sell their body, and certainly not their intimacy. I think Mal was deeply attracted to Inara from first sight, and that it hurts him that she sells herself. It's not that she sells to others what he can't have; but that she is hurting herself. That's what tortures him. Even though she plays it off with a straight face, and he at least half believes her, he can sense that sex-for-money diminishes her.
Inara's crying scene in HoG could certainly be seen as evidence that Inara is not as nonchalant as her facade would indicate...
Respectfully (if somewhat playfully),
zoid
_________________________________________________
"River and me was best friends, back then. I named my first-born daughter after her. 'Course, you can't swing a dead cat 'round here on I-Day without hittin' a River..."
- Kaywinnit Tam, wife and mother of 6, A Child Shall Lead Them: A History of the Second War of Independence Wilkins, Richard
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Zoid I think you're dead on with it being mostly an Inara issue and not an all encompasing anti-companion issue.
Plus I think he also sees it as going against...well not God anymore since he pretty much gave up on God, but against the whole concept of self. That is allowing someone else to own you, even for a short period of time, is just plain wrong to him.
If he were competely against companioning (can I use that as a verb?) and/or whoring, then I seriously doubt he would have helped the Heart of Gold girls out.
So my money is on it being an Inara Thing(tm) not a Companion/Whoring Thing.
Pain is scary...
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Gunhand:
Thanks. Now let me see if I can't turn this into some sort of political statement...
I don't know what's gotten into me lately. I am such a boob...
Respectfully,
zoid
_________________________________________________
"River and me was best friends, back then. I named my first-born daughter after her. 'Course, you can't swing a dead cat 'round here on I-Day without hittin' a River..."
- Kaywinnit Tam, wife and mother of 6, A Child Shall Lead Them: A History of the Second War of Independence Wilkins, Richard
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Hehe, well my momma told me to never talk about politics or religion in public...
...unless they're Firefly politics and religion then I'm all over that. 
Hell I talk Firefly politics and religion WITH my mom, she's a Browncoat too she just won't admit it.
Oh and she told me not to talk about boobs too. 
My mom, she's wise and stuff.
Pain is scary...
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Quote:
Originally posted by Gunhand:
If he were competely against companioning (can I use that as a verb?) and/or whoring, then I seriously doubt he would have helped the Heart of Gold girls out.
Pain is scary...
I think Mal just out right does not agree with Prostitution or anything. I think Mal helped the Heart of Gold out because they kind of represent himself forgive me sounding like Hyde from that seventies show but i'm going to put it in these terms
"The Heart of Gold was being supressed by The Man, and this Man just happens to be very similar to Mal being suppressed by the government"
This is further proven when they Inara tells Mal that there is no government out there, they are all on their own, so the only Law is that
SOB. So in all essences Mal is helping himself, whether he sees it that way or not, its a subconsious thing.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Here's to Jayne, the box dropping man-ape-gone-wrong-thing"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
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Quote:
If he were competely against companioning (can I use that as a verb?) and/or whoring, then I seriously doubt he would have helped the Heart of Gold girls out.
I think he still would have. We all have degrees of freedom. While the people at the HoG are arguably giving away a good deal of what they already have, Rance Burgess was trying to take away even more. Although if he was really dead set against it, I doubt he would've had sex with Nandi. It's like he told Inara in Shindig: he doesn't respect what she does, but he does respect her as a person, and while Nandi and her girls are whores, they're still people.
{Edit} Simulpost with HowdyRockerBaby1.
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I never really tried to analyze this before, just sort of accepted it as part of his character.
I do agree that it's more about Inara than the profession as a whole. But to look at it from that perspective . . .
Mal seems to value honesty (can't say that I can point to a particular scene to prove that, just a general impression). Companioning (if Wash and GunHand can use it as a verb, so can I, darn it) is about artiface and acting. He says as much to Inara in Shindig.
He also probably objects to it for the same reasons he objects to slavery (though I'm not 100% certain what those are). Inara sells herself, at least temporarily (Atherton refers to her as "bought and paid for"). That's got to be difficult thing to come to terms with in someone you care about.
Finally, I think calling her a whore, or diminishing what she does, is Mal's way of keeping some sort of barrier between them, picking fights to push her away when there's a danger of her getting too close.
I don't think it really has much to do with religion.
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"...and while Nandi and her girls are whores, they're still people." BINGO! You just nailed it. ( no pun )
Who can say for sure what Mals intentions are and why he feels the way he does. Maybe he's just 'old school', and some hic from the farm. Perhaps he feels that, despite his attraction for Inara ( which is clearly not a 1 way street ) , he would not be able to 'afford ' her , and perhaps that is what annoys him so much. He sees her as all manner of fine and respectable, yet rich boys like in 'Shindig' get to own her , for a price. While Inara admits that dating is 'complicated' , it can occur. But from Mals perspective, when is Inara being sincere, and when is she ' on the clock' ? It does get a might complicated.
" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "
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The question posed by this thread is problematic in that it seems to ignore the distinction between a courtesan and a prostitute. Malcolm Reynolds has a pragmatic approach to commerce, 'We do business', that is the prostitute's life. He has an antipathy towards the political influence and manipulation of interest that are part of the courtesan's life; entertaining people of power sometimes includes talking of that power 
Or am I being too European?
PB
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