Kaylee's sexuality. Was it toned down?
POSTED BY: stillson
UPDATED: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 09:40
VIEWED: 9140
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One of the more interesting angles on Kaylee's character is her unashamed sexuality. From the way she gets onto Serenity in "Out of gas", to telling Inara to "have good sex", she shows how she likes sex, and is not ashamed of it.
She gets one good comment in Serenity ("nothing twixt my nethers....") which supports this.
But, Jayne gets away with talking more about sex, albeit only when he's paying for it somehow.
My point though, is was her sexuality toned down to make her a "Nice Girl". Was Joss trying to sneak a sex-positive character into his series? Probably. But was she toned down to make her likable?
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Toned down from what? Seems she was fairly consistant in that regard, all the way up through Serenity.
"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."
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I'm not sure it would have needed to be toned down to make her likeable. I'm pretty sure so long as Kaylee was still depicted as eternally cheerful, friendly, optimistic, and sympathetic, she could have had a new crush and a sweaty scene every episode and no one would've thought less of her.
She switched her focus pretty quickly from Simon to Tracey for the brief time he was around, and they didn't show this in a negative light. So I don't think HOW they depict her sexuality is misleading from her character, or implies that she is any less 'eager,' so to speak.
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It's kind of funny, when I got my best friend into the show, she loved Kaylee, and saw her as very sweet and innocent. Which she is, but not the way most people think of innocent in relation to sex. When we watched "Out of Gas" the look on her face when she realized the gal Bester was humping to be Kaylee was just priceless. She thought it was great, though.
I don't think she was 'toned down' in that respect so much as her cheery and really rather innocent manner tempered the possible 'slut' characterization. She liked men, she liked attention, she liked sex, but she wasn't skanky about it. Which, really, is a good thing to see portrayed, since so often the cultural connotation is that any woman who likes sex is a skank. Clearly an unfair and untrue connotation, but it's there, and I think it's an unhealthy kind of view to have. Joss clearly thinks so, too.
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Agreed!
Although, I think Joss kinda changes his mind about that aspect of Kaylee's character by the movie. The official statement is that Kaylee LOVES Simon, and apparently that had to be the case before the two of them could have sex.
Not to mention how Inara's profession is viewed seems to throw all kinds of contradictions into that. But in regards to Kaylee, I generally agree.
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The point about Kaylee is that she wears her emotions on her sleeve. This was shown to us in Objects in Space when River's psychic journey through the ship led her to observe secrets that crew members kept private. In the sequence when Simon delivers his secret, Kaylee stares at River with a flat blank expression. This is a result of a lack of something for River to read.
That OIS sequence gifted us with a reverse reflection a character who is forever free with her words and deeds. Thus we are further blessed with statements like: "I ain't had nothin twixt my nethers weren't run on batteries" Jewel herself said that she first delivered that line in a hushed tone but Joss called cut to tell her that Kaylee would not hesitate to place such an unabashed thought out there for people to hear.
I've also read another interesting paper reflecting on the differences between Kaylee and Inara in respect to sexuality. Where Inara is organized about her life and spiritual in respect to sex, Kaylee is the converse. To be cruder, Inara makes love to clients after a courtship where Kaylee is likely to F*** some mechanic she just met in his engine room.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
The official statement is that Kaylee LOVES Simon, and apparently that had to be the case before the two of them could have sex.
So "With me...? You mean to say... as in... sex?" is the new "I love you" is it?
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Well, no, I didn't mean the exact quote from the characters in the film, but what Joss Whedon has reportedly said about Kaylee and Simon's relationship. I wasn't there in person, but I've seen in writting that Joss Whedon has said that the two LURVE each other.
Although admittedly, that's more Simon dragging his heels than it is a commentary on women and sexuality as depicted in the media. Still. The love before sex fiction standard holds true.
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Yes. The original show title was "Kaylee does the Verse"
Seriously, though: Undoubtedly there was editing, due to things deemed inappropriate. The Simon/River incest scene was deleted after all.
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Am I the only one who thinks Kaylee would have "done the verse" with a smile on , if the verse would have continued? Oh, and how I love her for it!
And, I'm fairly certain Joss's exact word was "doomed" when describing her and Simon, with a smile on, of course.
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