Did the 'Companion' thing ever bug you in Firefly?
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Saturday, February 7, 2026 14:42
VIEWED: 45553
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or maybe I'm not a huge fan of Gina's. (don't hate me). :D
lol don't worry, it wasn't a leading question. But did you mean what you said with:
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she was the character I liked the least, possibly because I identify with her the most...
Not sure if you were being mysterious (which is cool) or a mistype...?
Heads should roll
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Originally posted by RugBug:
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Again, Saffron would've worked if the intent was to show Inara what it felt like to be on the other side. Now, I wouldn't put it past Mal to come up with this as an after thought 'she does the same thing to me all the time' justification for hurting her. But proceeding with the action on that intent...I just can't believe it. I would have to loathe Mal...and I can't do that.
No because Saffron as far as Mal knew was not a companion. This was the necessary element that made Nandi so significant to highlight his point. The other thing against Saffron being 'used' like that is that actually Mal could see Inara was hurt from when they were all in the cargo bay. So sleeping with Saffrom was irrelevant. Also at that point Mal and Inara are still trading petty blows with one another. By the time Hearts of Gold comes along more time has passed between them without a resolve - as you say an impass - so tougher measures were necessary.
Quote:Yes true. Saffron did get him to talk about his mother though
Mal is not tempted by just anyone. That's Jayne and his 'willin' women'. Mal needs more than willing, he needs a connection. He found that with Nandi. Saffron was willing, but there was no connection, although she did an excellent job of getting him to the point that connection or not, he would've had a hard time saying no.
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I think we WANT to believe that someone loves us back...but that most of the time, we play the "does he/doesn't he" dance, and which side we end up on depends on the day..and his recent actions. Inara has enough confidence and experience to know that Mal is attracted to her has some feelings but the depth of them is unknown. And in a way, feelings are trivial to the situation, because Inara is the one with the power. Mal cannot be with her if she's a companion but he won't ask her to give up her career. Inara won't give up her career for him. They are at an impasse. She can't fool herself any longer so she needs to remove herself.
Absolutely
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Been there, done that. Have the T-shirt. (which could cloud my opinions. :D)
Dito
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Originally posted by kpo:Quote:
or maybe I'm not a huge fan of Gina's. (don't hate me). :D
lol don't worry, it wasn't a leading question. But did you mean what you said with:Quote:
she was the character I liked the least, possibly because I identify with her the most...
Not sure if you were being mysterious (which is cool) or a mistype...?
Heads should roll
Nope, meant it...although know it sounds a bit self-loathing. Not my intention, but she doesn't challenge me the way some of the other characters do. I feel like I've got her pretty figured out so she's a bit bland to me.
Really though, a lot of it has to do with not liking Gina...and that's because I saw her on Angel first and REALLY hated the character. (she also breathes really loud sometimes which grates on me. So petty but it's the truth).
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"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." - George Bernard Shaw
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Originally posted by TheSomnambulist:
Originally posted by RugBug:Quote:
Again, Saffron would've worked if the intent was to show Inara what it felt like to be on the other side. Now, I wouldn't put it past Mal to come up with this as an after thought 'she does the same thing to me all the time' justification for hurting her. But proceeding with the action on that intent...I just can't believe it. I would have to loathe Mal...and I can't do that.
No because Saffron as far as Mal knew was not a companion. This was the necessary element that made Nandi so significant to highlight his point. The other thing against Saffron being 'used' like that is that actually Mal could see Inara was hurt from when they were all in the cargo bay. So sleeping with Saffrom was irrelevant. Also at that point Mal and Inara are still trading petty blows with one another. By the time Hearts of Gold comes along more time has passed between them without a resolve - as you say an impass - so tougher measures were necessary.
Nandi being a companion meant there should be no strings attached with the sex. As for as Mal is concerned there would've been strings for Saffron. Mal only lets strings exist if HE says they can. He doesn't want them with Saffron, so can't sleep with her. He doesn't have to worry about them with Nandi.
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Originally posted by TheSomnambulist:Quote:Yes true. Saffron did get him to talk about his mother though
Mal is not tempted by just anyone. That's Jayne and his 'willin' women'. Mal needs more than willing, he needs a connection. He found that with Nandi. Saffron was willing, but there was no connection, although she did an excellent job of getting him to the point that connection or not, he would've had a hard time saying no.
Yep. Mal wants to open up...craves it in fact..but can't with people close to him. Saffron isn't close (and won't be close) and therefore she's SAFE. She's giving to Mal what companion's give their clients...and has in fact had that type of training.
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"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." - George Bernard Shaw
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I have to agree with R. A. Heinlein on the subject: "Nearly the most ridiculous notion people have ever entertained is the belief that something a woman has an endless supply of is nevertheless merchandise to be hoarded and bartered. That being said, if I were a woman raised in twentieth-century America, I would want at least a ruby necklace rather than just dinner and a show."
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Originally posted by Zeek:Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
It comes from the idea that I wouldn't want my daughter to be one, yet I would have been tempted to use the service from someone else's daughter in my 20's. The inherent hypocracy there is the source of the discomfort, I conjure.
And yeah, this culture is whack when it comes to sex roles.
I totally agree with this. Which I think you can take a step further and point it right back at men. What wouldn't we want our daughter or sister in such a profession? To me it's because we know the male mindset all too well. There are plenty of men who would treat those women as nothing but a piece of meat. Most guys probably feel some guilt thinking that they've at the very least fantasied about a purely physical encounter without a single thought about a woman's personality or feelings. So, for guys it probably all comes back to self guilt really. That's my guess at least.
"Piece of meat"---the whole POINT is that this is REPEATEDLY and POINTEDLY a "business" transaction. Inara says it, Mal says it, Nandi says it, Wash...
Okay.
What are you saying when you get on the Cortex to contract a Companion?
"I want a nice person I can count on whose qualities (including flaws) I appreciate on a deep, over-time human level."
No--you want the temporary, glorious experience of being entertained, feasting your eyes and ears and spirit and whatever else on the cultivated presence of Love Potion #9 in human form. Thus the money. Thus the various "I'd tap that" comments in this thread(TMI, guys, thanks). Thus the "I'd contract one, but wouldn't let my daughter do it".
Meat, people.
Seriously, I think the only reason Mal might actually "love" Inara is he hates this whole persona. Which is the thing people pay her for, and I think the further objectification of women, though she is on the highest pedestal yet. I think this may be intended as ironic.
The whole point is that, under all the pretty, business transactors must view each other on a primary level AS meat. Doesn't mean they can't like each other, or play fair. But Inara being this as a professional means that things must stay in the business category. (Thus her often-repeated rule about not servicing crew or friends...)
Theripists, whatever kind they are, can be kind, can be helpful, can be comforting, can even help you turn your life around. That doesn't make them friends, which from what I've heard completely complicates a therapist's mission.
This totally shoots down the "oh, it's ok if they're friends"---if she's doing her job right, they can't be "friends" in that sense. Because that would make it a friendship transaction, not a business one.
Heitara:
Someone may have posted this, but Inara's exact job description existed in the ancient Greek world and came to it's height in the ancient Roman world. (BTW, geisha were/are specifically not prostitutes, they were banned from taking that kind of client back in the 1700s, on pain of death...)
The heitara was the woman you showed off, who was endlessly more fascinating, educated, entertaining, and sexy than any legal property of yours could ever be (ie your wife).
Because your party guests lusting after your wife didn't equal more kudos to you(unlike if they wanted the companion on your arm), it meant they were going to betray the state values with the horrors of adultery and paternity disruption.
Point being, I don't think that Inara's profession has been all that changed--oooh, legal. Must be different. No, just glorified.
I also wouldn't point to her as a stunning example of equal sex roles--again, the paying thing. It's part of her JOB.
Freeing women from unequal sex roles doesn't mean showcasing them as Love Potion #9.
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Going for a ride.
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AnotherSky: Everything you just said.
I agree Mal hates it, because I do think he's the jealous type, I just think he can also simultaneously respect that she's a business woman and is apparently good at what she does. I don't think he blames her so much as he blames and LOATHES her clients.
But I also think his feelings for Inara are more than just that he hates what she does. His crew provides a sense of foundation and home, which stabilizes him. But Inara is a cause of both strong emotional responses and a calming influence, good for him because he's very angry and bitter, but there's also ways I can see that he's become emotionally numbed since the war. I kind of see Mal as trying to learn how to be human again, healing and relearning how to be normal and have normal emotional responses.
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Originally posted by Bytemite:Quote:
If Inara took an attitude towards Companioning that it was all a fun, harmless charade, and had a sense of humour about it, I would like her better.
Now here's an interesting thought...
It seems to me like Inara is only defensive about her profession to Mal and people who belittle it because it's her source of independence.
It also seems to me like Inara is someone who has layers. So what if she DOES have a sense of humour about it with people who aren't constantly putting her down and disrespecting her?
Like, maybe to the people who are jerks about it, she acts the way she does to keep up the mystique?
But for someone like Jayne, asking if she has some funny whoring stories, she doesn't have to act all offended. Though she does have to respect her clients privacy.
You comment makes me wonder, do we really know how Inara feels about her job? I don't think it's negative, otherwise she wouldn't defend it, but what if she doesn't really take it seriously?
I don't think she bothers with Jayne. That was just my interpretation.
And people will defend wobbly-headed geisha dolls, you know. And those can come with some pretty negative baggage attached. Just saying.
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Going for a ride.
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Originally posted by mal4prez:Quote:I think the show presents something different which you aren't seeing. You're interpreting things to fit your view - there never was any suggestion that Inara couldn't get her own ticket to the ball, for instance. You aren't allowing for everything that is presented.
Originally posted by Platonist:
mal4prez, I suddenly feel like the boy in the Parade who calls out that the Emperor has no clothes on because I can’t help feeling that a Companion is a euphemism for a sex worker.
I'll agree that this Guild thing is not something that can exist today, or even in the near future, but we're talking about 500 years from now. The whole point is that things - including the human mentality - will be different.
ETA: Also, we see Inara do much much more than have sex and drink tea! You might not see all those others things if you're excessively focused... I must admit, it is easy to get tunnel vision with Inara on screen. Even for a hetero female. :)Quote:
And, I too, would love for women to have power by controlling their own sexuality as they desire, in the future, but I think it could have been better served and achieved by making prostitution legal, organized, accepted, and controlled by the Guild without all the unnecessary endowments of high status and social esteem which seem to have been tagged on to convince us that what Inara does is valid and valuable to maintain the social structure and culture of core worlds who embrace enlightenment and moral integrity.
Sure, the writers of the show gave her all that status to force the viewer to reexamine our assumptions about someone who would exchange sex for money. But again, that's not all there is to it. Inara wins respect and high status because there is more to her. Cause and effect: the cause is her skills, the effect is her status. Not the other way around.
Or do you really not see the skills? Is the sexual aspect that blinding?Quote:No, I don't have to admit that! In fact, I think it's a little silly to assume that the rules that apply today will still hold in 500 years. Again - look at how different everything was 100 years ago, only 1/5 of that time!
You have to admit, it’s a little gullible to assume that any profession in the future, especially sex work, oh, sorry Companioning, would be held in that high esteem, when none are today.Quote:I don't see how this applies. It's not about Inara retiring and doing what she wants. It's about a Companion - any Companion - having certain skills as a result of her training that would be valued by those who don't have a hang-up over her sexual history.
And, any educated person can retire and do whatever they want; some marginally educated people can retire and do whatever they want… waves to our own esteemed Arnold.
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hmm-burble-blah, blah-blah-blah, take a left
I'm going to take this in a new direction. Say Inara was a geisha, to take something in a similar vein--or say she was ANY kind of private entertainer, say a private entertainer without the sex. I'm not going to make this all about the sex. Because sex is "just one of her many skills", she says it herself.
She receives pay for those skills, for the combined "package". Her status as an personal-relationship-entertainer makes her easily commodified.
I would also ask how we sort out if the Companionizing[can I use that as a verb?] is one of those good Alliance things, ugly Alliance things (like some wardrobe) or bad Alliance things (like the belief systems our heroes are always railing about)...just interested in how that got sorted for people. Any interpretations?
Another question:
How much control do you have of your own sexuality if you must be like a Jedi(forgive the analogy) and "not love"--not have "entanglements" outside your sex profession. To create the illusion for clients that they are your one obsession, it certainly can't be known that you're attached elsewhere, for free.
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I think the Alliance sees it as good and forward thinking. They took abused women in the sex trade and gave them some power and self-determination.
Of course, this brings up the point of that R.A. Heinlein quote. There's something a little 
about men who say they're supportive of sex liberation among women and call it good and progressive and empowering when it really just means they get more sex. It strikes me as a conflict of interest. Especially when at the same time being all high-minded, they say that the women in question should ask for a ruby necklace instead of dinner and a movie.
The quote is inherently contradictory, first devaluing what the woman offers, "ridiculous... to be hoarded and bartered," and then encouraging that same activity, because apparently that's how women are in the modern time, unaffectionate and calculating. Everything is an exchange, so they're all whores, until they begin to sleep with men with no strings attached.
Which flies in the face of thousands of years of evolution, being that birth control wasn't invented until recently. Sorry, but from an evolutionary perspective it's pretty obvious to see who benefits most from such an agenda.
And therein perhaps lies the problem with the angle Joss approached this.
But within the verse as constructed, I still support women having choice about their profession, even if that profession is Companion. And if they have to tell themselves that contracting with them is some quasi-mystical experience, if that's what it takes for them to feel like they have some kind of independence and stability, then do what you have to girl.
Second question: Absolutely. Of course, there are examples of courtesans in France who had husbands at the time, which then you might be able to justify being paid, since as represented they might be reluctant, and the money seals the deal. But giving freely to someone who with no vows or legal recognition has been exchanged, yes, that probably does devalue what a companion might be offering. And that's very likely what that scene in Shindig was showing.
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