Why is Mal anti-companion?
POSTED BY: akredhead
UPDATED: Thursday, December 28, 2006 01:27
VIEWED: 17411
PAGE 2 of 9
Hmm, everybody's raised some really interesting points, and while it seems a bit redundant to put in my two cents, I can't pass up a really good discussion. So, I think that this has been mentioned before, but I don't think that Mal has a real problem with companions in general. I think that his problem is with Inara being a companion. The whole lie thing mentioned in Shindig. And are his supposed 'feminist'views potentially biased because of what he feels Inara should be doing? I'd say yes. But mostly only because of his feelings for her. Inara gives as good as she gets (in her frequent arguments with Mal) and I think throwing the word whore around is his way of getting back at her in a way that he knows will get under her skin. Of course, somebody did mention that she is really the only 'official' companion we've seen him interact with. I don't know if he'll put on the charms for someone else, but he might at least be civil. They do represent a lot of what the Alliance is and what the Independents were not: cultured, and all that. Not that the Independents needed to be. Maybe like how Mal wouldn't respect an Alliance scientist, or something of the sort. It's a respectable position (barring what some Alliance scientists have done to River), but to him, it doesn't mean much.
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Besides Mal's views about the Alliance I've always thought it was a bit more personal. Inara is an intelligent and talented woman, so I think Mal believes that she should be doing something else with her talents instead of being a Companion. In Shindig he told her that he respected her even though he didn't respect her job. I think Mal's predjudice is because he thinks that being a Companion is beneath her and that she could be doing something better with her life. Given his feelings for her it would also be understandable that he doesn't like her line of work. Even though he knows that she isn't involved with her clients it can't be easy for him to watch her go off to sleep with other people.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SpaceAnJL:
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.
Why is it then, that where ever they travel it seems accepted?
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Quote:
Originally posted by kaneman:Quote:
Originally posted by SpaceAnJL:
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.
Why is it then, that where ever they travel it seems accepted?
Look at the attitude she gets from less than enlightened figures like Atherton, Magistrate Higgins and even the Persephone boy from the pilot episode. That's probably not Core world standard.
It might be that Companion culture is just gradually integrating into what was a "backwater" society maybe a century ago. (Terraforming takes decades.)
Her jobs with people like Fess and the Councillor are probably pioneer efforts that lay the groundwork for making Companions respected, not just accepted, by showing them the difference to mere prostitution. Give it another 50 years and further Guild expansion and there would be fewer and fewer people like Atherton (or Mal) walking around, congratulating themselves for seeing NO difference.
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I'd agree that Mal's issue is more with companioning in general and less with Inara being a companion in particular. He mentions himself in Shindig that he doesn't respect what she does, but he does respect her. He doesn't see companioning as a respectful profession the way the core planets do, to him it's just whoring. Remeber in Out of Gas when they first met? Inara said she could bring respectability (or something like that - I forget the exact quote) to the ship and he laughed in her face, quite spontaneously. As Inara said, most people on the rim "don't know the difference between a companion and a common whore."
That being said, his love for her can't help matters any.
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I'm going to go a a different direction with this, and say that Mal has a definite problem with companions in general (Although I do agree that he has certain jealousy issues with Inara in particular).
Somebody upthread made a throw-away comment that the same profession can be incredibly respected by one name and despised by another. Really, I think that comprises the very heart of Mal's issue.
Watching Heart of Gold, Mal shows nothing but respect to Nandi and her girls. Seems to suggest to me that Mal hasn't got a problem with whorin'. It's an honest profession, in its way, and Mal respects folks makin' a living for themselves however they can.
Society feels differently, however. Whores are despised and looked down upon my a great many. Why? Because they have sex for money. They sell their bodies and their sexuality to the highest bidder. For their decision to do so, they are considered victims of a cruel world at best, and perverse despoilers of civic virtue and moral standing at middle.
But if they go to a special school and learn how to play music and perform a tea ceremony and dance and converse intelligently on a multitude of subjects, then they're companions, respected courtesans moving smoothly through the highest levels of society. They are considered by many the very epitome of the feminine mystique, the beautiful and mysterious woman of pleasure, and a mark of social standing for any man able to attract one to appear on his arm. But strip away the fancy dresses and the schoolin', and what does a companion do? She has sex. For money.
Mal's problem isn't with sex for cash arrangements. It's with the fact that the same exact job can be simultaneously considered the height of civilization and feminity and the ultimate degradation of womanhood, based upon an artificial division created by society in order to have its cake, and eat it too.
Inara has sex with people for money. She can call it whatever she likes. Mal calls it whoring, because it fits the definition. He hates it because she tries to pretend its something else.
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Great post twilightjack, re the whoring versus Companioning. I have a slightly different take, I think it's more a personal thing between Mal and Inara than between Mal and Companions.
I agree that Mal has no problem with whoring. He's very into personal freedom, so if folks want to sell sex, it's their business. But I doubt that, before he met Inara, he had a problem with Campanions either. Probably because he'd never met one before (that's just my take, given his history of living in the way out edge of the 'verse). Maybe he had a distant dislike of them, just because they are part of the Alliance establishment, but no big deal.
So - he did make the appt to show Inara his shuttle, and was friendly to her at first. I think if he really hated Companions, this wouldn't have been so.
My take: I think he was attracted to Inara when he first met her, and he felt the power of her feminine wiles (insert scary music! 
) She put on the charm, manipulating him a bit to get the cheap rental of his shuttle. (You want me...you want me on your ship) To make it worse, she went and said she supports the Alliance, which Mal took as a personal insult. So Mal felt pissed off and played, and it's his hatred of the Alliance and his defensiveness that had him calling her a whore.
In my take of things, it continues this way while she's on the ship. He obviously feels something for her, but he distrusts her. He thinks that if he ever got close to her, it would be just a big lie. He's very reluctant to accept any kindness from her - as in having tea at the beginning of HoG. (It was HoG, right?)
Several folks have said it - it's the way she fakes affection and caring that he can't stand, especially when he'd like to have the genuine thing for himself. So he calls her a whore, to knock down her power over him.
BTW, this was in my first fic, (I'm shameless!) that Mal's fear with Inara is that they might connect emotionally and physically, but then he'll find out that she was acting and didn't mean it.
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All Empires and great civilisations have their whores and "companians".
Rome had whore houses, near Baths, selling themselves for money, the children who were born were either sold into slavery or thrown away, if they were not wanted.
The British Empire, London, go throuugh the streets and somewhere you would find "indecently" dressed women looking for sex...well money and ready go give sex.
The American West had them too.(Whore houses)
Rome the great Barbarian Roman Empire, not the civilisation we have been told about. Many so called "Barbarians" were infact more civilised than Rome, and some were opposed to selling sex. Women in the Celtic world were allowed to hold power and had full rights like modern day women. But in Rome a woman was a mans property.
The Alliance's versions of whores are companians, slightly more respected than slutty whores, as the companians make the occasion as if it is a ceremony.
Mal may dislike the Job of Companian because its basicly a whore, as in Shindig he does say
"I may not show repect to your job, but didn't respect you" or something to that affect.
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A good take with some seriously well-supported arguments.
I still hold to my view, at least regarding Mal's general feelings about companions, but your argument here is incredibly persuasive and has certainly swayed me somewhat.
I do think, however, that Mal's politeness to Inara in OoG says nothing about his opinion of companions. Mal is quite used to dealing with people he finds distasteful. Insulting a potential paying boarder would have been stupid of him. Also, obviously, he's quite attracted to her, as you pointed out, which also tends to engender politeness in Mal, gentlemanly as he is. 
Once she says she supported Unification, though, all bets are off. And since we're not being polite anymore, look at the first insult for which he reaches. "Whore." Why?
First, he knows it'll dig at her. After all, a companion is not a common whore. Whores are despised and looked down upon. Inara is an esteemed lady of society. Right? Right??
Which segues right into point the second, outlined in my earlier post. Mal hates that Inara pretends at propriety and uses euphemisms to distance herself from what she does. Especially because by justifying your profession with, "I'm not a whore; I'm a companion," you leave all the other whores wallowing at the bottom of the barrel. In fact, through insisting on the distinction, Inara insinuates that whores should be pitied and despised. Furthermore, the necessity of being licensed by a guild in order to call yourself a companion means that control over this artificial distinction between status and dejection is in the hands of a ruling council. Follow the rules of the guild, and you get to be an honored companion. Step out of line, you're nothing but a whore.
Yet another reason for Mal to dislike 'em, once he starts thinking about it.
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All this, of course, ignores that there is a distinction between Companions and common prostitutes.
Yes, both parties include sex in their service, but Companions so obviously offer more than just that, and I think that it's this that Inara and other Companions want to emphasize when they demand that distinction, not the supposed unworthiness of whores. If the term wasn't loaded with negative sentiments, I doubt she would be as opposed, alas, it's a curseword, almost.
It's society that looks down on whores. Mal hating Companions for not being despised would be just another kind of oppressive attitude. Supporting the underdog prostitutes because they're victims of a cruel world but not if they're actually in control of themselves. That's misguided. I don't think he's that short-sighted.
Quote:
Mal hates that Inara pretends at propriety and uses euphemisms to distance herself from what she does. Especially because by justifying your profession with, "I'm not a whore; I'm a companion," you leave all the other whores wallowing at the bottom of the barrel.
But you already imply that Inara must be ashamed of what she does by saying she is trying to distance herself. Who says she is necessarily doing that? Why does it have to be a secret shame instead of honest disagreement that sex is the only part of her job? Or that sex is a demeaning aspect of it?
It's not just a distinction of status, it's one of education and purpose.
And I have trouble seeing how Inara voicing an opinion she doesn't agree with (being a whore) would make anything better for street prostitutes whose context is completely different? The only thing I can think of is that you mean this would be a slap in the face of society that frowns on whores but apparently uses them if they're dressed pretty, but that actually simply negates the respect Inara herself has for her profession.
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