In which I descend to previously unseen levels of geekiness
My sister gave me a copy of the Serenity Script book for Christmas (and full credit to her, she had to buy something that geeky and then carry it down the street, which is over and above the call of duty). It turns out that there was supposed to be a Mal & Inara subplot to the movie that got eliminated, a decision I completely support.
So since I'm a geek, I thought I'd take this opportunity to discuss the gender dynamics in cross-class relationships in Firefly (well wouldn't you?). For those of you who don't know Firefly or Serenity (although left-wing, particularly feminist, blogs and Joss Whedon fandom do seem to go hand in hand) it's set on a small transport spaceship that mostly gets work smuggingly. There are two crew members who are relevant to this discussion Mal, the ship's captain, who comes from a poor outer planet and fought in the recent civil war, and Kaylee, the ship's mechanic who comes from another depressed planet, and used to work for her daddy (when he had work which wasn't often) until she went up on the ship. Simon joined the ship at the beginning of the TV series, he comes from a central planet and was very wealthy, until he became a fugitive (which is the reason he's now on the ship). Then there's Inara, who works as a companion (which is supposed to be the equivalent of a geisha - and we will be getting into that), she rents one of the ship's shuttles from Mal, to keep her business going. Throughout the TV series Kaylee & Simon and Mal & Inara were supposed to provide the sexual tension (and didn't, for me), but the relationships never got anywhere.
It wasn't until I watched the movie that I thought about Kaylee and Simon's relationship as a cross-class relationship. Because he'd come into her space, most of his markers of being from a different class (usually defined as him being proper) were more immediately about him being an outsider. Kaylee was all over Simon in the TV series, and he didn't seem to be that into her. I also got the feeling that the only reason she was into him was because he was there. There's nothing wrong with that, but it meant I didn't care if they got together. Plus Kaylee is unbelievably cool,* and I wanted her to be with someone who was really into her. Anyway, in the movie they do end up together (you mean like sex?), and I really liked it. They gave Simon a good reason why he hadn't seemed that into being with her, and when it comes down to it, I want Kaylee to have what she wants.
It was then I realised how rare it was to portray cross-class relationship where the man wasn't rescuing the woman in some way (either pygmalion like, or the way Jack rescues Rose in Titanic). In fact, to have a cross class relationship where an upper-class man comes into a working class women's world as a stranger, with no rescuing going on, is incredibly rare. In the world of movies class is just another way of exploring the power men have over women.
Partly this is because a lot of culture (particularly television) ignores class entirely. At the movies, upper middle class America is the default - anything else is a concious choice - something that needs an explanation. Movies that show people from different classes relating to each other are even rarer.
Grace Paley once said that all your characters have blood and money - that is, every fictional person (just like every actual person) has a family, or lack of family, that shapes who they are, and their life is also shaped by money, and how they get it. I really liked the fact that Firefly (unlike other Joss Whedon shows) showed people's money as well as their blood. I do think it says something that the only way you can get class on American TV (on Fox no less - but they did cancel it) is by going on a spaceship. I think it was because the 'verse was built to be economically real, that they were able to portray a cross-class relationship whose sole point wasn't to show women being rescued.
Mal & Inara are quite a different story. Throughout the show they're set up as a cross-class relationship, most obviously in 'Shindig', when her familiarity with a hoity-toity world is contrasted with his complete out of placeness. In fact I'd say the classes that Mal and Inara belong to are more complicated than the show allows. In economic terms, Mal owns a ship and makes money out of it, while all Inara has to sell is her labour power. If they are a cross-class relationship, then that's viewing class as culture, as opposed to purely economic relationships. I think if you were to transfer it to America today then Mal is a white guy from Georgia, who has managed to scrape together enough money to buy his own truck, and gets work from it, while Inara is a college educated woman (from a long line of college educated women), who works as a psychotherapist (I don't think it would transfer to New Zealand quite as well, because for all the 'two New Zealands' drivel after the election, we don't have different geograpical cultures which interact with class in the same way).
But the real conflict between Mal & Inara is based on Inara's job. Now I should start by saying I'm really sceptical about the whole high-class geisha idea. While it's true that there have been times in the past that prostitution has been highly respected, and possibly woman controlled (I'm not sure about that), those are times when the roles of women have been severely restricted. We see no signs that the roles women play in the 'verse are restricted any more than they are today - certainly not on the central planets. I don't believe that if women had the freedom to take any role they choose, they would choose dedicating their lives to pleasing men (I don't think the one woman she is with changes this argument as both her clientele, and the brothel shown in 'Heart of Gold' primarily focus on men). I don't believe that high-class, respected prostitutes would exist in a world where women had the freedom to do the same work as men. Women might still choose prostitution because they needed the money, but I don't believe someone like Inara would choose to work as a Companion if she could get the same prestige and fulfillment from other jobs.
Anyway back to Mal & Inara - Mal is contemptuous of Inara's job, and was from the very moment he met her. This is portrayed as part of the class differences. Mal comes from the outer planets, where they don't have respectable companions, only normal whores, and therefore doesn't respect the job she does. But I think it's also supposed to be part of the sexual tension - he doesn't want her sleeping with anyone else because he loves her.
But to me, the fundamental problem with their relationship is that he doesn't respect her and doesn't respect what she does. That this is shown as a sign that he's in love with her is, quite frankly, sick. It may be realistic, but that doesn't mean I have to want them to get together (and I don't). I think it's the weird class dynamic that makes their relationship so messy. Class is used as an excuse for his disrespect for her, and I have a problem with that on many, many different levels.
Inara and Mal's relationship is more interesting than Simon and Kaylee's, and I think you could tell a good story about it; I just don't think it's the simple one that the series (and in particular the script of the movie) seemed to be telling. I don't cheer for them, but they could be interesting and messy. Because they're not portrayed as interesting and messy and real, it's much easier to read their relationship as a wider statement, and I think that's where it comes up lacking.
* What I adore about Kaylee, as a character, is that she completely ignores any sort of gender stereotypes, she's a mechanic, she's girly, she really into sex, she's innocent, and when she wants a pretty dress it is quite possibly the ugliest pretty dress you've ever seen - but you love her for it. I don't actually think that an individual character in a story can be feminist (except in the sense the character might identify as a feminist), but if they could it would be Kaylee.
