Why couldn't Inara just have gotten a real job? by chrisisall

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Why couldn't Inara just have gotten a real job?

POSTED BY: CHRISISALL
UPDATED: Monday, April 27, 2009 15:07
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Saturday, April 25, 2009 11:54 AM

Becoming a Companion shows low self esteem, and only girls that have been abused usually take up that profession! Plus, clinical depression strikes over 60% of Companions over 37 years of age due to a decline of proper clientele.
Really, is this a job for an intelligent female?

The laughing Chrisisall

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Saturday, April 25, 2009 12:28 PM

WHOZIT

She had a real job, everybody on "Serenity" were smuglers.

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Saturday, April 25, 2009 2:29 PM

THATWEIRDGIRL

As opposed to pirate?

---
Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?" Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night."
-- Charlie Brown
www.thatcostumegirl.com
www.thatweirdgirl.com

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Saturday, April 25, 2009 2:38 PM

WHOZIT

Quote:
Originally posted by thatweirdgirl:
As opposed to pirate?

---
Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?" Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night."
-- Charlie Brown
www.thatcostumegirl.com
www.thatweirdgirl.com

In the future, her job is leagal

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Saturday, April 25, 2009 2:57 PM

CHRISISALL

Still having that trouble quoting, I see.

The laughing Chrisisall

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Saturday, April 25, 2009 3:13 PM

KIRKULES

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Really, is this a job for an intelligent female?

You're looking at it from the perspective of the 20th century. Think about it, what if there was no moral stigma attached to the profession, and it was just another service industry. I think we might also be able to assume the threat of sexually transmitted disease has been eliminated. Sounds like a pretty good job to me, but I definitely wouldn't marry a client they tend to be of low moral character.

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Sunday, April 26, 2009 5:36 AM

TDBROWN

Good job of tossing out the fishing line there, chrisisall. You've gotten a nibble or two, but no one has taken the bait.

It's 500 years in the future. A new subculture has arisen, derived from the Earth That Was traditions of Geisha, Heteras (Priestess/Prostitues), and 20th century prostitution. Companions are professional Concubines, with a dash of Sexual Teacher/Sexual Priestess thrown in. Unlike today, it is considered a position of stature. From cut scenes in the BDM we learn that the students of the Academy Inara teaches in are "from the finest families". So this is a matter of following a career path full of prestige, not one taken out of desperation, exploitation or poverty. Why would she Not continue, if she had no emotional attachment, a "Mate" as it were?

-There, that should get the ball rolling!

"Might have been the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one." -Mal

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Sunday, April 26, 2009 5:43 AM

CHRISISALL

Quote:
Originally posted by TDBrown:
Unlike today, it is considered a position of stature.

Atherton seemed to think less of Companions than that...

The laughing Chrisisall

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Sunday, April 26, 2009 5:47 AM

TDBROWN

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Quote:
Originally posted by TDBrown:
Unlike today, it is considered a position of stature.
Atherton seemed to think less of Companions than that...

The laughing Chrisisall

Yes, Atherton couldn't seem to distinguish between a Companion and "a common whore". Anyone care to examine that? Is it a matter of Atherton's perception, or the attitude of the Rim Worlds, where values are a little more "backwards" or Old Earth Traditional?

"Might have been the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one." -Mal

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Sunday, April 26, 2009 6:10 AM

BYTEMITE

It brings up an interesting question. In the Renaissance, courtesans were treated with respect, but what did the upper class really think of them?

In Japan, there's a lot of cultural courtesy towards geisha, and while an appointment can involve some flirtation and even innuendo, even drunk the Japanese men know not to press them for more. A Geisha is considered mere amusement. Historically, however, there used to be prostitutes and high class courtesans called oiran who worked at the same time as geisha, and in some districts it may not have been clear what exactly a client was engaging.

Many westerners mistake geisha for prostitutes, however, and I think the behaviour seen in Shindig is more representative of the cultural differences between the Core and the Rim.

In China, there used to be similar practices, but there was a large effort to stamp out prostitution in the 1960s. It was largely successful, but recently, under the influence of government corruption, it's made a resurgence, and in a far darker way. More than ever, women are now forced into prostitution, are often raped and murdered, and there's also now some trafficking in the sex trade from China.

But the Companion trade is more comparable to Chinese concubines called baopo.

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Monday, April 27, 2009 12:23 AM

SHINYGOODGUY

There's no accounting for taste........:-)

How did Mal put it? Ath!

Tawabawho?

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Monday, April 27, 2009 2:03 AM

LEMMING

Couple of points:

Shindig takes place on Persephone which is not a Rim world. It is the furthest out of the Core worlds (orbiting it's own helioformed gas giant: Lux which in turn has White Sun as it's primary, making it by definition a Core world) and is a natural meeting point between Core and Border worlds (see QMx map of The Verse)

Atherton is merely an obnoxious misogynist with money and family (he's not some hick with loads of cash) - everyone else at the ball treated her with the greatest respect, especially one elderly aristo she was clearly aquainted with).

Companion most closely resembles the Heterae described in Heinlein's Time Enough For Love (Joss acknowledges Heinlein as one of his favourite SF authors) - celebrated artistes much in demand and deeply respected most places. Companion training goes more deeply into the cultural and spiritual side of this though (as mentioned in another reply. Inara isn't just a "tart with a heart") 20th Cen values most certainly do not apply to most of the Verse, but even Mal has some of that old "attidude to whores" thing going on, so it's still there. Didn't stop him getting it on with Nandi though, who he definitely respected.

Ath was just a git.

Nick
The Signal ( www.serenityfirefly.com)

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Monday, April 27, 2009 4:48 AM

BYTEMITE

The bible has kind of a negative view on whores, except for Mary Magdalene, assuming she was actually a whore and not a member of the royal line of David like some modern theories suggest.

But despite Mal's very religious upbringing, I think his tryst with Nandi just goes to show that he's not quite as backwards (for lack of a better term) in regards to working girls as he makes Inara think. There's also a few times during the series where it's suggested he respects Inara's profession as well as her person. For example, in Serenity's pilot, he considers Inara to have the only honest work out of all the people on Serenity, and it doesn't sound to me like he was being sarcastic or making a snark about honesty in regards to her clients. And in The Message, he's genuinely concerned about keeping her reputation clear of criminal activity.

So it could even be that most people on the Rim don't have the attitude that Atherton, Rance Burgess, and the townsmen in Heart of Gold express. Jayne treats whores about the same as he treats any other person, only friendlier (for Jayne), which I think in his book is a kind of respect. I mean, if JAYNE can treat working girls with some form of respect, and most of the Rim has to be better than Jayne...

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Monday, April 27, 2009 3:07 PM

ANOTHERSKY

thatweirdgirl and Chrisisiall: I'm having a terrible time resisting your bait. Here's my go: Highwaymen?
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Companions in the verse are actually directly comparable to the profession in ancient Greece known as hetaerae (literally, "companions"). These were separate from mistresses, "prostitutes" per se (known as "pallakae") and "gynakae" --wives. Fabulously expensive, educated,

Unlike the general rank and file, they could marry their wealthy clients and become a part of "respectable society".
---
Culture clash: Even in Eastern society (similar to Western) the oiran and other odd prostitute-entertainer crosses had a rather infamous kind of status.

I think one of the things being explored is the catch-22 of Inara's situation--of simultaneously being adored and degraded (by a very still fundamentally male-dominated society), as separate from any morality questions anyone wants to go into. It's not that simple.
For every Atherton there is a Mal--the one respects her profession but not her, the other respects her but not her profession, both for vastly different (both societal and personal) reasons. The show plays with the layers--as is seen in the petty thief dialogues--what does Inara herself believe?
I think she wanted the pinnacle of Art in the verse, and that somewhere in her was the wide-eyed Kaylee viewpoint of the profession.
Paid sex happened to come with, apparently. What does that mean in and of itself? And the fact she vehemently stated she chose this life, volunteered? Echoes of Mal, anyone? Yet another of the reasons the tension is so high.

I don't particularly like what I saw as the apparent glorification of prostitution, but then I wonder if that's exactly what was being done here on any but the outermost levels.

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