Editor’s Pick
MAY 7, 2009 3:41PM
Feminism and Dollhouse - Every Fan (and Hater) Must Read
Feminism and Dollhouse - Every Fan (and Hater) Must Read
When I first posted about the new Joss Whedon show Dollhouse, I got a lot of interesting responses on my reviews of early episodes. Some fans stuck around and are enjoying the show in the second half of the season. But other fans were repelled at the basic premise of the show. I saw commenters charge Joss Whedon with creating a misogynistic, sexist show. There was a lot of vitroil in some of those comments.
Anyway, I wanted to bring to your attention this excellent article from Tiger Beatdown, entitled "Dollhouse, Joss Whedon, and the Strange and Difficult Path of Feminist Dudes: Some Thoughts" Here's an excerpt:
Which leads me to: this new show, Dollhouse. Are you watching it? Oh my goodness, it is amazing. It is also the Whedon show that has drawn the most critique from other feminists: because it depicts rape of a very "gray" variety, because it doesn't condemn the forced prostitution and human trafficking it conveys strongly enough, because its characters aren't Strong or lovable in the way they have been in past Whedon shows. Fair points, all! Also: points with which I disagree.Anyway, I highly encourage you to head over to that blog and read the whole piece. It's really thought-provoking, even if it doesn't bring some of you around totally.
Dollhouse is, pretty much specifically and entirely, a show about consent. It's built around an organization - the titular Dollhouse - which erases volunteers' personalities and memories and renders them childlike and passive, in order to implant them with new, built-to-order personalities custom made for wealthy clients who wish to order the "perfect" person for a specific job. The purpose for which these mind-wiped folks (called "dolls," and I do not think that we are for a second supposed to miss how creepy that term is) are rented out is, primarily, sex. Also, they have no knowledge of or ability to consent to the "engagements" for which they are rented out. Also, they seem, in large part, to not really be volunteers at all - most of the ones we know about, including the central character, Echo, have become dolls in order to get out of jail time or worse, and one woman in particular was literally sold into the organization. Also, several Dolls have been used for sex by Dollhouse employees, sometimes with the illusion of consent in place and sometimes not.
So, at this point, people were like, "um, is noted feminist auteur Joss Whedon aware that he is making a show about forced prostitution and rape?" Whedon's politics have repeatedly been called into question, and usually for damn good reason. (Here is the thing about doing stuff that appeals to politically engaged audiences: you cannot fuck up politically and have people fail to notice or just go, "oh well, par for the course, ha ha ha!" You get yelled at. Sorry. Deal.) Dollhouse, in particular, had the potential to be hugely offensive. Here is the thing: Whedon, unlike most folks and many feminist or progressive-identified dudes, seems to actually listen when he is called out and to improve his work accordingly. In the case of Dollhouse, I think he is doing smarter work than he ever was. Getting smarter about oppression, I would submit to you, requires making the visible manifestations of it or metaphors for it much, much uglier.
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Erin Judge
Catherine Forsythe
Emily Holleman
Rebecca Sarwate
Martha Nichols
~R@~
Salon.com
Comments
I am one and can't stand me (sometimes I'm OK).
I read a review that agreed completely with Verbal: The first six episodes suck.
She's right, nobody is watching anymore.
And they're blaming Eliza Dushku for it's suckiness.
They talk about acting... are you trying to tell me all the people on major successes can act?
I am not sure I can find words, even this far into the season, to reveal how repulsed I am by this show. My husband has it on every week and I try to give it the benefit of the doubt but just cannot find any premise within the whole thing that is not dehumanizing.
If the purpose of the show was meant to make us question our own responses to this type of behavior in that particular setup, and realize that we are repulsed by these dehumanizing concepts, then the show is a huge success. Time has not diminished its effect on me -- I am hugely sickened and appalled by the concept.
I only "half-watch" because it is on TV in my home -- no room in my house gets me away from it. In result, I watch because I am looking to understand my husband's fascination as well as to ferret out any moral message that may be hidden. I don't find much morality except that one agent didn't want to put another agent in the chair because he didn't consent...Oh, the fine points of the Dollhouse sense of morality...
Then, last week the slashing started up, again. It is grotesque. I am being honest and I am trying to be fairminded, but I think I will never be able to take any of the actors seriously when I see them in other roles in the future.
They are branded forever as "dolls" in a sickeningly twisted presentation of life that lacks the essence of what makes us human. If their memories are taken away, are they shells with no soul? Echo seems to be able to tap into what could only be her innate nature but the whole premise is stretched thin and implausible most of the time.
Not sure why I feel so strongly, but the whole concept still gives me the CREEPS after all these weeks...Unless awareness of the Dollhouse as a bad thing is being generated, its presence is certainly NOT a good thing on the airwaves.
If we look carefully, the doll that was most repetitively abused by the same customer... well was Victor... and he was rented by the boss of the Local Dollhouse itself.
Not to excuse anyone's actions, but he also hasn't focused on just the smutty used of dolls. Even in the smuttiness there are a lot of male dolls too ( honestly i haven't counted the ratio) We still have no idea why we got to see echo deliver a baby.
The trouble with words like feminism is that they have become so big that they cover too much for everyone to agree on definitions. Same with progressive.
IN a lot of ways, Dollhouse is liek Firefly. it is a projection of what the future could be (though like Max Headroom it could be 10 mins. into the future).
Dollhouse t is not a show about how the future SHOULD be (he is not advocating dolls or the use of dolls), but rather a picture of what future dirty bastard humans will probably make... and some people trying to get buy in that future (and maybe even stopping it).
All of his shows have been like that. 'What if X" and how will people deal with it. People can't be trusted with the technology the dollhouse has, nor can lawyers be trusted to deal with demonic powers (Wolfram and Heart? I'm spacing on the company name).
How much would people be complaining if the main character was Victor? He's a better actor, but would more people watch? Is there a double standard on exploitation?
I think Boyd is the most fascinating character on the show, because:
1. He's the most aware of the moral implications of what the Dollhouse is about.
2. He's the one most troubled by what the Dollhouse is.
3. He still CHOOSES (important word there) to work there.
4.) he can act.
I agree, in may ways he is the pivotal character in the show, especially now that he has a leadership role in the Dollhouse.
You are right about the choosing too. Now he can make really important choices... making his moral qualms even more important.
Even those of us who are self-aware enough to recognize our complicity in evil (like Boyd) aren't always strong enough to make the right choice. He cares about Echo and wants to protect her- but who does he see when he looks at her? His reaction to last week's infiltration by Ballard was telling- in protecting Echo, he was doing his best to destroy the man intent on saving her. And I didn't see any doubt that he was doing the right thing.
Try to keep in mind that this is just storytelling. You'd think a website full of writers would understand that the Dollhouse is merely a plot device that sets up the ongoing conflict for our characters. It is also a very interesting shadow character, as it has its own arc that roughly parallels Echo's.
"The Dollhouse" is not *promoting* rape and slavery, it is using the situation to set up the sympathetic underdog nature of our plot-focus characters. It makes them frail and vulnerable, and has us rooting for them from the beginning. They are, after all, in a situation against their will, with their very selves at stake each week.
Also, Whedon fills each episode with moral hand-wringing over the whole situation, and we even have a particular character -- no, not the FBI agent, but the Dollhouse head of security -- that is the embodiment of our shared anguish and morality, as he struggles to protect our vulnerable dolls from week to week.
We all realize that the so-called consent that got them there is nothing more than coercion and a pretext for slavery, and that angers us. But we also realize that these were desperate people in desperate circumstances, and that if the Dollhouse lives up to its word, this "contract" may very well have saved their lives. So we are of two minds, as is our head of security, and with struggle with the morality along with him.
I think it's a fine device, filled with inherent conflict and drama, and people in deep need of redemption. Good on Whedon.
There is no 'promotion' of sexual slavery. In fact, it's just the opposite. The show's quite good in that respect actually. There's no celebration of the situation that the 'dolls' are in.
As for possible cancellation, Dushku's acting isn't as bad as all that; it's much more about Fox messing with the show and putting the show in such an unbelievably bad time slot. The reason that the show hasn't been canceled as of yet (as far as I know) is because someone at Fox is utterly aware of how much that they fucked it up, I think and so, they are toying with keeping the show and trying to build the audience.
Anyhoo, I hope you all enjoyed the article I linked to. I thought it was very well thought out.
I just wanted to say that after the week I've had, I wouldn't mind signing five years to the Dollhouse, wiping my cluttered and stressed-out brain, lounging around a luxurious hideaway (which by the looks of the occupants obviously has lots of wonderful spa and gym equipment they never show us), and have a turn being lots of people who are smarter, stronger, sexier and more exciting than I am.
So far from being an homage to rape and slavery, I think "The Dollhouse" sounds like a fantasy vacation for stressed-out lawyers.
:)
Can't wait to see Alpha take the place down.
Here's the thing that they haven't really explored, but I hope they do if they get renewed: the Dollhouse has shown an ability to embed some pretty serious skills in their Dolls. Now, what if they could offer skill training, a la The Matrix? Is it a more intriguing show if suddenly clients come to the Dollhouse for some modifications that still leave them mostly intact? What if, for example, you could choose to instantly master a martial art, a new language, or take a life time of college classes in a subject you enjoy? What if you could selectively erase a painful memory, such as childhood abuse or a failed relationship (and now we'd be getting into Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind territory with that). I mean, again - my #1 frustration with this show is that there's so much POTENTIAL here, some really interesting moral and ethical dilemmas they could explore, but they just haven't gotten there yet.
Besides, they can already give you a drug that will wipe out selected, painful memories. It's in clinical trials, now, being used to treat victims of child rape, war atrocities and other triggers of PTSD. There's a huge debate about whether that's a good or bad thing.
I had a good laugh at the belated cover slot.
That's not a message that is so blandly universal that it has no value for feminism; in fact, it's a core precept of feminism. The woman's traditional role is not to be self-determined but to live for others, to compliantly mold herself to be what others around her want her to be without a thought for the consequences. (Men have their own restrictive gender role burdens with always having to be "rugged individualists", always having to be masters of everything, never losing control of their emotions.)
I think this series cuts to the core of an innate human desire to give up responsibility, to not have to face the music. Okay, here's your chance. Sign on the dotted line and you will never have to take responsibility for your life again. Heck, you won't even remember what you did on whatever assignment we send you to. That's if the technology we work on you never has a glitch--but that's our problem, don't you worry your little head about that.
The male and female "dolls" in the Dollhouse are like children. Even their desires for each other are childlike. Their response to sexual abuse by fellow employees is childlike. They are also cogs, shifting from vapid childhood to fake adulthood with each download. Go ahead, think about those feminist implications.
Ah well.... I suppose we can armchair QB what this show COULD have been till we're blue in the face.
The episode that really got to me was the one where someone hires Echo to be his wife in a new house. The douche has a long monologue where he tells Ballard that he's complicit, that he is just as guilty of exploiting Echo as the people who are paying the Dollhouse. Of course this was a way for Joss to address the audience and say, you too are complicit in this. You enjoy this exploitation too. And my reaction was fuck you, I don't enjoy this exploitation, I find it disgusting and repulsive. And BTW Joss, maybe you should look in the mirror because if anyone is getting off on this, it's you.
And while I totally agree with your analysis of Dollhouse, I just can't get into it the way I go into Buffy. It may be a more feminist show (though I'm not totally convinced), it might be a more challenging show, but it's just not as good a show.
The acting isn't great, the dialogue is lackluster (and I don't mean just the lack of Whedonesque banter, I mean the constant, clumsy exposition, the way the FBI scenes play like a bad cop show knock-off), and while the mythology is interesting, the actual episode plots tend to be pretty thin.
I really, really wanted to like this show. I've gone into every episode hoping it would be the one that turns it around, and I've been disappointed every time.
I'm hooked even if Eliza was never my favorite Whedon actor (that title belongs to Alan Tudyk, who has popped up as Alpha on "Dollhouse.") It's an incredibly interesting premise we are being invited to watch. Made more so by recent turns in our history.
The complicit nature of watching the show - tuning in for such inhumane and unethical behavior - is a direct reflection of the American public's complicity in our post-9/11 actions. The invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, the change in our torture policy, the removal of certain formerly inalienable rights by our last administration. We were all complicit in the rending of the fabric of our nation, because we did not stop it.
I realize this is a leap of ethic and epic proportions, but I find it impressive that people can get so outraged by a TV show even as they allow attrocities to be committed in the name of their country... showing much less outrage for the real damage than the scripted.
1) Boyd is far the most interesting character
2) Eliza Dushku really *can't* act; she's far too weak an actress to focus a show around
3) The Topher character irritates the living crap out of me on multiple levels
4) I love Alan Tudyk
And I still miss Firefly. A lot.
I don't mean to say you can't comment on a TV show, I just wanted to point out the somewhat hypocritcal nature of the complaints in a country that has historically let evil go on its way if it doesn't affect "me." (Slavery, child labor, the treatment of the insane, women's roles, etc.) In other words, how many people - if they could get a ridiculously high-paying job in the Dollhouse as support staff would rat the place out? I think, rather, they might cling to comforting slogans such as, "We're helping people."
But maybe I'm reading too deep into the show. I'm about 7 levels down here and reminded of the famous Stanford prison experiment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
I have been laid off and I do have a lot of time on my hands! ;)
If their memories are taken away, are they shells with no soul? Echo seems to be able to tap into what could only be her innate nature but the whole premise is stretched thin and implausible most of the time.
Someone else must have postured the same to Whedon because I could only laugh last night as the above issue was addressed in full. Apparently, Echo needed to hold 38 other personalities in her head to help her "get it" and yes, made several repetitions of same so that WE KNOW that she "GETS IT"...
Yes, she does have a soul -- yes, there is something innate that cannot be taken away by erasing a person's memories! Yes, all that we do leaves an imprint whether we are conscious of it or not. Yes, people, Whedon doesn't believe we are shells, empty vessels to be filled with other's notions on a whim or for a dollar.
But, some of the statements in last night's episode were way over the top at this point. Specifically:
Echos statement that signing a contract to put one's self into slavery could not be honored. Apparently, because we have a black President...OMG, Whedon...was that the very best way to get this message across? Sounded a bit extreme to my ear and heart -- my husband snorted as well. Slavery should be wrong with or without a "black" President...guess that statement was delivered for the dullards...
I guess I was meant to continue to watch this show. All the while protesting that it was against my will...slave to the noise box that I am.
Although some was heavy-handed and pedantic, all my issues were resolved in last night's episode, right down to the reason the freak called Alpha is a slasher . He was a slasher PRIOR to going into the Dollhouse -- a criminal destined for jail turned test experiment. Uhmm...guess they couldn't program that evil out of his heart or soul no matter how many personalities were pumped into his head. Valid point and strong statement about the role of our soul?
Dare I posture that this turn will make the show MUCH less interesting to the slave-loving, slasher-slurping fans of the show? Or, will they block out the messages that should not have escaped even the most dull among us and continue to watch?! Has the show gone all "humanist" on us? Uhmmm...I await the OS response...
This is America where one may choose to be a absurd as one wishes. Hopefully you would not have it any other way.