On a less imflamatory level, it's like insisting out loud how cool and hip you are. If you have to announce it...

I am mostly cloudy, 59 °F, and I have two hips.

I'm still willing not to completely yank Joss' feminist card, but I would like to see more of that sensibility affecting this series. But maybe I'm just conflicted because I'm a feminist who is finding non-feminist Ari Gold to be the most fun I've had writing all year.(It kind of helps that his wife carries one of his balls in her handbag, metaphorically speaking, but even that is a sufficiently old-school relationship that I have twinges of embarrassment about enjoying it from time to time. I mean, she really does shop to get even with him. But their scenes are still fun to watch...is that being anti-feminist?

I think of Joss as being a self-identified feminist, who is conscious of the issues and history of sexism and yet has some grotesque blind spots that he keeps going back to.

For every waif-ish early Willow/Fred/River he's also given us complex and intriguing women like Zoe and Buffy and Faith and Cordelia and later Willow.

The whole Sexbot/Woman Without Volition thing though is such a recurring itch in his psyche that it's a problem for me: Buffybot, Girl the Trio robotocizied, Inara, sexbot in Serenity movie, Dollhouse...

I get that he is interested in how men objectify women. It's just that the constant recurrence leaves an icky stain suggesting that his interest is not purely conceptual. It feels like he's attracted to Women Who Don't Have Autonomy Particularly Over Sex (whether that's true or not, it's just feels that way now).

In Joss' world every man secretly wants a sexbot and would go and get one immediately if it were legal and possible.

Actually his view of men might be more derogatory than his view of women.

For every waif-ish early Willow/Fred/River he's also given us complex and intriguing women like Zoe and Buffy and Faith and Cordelia and later Willow.

I'd interject that early Willow had agency, determination, and was a excellent example of how being smart and bookish and marching to the beat of your own drummer could be a good thing. Yeah, she wasn't aggressive or kicking ass on a regular basis, but I think she was a very good 3-dimensional character right from the start.

Fair point about Willow, who was not cut from the same damaged/genius/waif fabric as Fred and River.

Well, she was and she wasn't. But it's okay to have a character that isn't completely tough if she knows who she is and stuff like that,imo.

But it's okay to have a character that isn't completely tough if she knows who she is and stuff like that,imo.

See also, Kaylee.

she's a mechanic...that's kind of badass, imo.

When we first met Fred, she had survived 5 years in a hell dimension without her head being exploded. Despite how she died, I think she had a fair amount of kickassedness and agency until then.

I think of Joss as being a self-identified feminist, who is conscious of the issues and history of sexism and yet has some grotesque blind spots that he keeps going back to.

So a human being in other words.

I dunno. I have issues around the whole issue of debating whether someone is or is not a feminist. I feel much more comfortable saying that my take on feminism and his take do not always match up. Then again, I say the same thing about a colleague of mine who works in the women's studies department.