"Hmm - it is worth remembering that the Old West's more bloodthirsty American Indian tribes were fighting to recover stolen land. Not that it excuses the rapes and such, but more Indians were victims than were victimizers... Is it possible that in drawing these historical comparisons, Joss does not know any actual history? I thought he was a lit major of some sort, which usually involves learning some history as well?"

Well Joss may be drawing the reavers from earlier Native American history-before the whites arrived. There is evidence of attacks from cannibalistic bands on agricultural native tribes in the American southwest. I'm fuzzy on the details at this point (European history is more my home ground), and the evidence remains controversial among athropologists and historians, but The New Yorker ran an interesting article on the subject a couple of years ago as I recall. That is quite possibly where Joss got the idea.

IIRC, the Chaco Canyon area in the American southwest is where they've found skeletons that point to possible cannibalism.

You guys have never seen the movie How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman. It's Portuguese/Brazilian, and it's about the cannibal Tupi of coastal Brazil. And it's sort of affectionate; by the end it's clear that ritual cannibalism is regarded within the tribe as an honorable thing to be a victim of. Of course, the Tupi were all completely wiped out before 1650, so it's mostly conjecture.

But also, the Tupi weren't nihilists, and we've got evidence the Anasazi cooked what people they ate.

So, with the number of times Book mentions in the pilot that he's never married, think confirmed bachelor is a safe assumption? (We know that Companions are thought of highly, but what's the thought on homosexuality in the Fireflyverse?)

Given the Old West themes, probably not very highly. dammit.

On the other hand we have a badass woman fiighter? And they don't seem to be seen as Calamity Jane type exceptions. And woman engineers. In general , not nearly the gender inequality of the old west. Generally gender equality tends to go hand in hand with less repression against homosexualty. So we can assume great openess to HoYay, and to GayAndLesMarYay than the real old West -- until proven otherwise.

Well, this is a ME production, so I'd assume the writers would be reasonably gay-friendly.

What I'd love to see is for one of the characters to meet an old flame or hook up with someone of the same gender and have no one on the show even comment on the person's gender.

That "She hit on me too." line of Inara's from the preview might be an indicator that it's still seen as an eyebrow-raising thing. (Too soon to tell out of context...) But yeah, the lesser enforcing of gender-stereotyped roles seems to indicate less uptightness over sexuality in general.

If I were a professional carpenter, and had some numbnut weirdo walk up to me and start telling me how to plane a board, I'd be a bit annoyed too.

And you people will never know how I self-edited and saved you all from the mixed metaphor of teaching a carpenter's grandmother to suck eggs.

That "She hit on me too." line of Inara's from the preview might be an indicator that it's still seen as an eyebrow-raising thing.

But there was no gender-based awkwardness around the idea that Inara might be servicing Kaylee. So I think the eyebrow raising might be from something else, like "how terribly inappropriate to hit on crew/a companion/whatever", other than a fear of lezzie-cooties.