a space monkey in sore need of a spanking

Oh god. Now, for the first time in my life, I feel he urge to write some fan fiction.

And we should actually see someone hire Inara to play cribbage, or for gossip, or to instruct children in etiquette.

This is what *I* wanted to see. It really would have helped the companions idea to make more sense to me. In order for it to be more believable, I would have needed a) more male companions shown, b) companions do lots of things, like being hired to teach baroque piano, c) companions as an generalized Alliance cultural phenomenon would have made more sense than companions as higher-paid sex worker. Because as portrayed, it was hard to tell exactly how they were viewed, other than "Oh, they're supposed to be respectable but none of the characters seem to have noticed."

Certainly Shindig sends out a strong message that even in the higher strata of Alliance society, they are considered rented property. Which leaves me with the impression that few really believe the whole respectability thing, though the companions themselves are buying the myth.

I am not sure about that. Shindig did take place on a fringe world. A nice fringe world, mind you, but probably the equivalent of Carson City or some other large town/small city in the frontier. It's the only place for the want-to-be-cultured and the recently rich to hang out and impress their peers, but it is not a core world. The mere fact that in Shindig that Kaylee was talking to a bunch of the men about something mechanical means that most of them were only one step away from managing their property personally, or were still doing it. Nouveau rich.

Whereas the old money in the core worlds (a New York City in comparision) would probably look down at those gentry at the Shindig, or at least treat them as their social inferiors.

Extrapolating elite behavior from Shindig to the folks in the Core Worlds is probably a false linkage.

One thing about Shindig, though-- Persephone isn't a Core planet, is it? It's closer to the Core than, say, Canton, but not as swanky as Ariel or Osiris. So Companions are a lot more respectable on Persephone than they would be out on the Rim, but they're still sneered at a little. Further in, where the real high society is, it's different. I think.

That's true; I guess Shindig is kind of peripheral core. I guess what I really needed, then, was something on a core planet (Ariel, say) that would show me this companion respectability that people talk about in dialogue.

Have you noticed how only the male characters got any nooky? Kaylee talked about it, but didn't partake. So only brutes (Jayne) and sad, conflicted men who need sexual healin' (Mal) can partake of freely offered, no-strings sex. Oy.

I'm not so sure. Lets break down the cast.

Mal- Got some, we all saw that. He was more pragmatic than Inara, and he hasn't used his plow in a long time.

Zoe- She has Wash, and basically it appears she has all she wants right now.

Wash- See Zoe.

Book- Preacher, or at least is one right now. Some flirtation, really isn't his place to be having the Sex out in the open.

Kaylee- She's Jonzing for Simon, still, and in her way sending a signal that said "Hey, taking a little here would just be a substitute, I'm still working on Simon. He's a bit squeamish about sex, so I can deal without—for now."

Simon- All Doctorin. He's still a bit coreworld uptight, although Kaylee seems to be softening (hee) him up. Not going for the nookie.

Jayne- Well, yeah. Single, unattached, no hangups.

River- Still emotionally a child in many ways. She may be a sexual being, but right now pretty much a work in progress. If she had wanted to, it might have been a whole 'nother ep dealing with Simon's reaction.

Inara- She is a companion, she knows sex is sex, but also she is the only caracter other than Wash and Zoe that seems to have it on an (ir)regular basis. She was there in an assistance capacity and may also not felt like it. Mal issues played a part.

So, I guess I'm not seeing where any of the female cast but Kaylee *would* partake. And Kaylee has designs on Simon.

You don't think the above interpretations aren't awfully convenient? You don't think it's possible for River to go out randomly seducing a boy (or girl), picking up and reflecting the minds she's reading? Do you really think that Kaylee, who had sex with a random moron just to get into Serenity's engine room, would "save herself" for Simon, especially considering she runs hot and cold on him?

For that matter, is there a logical reason why a religious person could not have sex no-strings? Knowing as little as we do of Book's religion (except that it's vaguely Christian)?

Melinda Clarke reminds me of Musetta Vander.

I can absolutely see Kaylee making her way into a town, during one of those just-been-insulted-by-Simon moments, and doing whatever she feels like doing. I don't see her being pointlessly faithful just because she kinda likes Simon. She's more practical than that.

wrod.

I'm torn here -- I think there were big problems with the whole gender divide thing, and with the attitudes to sex. But the only female who might have had The Sex was Kaylee, and she is all with the Simon-fancying. But she's got a very healthy attitude to sex, and she fancied Tracey well enough -- it would have been entirely in character for her to try to get some, since getting some was on the cards. I could wish that we'd seen more of the boy whores, to know whether they were available for girls or just for blokes, and to know how tempted Kaylee was.

But I wouldn't entirely agree with the account of Jayne as a brute and Mal as a sad, conflicted man who need sexual healin'. I actually thought Jayne's enthusiasm for the sex was kinda cute -- real kid in a candy store stuff. But I'm a sucker for Jayne anyway -- in a weird way he actually reminds me of Dru at times -- he's so gleefully in the moment about stuff. I thought he was quite cute with the girl, but I'm probably being dumb. As for the captain -- I wouldn't say he's a sad, conflicted man or that he was getting sexual healing. I thought he was a bloke getting laid; he wasn't broken and she didn't fix him, but she was interested and pretty, and he hadn't had The Sex for heaven knows how long. I was okay with the Mal/Nandi shaggage -- it didn't have any negative connotations for me.

The fact that she promptly got shot and became a saintly figure who'd sacrificed herself for her girls -- that was not so great. Because she wasn't a tart with a heart of gold, despite the name -- she was a strong minded Madame who was supportive of her employees, but who was perfectly chilled about killing people to defend what's hers. But the Mal/Nandi chemistry and the sex-having all seemed feasible and non-exploitative to me.

YMMV

You don't think the above interpretations aren't awfully convenient?

I think they are perfectly logical explainations for the characters as presented in previous episodes.

Do you really think that Kaylee, who had sex with a random moron just to get into Serenity's engine room, would "save herself" for Simon, especially considering she runs hot and cold on him?

Kaylee? She is smart enough to realize Simon is a bit conservative, and despite here "hot and cold" she does quite fancy him. She can get sex any planetfall more discretely and keep up the pretense in her relationship with the doctor.

You don't think it's possible for River to go out randomly seducing a boy (or girl), picking up and reflecting the minds she's reading?

While River could do those things, she hasn't been all that randomly sexual in prior episodes, so why now? Just because it's an episode about whores?

It would be more effective and unexpected in another episode.