Dollhouse and Feminism: Complete

I: Joss Whedon and feminism

I think that you only need to watch one episode of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse to know that the breadth of the show, and the implications of its premise are too wide and far reaching to boiled down to just one philosophic ideology. That’s not to say that Joss’ other works have been completely myopic in their scope, but from the title alone of his first hit t.v. show Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, you knew exactly what its primary premise was going to be: a message that would be echoed from its opening scene in “Welcome to the Hellmouth” all the way to its series closer “chosen”: Buffy was a show about women who kicked some serious vampire tail. (And, as the show ran its course, it also became a show about women who bagged some serious vampire tail… but more on that later.)

In the late 90′s — early double-0′s, Joss’ name seemed to be as synonymous with feminism as Dr. Ruth Westheimer’s is with sex. (Why anyone would want to link Ruth’s mug with sexy-time is anyone’s guess, but whatever…) However, since the launch of his newest show Dollhouse, some fans are asking that Joss’ feminism card be revoked.

Okay, so at a casual glance, you nay sayers out there (the knights who say “nay”?) seem to have some valid points. First, as Zone points out in “Epitaph One”:

“You mean to tell me that the tech that punk-kicked the ass of mankind was originally designed to create more believable hookers?”

That’s right, the Dollhouse’s primary function, at first glance, is to be a brothel. And, for the casual viewer, the case against the Dollhouse seems to gain even more traction.

In the long awaited sixth episode, “Man on the Street”, we discover that one of the house’s resident Dolls is being raped — by the episode’s end we see a woman nearly beaten to death. (There’s more to the episode, but I’ll save that for another post…)

As the series progressed we learn that not all came to the Dollhouse by their own free will, and by the middle of its second season, we get a full view of exactly how Piyra, the tragic Doll in question, landed there — and let’s just say it ain’t a Helen-Keller-feel-good type story.

So, the question has been asked: can a show containing such abundant acts of violence against woman have any value in feminism? Is the show just down right misogynist?

I’ll argue no to the latter question. Moreover, I’ll argue that Dollhouse may have some of the strongest feminist messages of any of Joss’ creations.

In Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, we’re given a pint sized gal who’s been “chosen” to fight the forces of evil on earth; and in the shows penultimate season, she faces evil itself, in the form of “The First”.

Then, in Firefly, we’re given River Tam, a girl with psychic abilities who’s butt-kicking abilities are enhanced when the Government experiment with her brain in an attempt to make her a “supper-weapon”. (ETA: As one reader pointed out, Firefly does offer its viewers a much wider scope of female characterizations, but more on that later… promise)

Finally comes Dollhouse, where we get hookers… who get into the occasional brawl… who sometimes aren’t even given basic hand-to-hand combat skills!

It seems no contest. Dollhouse should come in at the bottom of the list, if not out right offensive when it comes to treatment of female characters. But take a closer look:

In Buffy, we have a girl who is “chosen”, and gifted with “super-strength”. Her strength, we later discover, was forced into her by men, to create a force to fight against earth-bound demons. Buffy may have been a symbol for real girls, but her powers were anything but. And again in Firefly, we’re given an equally un-obtainable scenario for River. Both of these shows demonstrate excellent craft for storytelling, and create a mythology as equally compelling as Homer’s. (The Iliad guy, not the Simpson) But I think Dollhouse may offer us something even deeper: more human characters.

Now I know that it’s unlikely that we’ll ever see an exact replica of the Dollhouse technology in real life, but the people they create are just as “human” as you or I, down to Elenore’s bad vision and badly-timed asthma. The skills the Dolls acquire are skills that any of us can obtain, with the right perseverance and training. The Dollhouse just offers it “On Demand”.

In the episode “Spy in the House of Love”, it’s Echo who brings the spy to justice (er, Dollhouse justice, that is), ending the complaint that it’s always Echo’s handler, Boyd Langdon (an man BTW) who has to come to this perma-damsel’s rescue. By the episodes end, Adel informs Mr. Langdon that “it is her that is watching out for us.”

To clarify: In Buffy, we got a girl gifted with super-powers who could kick but; in Dollhouse, we have a girl who has had her conscious diminished to that of a child who ends up saving the entire house from collapse. (Or at least it was her idea…)

II: Piyra And Jean-Paul Sartre

On October 23, 2009, Fox aired one of the most shocking hours of broadcast television… like ever. Fox found the content so potentially disturbing that the show aired with an advisory, warning viewers about the nature of the episode’s macabre content.

In Dollhouse’s fourth episode of the season, “Belonging”, viewers finally receive details on how Sierra ended up in the Dollhouse, and in traditional Whedonesque fashion, those details are tragic times uber. No one describes the character of Nolan, the man responcible for Piyra’s existence in the Dollhouse, better than Adelle DeWitt:

he’s “a raping scumbag on tick shy of a murderer.”

After resisting his advances, Nolan has Piyra kidnapped – then drugged — all in an elaborate scheme to have her sent to the Dollhouse so he could order her… over and over and over again. After being tipped off (via the doll Echo) about the truth behind Piyra’s circumstances, Adelle DeWitt (the Madam of the Dollhouse) attempts to cut Nolan off from their services, only to be reminded how large of a contributor to Rossum (DH’s parent organization) Nolan provides. So, Adelle is forced to comply with Nolan’s wishes, and orders Topher to send Piyra to him, just as he demanded.

But, after an apparent visit from the ghost of Jiminy Cricket, Topher decides, instead, to give Piyra back her original memories — and then send her off to confront Nolan. After a short but brutal exchange, Piyra stabs Nolan to death.

It would be difficult for me to craft a more — what’s the word I’m looking for here — oh yea, fucked up — it would be difficult for me to craft a more fucked up story than that. I will freely admit: when I watched that episode, there were tears.

Now, as I’ve already mentioned in part 1 of this post, Dollhouse can’t be pinned down to just one idea, or theme; and “Belonging” surely is exemplary of that. So just for now, I’d like to focus just on its relation to feminism.

In spite of its horrific depiction of, I don’t think anyone would mistake that this episode was in favor of “rape”. But, how can it justify such a brutal depiction of it? Moreover, what was the message behind the ultimate consequences Piyra had to pay?

First, the freedom to do just as Dollhouse did is necessary to even begin the discussion, or within a fictional narrative at least. What struck me most as the story progressed was that when she was sent to Nolan, it was not as an “active” with but-kicking ninja-samurai skills, nor was she like “November”, and programed with a trigger word that would make her go “Buffy” on Nolan – (Nice, a Whedon-reference on a Whedon-show) – No, she was sent as Piyra — her only special ability was her determination to get revenge on the man whom stole her entire self-identity away from her. She was, in the truest sense, just an ordinary girl.

Second, as Piyra admitted herself, even had Topher not asked her to, she still would have confronted Nolan — first thing.

Okay, so this is a blog on television and philosophy, so now I think it’s time for me to spend a moment on the philosophy:

During WWII, French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre was taken prisoner as a member of the French Resistance. Being half-Jewish, Sartre figured that his final moments would be spend as a prisoner of war. Fortunately enough for him, however, this would not come to pass, and he would eventually gain freedom from the Nazi-run prison. After Sartre’s escape, his writings drastically changed, and it was said once that:

“Sartre had never felt more free than when he was a prisoner.”

Though Sartre himself would never again serve in the front lines of the Resistance, he would spend the remainder of his life advocating others to serve its cause. For those fearful of death, Sartre’s only words of solace were:

“Even when faced with death, man is free. He is free to chose in what manner he will die.”

For Sartre, there was never a gift so grand or burdensome as a persons freedom to speak their voice.

Bringing the discussion back to Dollhouse, Piyra would then seem to meet the qualifications for Sartre’s “hero”. She knew that facing Nolan could put her in a situation where she could be killed, or would have to kill Nolan; and despite the threat of death, she chose to face him, and confront him head-on. And as if to make this point even more poignant, it is for her very voice that she is fighting.

Unfortunately for her, now she must not only live with what Nolan did to her, she must live with what she did to him — and that means having his blood on her hands. After responding to her call and discovering the body, Topher mournfully explains to Langdon:

“She’s ruined.”

According to both Nietzsche and Sartre’s mentor, Heidegger, a person is the sum of their actions and experiences. That is to say: there is no such thing as an honest lair, or an innocent thief. I, personally, am not sure how much weight to give Nietzche and Heidegger’s premises, but I think it does bear light on Topher’s meaning:

Piyra will forever be a person who has committed murder. Try as she might, she will never be able to wash away all of the blood from her hands — or from her conscious – and that is an experience even experienced hit-man Virgil, from Tarentino’s Tue Romance, will admit changes a person forever.

So we should not look at it as “week” that Piyra expresses a desire not to live with the memory of her actions, even if she had “wished him dead” before. Delivering with bitter-sweet perfection, Jed and Maurissa provide us with the only option for any sort of “happy ending” — she will return to the Dollhouse, and will never remember the day she became a murderer ever happened.

To close this two part post, I will leave you with a final question: Understanding that if she were to stay out in the world she would certainly be hunted down and murdered, and forever be confounded by the realization that she cannot live as a murderer; was it right for Piyra to concede herself to the Dollhouse, and give up her voice — even if it was now voluntary. Or, is she saving herself for the front-lines of an even bigger battle to come?

I’m sure we’ll receive at least some of these answers in the few remaining episodes, and I look forward to them with much anticipation.

Cody R. Hobbs