Dear Joss and the other writers and producers of Dollhouse,
This show has too much sexual violence. All four episodes so far have contained a threat of sexual violence on some level. If you want to talk about sexual violence, talk about sexual violence. Repeatedly using sexual violence as a minor plot-point is not okay.
In this episode you used sexual violence as a bait and switch for the audience. For a few minutes we were supposed to believe that the Greek guy had given Echo to his nephew as a present so that the nephew could rape her. That is unbelievably disturbing. It is also entirely plausible. We live in a rape culture; many men say that they’d rape a woman if they’d get away with it. One of the things the Dollhouse could give clients is an opportunity to rape a woman and get away with it. If you want to tell a story about that then do so, and I’ll judge it on its merits. But don’t toy with that scenario – please understand that sexual violence is serious and disturbing and treat it as such.
Maia
PS The trust on this is low as you are some of the same people who brought us “Spike has a soul now”
Dear Dichen Lachman (who plays Sierra),
Please continue being awesome.
Maia
Dear Liz Craft and Sarah Fain (writers of this episode),
First go read my first letter twice. Look I appreciate that your depiction of a woman lying about rape was much more critical of the person she was lying to than it was of her. But I think you should have probably thought a little bit harder about the implications of telling a story which incidentally included a woman lying about being raped.
Apart from that, I really enjoyed this episode. Thanks for including so much Echo, I like her much more than any of her engagements.
I thought the resonance of art was well done. From Echo’s reaction to the Picasso picture to Adelle’s comment about Michaeangelo’s views about Marble, you let the metaphor relate to the characters without hitting us over the head with it. I found the ending of this episode almost as optimistic as the ending of episode two: “that meaning and humanity comes from our interest in representing ourselves.”
The episode hit some really nice small notes. The accomplice-who-wasn’t-shot was all smooth charm and trying to pick her up when things were going well, but was the one to blame her wipe on “Hysterical Woman Syndrome” – a nice display of the links between the way women are objectified. I liked that the connection that Echo built with the guy who got shopped saved them both, even though he thought she was a talking computer (nice dialogue throughout by the way).
I’m looking forward to more episodes from you.
Maia
PS Really do read that first letter
Dear Dollhouse wardrobe:
Did you not read the script or do you think Stiletto heels are comfy shoes?
Maia
Dear Fox,
You’ve got lots and lots of money. How about you use some of it to make a second season of Dollhouse.
Maia
The one thing I liked about the fake rape thing was the way that “Taffy” communicated very clearly that yes, you can rape a prostitute, and afforded her (fake) profession dignity and autonomy.
I would also like to add, if anybody even remotely associated with this show stops by, making the show interesting or funny might be something to consider, too.
I found this episode really boring on top of being sexist. There never seemed to be any real threat, and the robbery stuff really felt like it was based on other robbery movies.
What bugged me was, after Taffy refused the money to pay her to keep quiet about the rape, I was really hoping that it would be about her trying to get the guys arrested and gaining autonomy through Taffy. I figure that’d be far more interesting than what we got–we’d get to see how the Dollhouse reacts to one of their actives being bought for rape, how society treats rape victims, especially when they’re prostitutes, etc. And then she knocked the guy out and my enthusiasm for the episode was pretty much ruined.
Doorshut, I was thinking the same thing. I really want to see an episode like that, a mission where Echo legitimately rebels against her assignment while still in her programmed state. A plot about rape would be a great way to do that, if done right.
Yeah, the comfy shoes comment + stiletto-heeled boots was particularly silly. Couldn’t tell whether it was intentionally funny.
I have to be honest, though, I just really don’t look at any of Whedon’s series through the same type of lens that I see being used here. I can tell that one of the things he’s interested in is the treatment of female bodies in the culture at large, but I don’t feel a need for him to treat this issue with the same depth and breadth as I would treat it. I know he’s working out some of his own issues as a male to whom this objectification is generally marketed. I don’t begrudge him doing that in his own way. I don’t think he or his writers usually use it as a plot tool; it is clearly connected to deeper themes of which they are very conscious, as far as I can tell, and that for me is sufficient at this stage in the series.
Then again, I never had the same issues with the Spike/Buffy storyline that I’ve heard expressed a few times here. That’s partially because I have a bit of a Spike blind spot, I’ll confess, but it’s also because I was really interested in the dynamics of their relationship – it seemed way way more human and realistic, both in its violence and dysfunction as well as in its occasional tenderness and understanding, than did Buffy/Angel or Willow/Tara or Xander/Anya. It was far more worthy of in-depth characterization than most t.v. romances.
And the part that stuck out to me as a questionable choice wasn’t the Spike-has-a-soul thing (I actually loved that plotline, because it gave me a much richer and more subtle understanding of how the soul operates in Buffyverse – something more sophisticated than the evil on/off switch it tended to be with Angel or the “soul=free will” explanation that Buffy gives). It was the attempted rape that seemed to me to be a bad plot idea, mostly because I don’t think they were prepared to really play that event out in an honest way with their characters.
The big difference to me between that and the sexual violence in Dollhouse is that there really aren’t characters involved in the latter; Echo has no discernible personality for us to feel concerned about, no internal context in which to formulate a response to these acts. The perpetrators generally have zero depth, so the act is just an act, not a function of human factors interfacing with cultural ones; it only registers as a cultural signifier. I suspect that’s part of the point of the series (what do such acts mean when abstracted from personality and memory?), and I’m comfortable letting it play out for now. It beats Our Perpetual Lady of Beautiful Battered Deadness, patron saint of CSI.
That being said, it’s not working so well with the episode plots just yet. For example, why create a cover for a thief that is so conspicuous?
Edited to say — BTW thank you for being a place where we can talk about this series with such a serious lens. I look forward to these posts every week, even if I don’t always agree.
Dear Maia,
Please keep analyzing Dollhouse!
Love,
Kira
I actually don’t necessarily question the level of sexual violence in the show. I’m not thrilled about the way they’re doing it right now, but I don’t necessarily oppose a show acknowledging that sexual assault can be everywhere, all the time, especially for someone who is at least part of the time engaged in sex work.
I kind of feel like the threat of sexual violence is a minor plot point in MY day-to-day life: it usually doesn’t actually come to anything, but that threat is kind of a presence that underlies some of my interactions on a regular basis. And Echo and Sierra are being bought and sold by powerful people; I feel like the threat of sexual violence WOULD be a constant presence.
Of course, there’s a big difference between honestly showing the effect that has on women, and acting like it’s no big deal.
The stiletto heel boots/comfortable shoes thing is overwhelmingly a joke. You all not getting it shows pretty clearly that you are watching with a chip on your shoulder.
Awww thanks everyone for the nice comments – I think the chance of me stopping over analysing Joss Whedon shows is slim to none.
DanaQuixote – Just to clarify I wouldn’t have minded Spike getting a soul – what I minded is Spike getting a soul as a resolution of the Spike tries to rape Buffy plotline.
I do think there are characters involved in the sexual violence in the dollhouse. Whatever your views on the dolls are, in most of these episodes there are men who want to do sexual violence to women (and every episode with a ‘romantic’ engagement involves someone having sex with someone who they know cannot give meaningful consent). But my man problem is just that they keep mentioning sexual violence without giving it space or treating it as something important.
Kira – that’s a really good point. The level of sexual violence on the show is probably no higher than normal life, and there are reasons that the level of sexual violence would be heightened in these circumstances. And if I thought that was what they were going for I’d be OK with it. But like you say I don’t think they’re taking it seriously enough. And I think there was no excuse for faking us out with thinking that Taffy had been raped.
Although Deborah is right – for a story about a woman lying about being raped a lot of the messages around rape were OK. I just think they shouldn’t have done it, and if they had to do it, they shouldn’t have faked the audience out.
Biz – if it was a joke it was a stupid joke. Either it was a joke on the character – ie Taffy wasn’t supposed to be making a joke the juxtapositioni was the joke – which is a particularly bad idea when the characters aren’t estabilshed. Or it was supposed to be Taffy making a joke and neither actresses played it as such.
And seriously? A chip on my shoulder? I’m a crazy Joss Whedon fangirl of the most ridiculous degree. I quote what he says in episode commentaries from memory. I have decided what quote of his I want read at my funeral (the speech at the end of Buffy comic book 5). I have an anti-chip when it comes to Joss. I just enjoy analysing fiction.