Why Joss Whedon Will Forever Be One of My Feminist Writer Icons

He depicted in Firefly with Malcolm Reynolds and Inara Serra a valid, loving relationship between a sex worker and a non-client with verve and panache.

He exploded the myth that mental illness is not a superpower.

He made rape culture a main element of a science fiction universe and no one cared.

He killed a psychotic misogynist…

By having a lonely girl… BECOME a space ship. (Firefly / Series Finale – ‘Objects in Space‘)

Whereas in Aliens, the ship was nicknamed ‘Mother’ because she was a creepy robot that treated her cargo as disposable… Firefly and the Whedonverse makes the ship human, and its cargo complicated, antagonistic, and alive.

I don’t know what Joss Whedon has done. I don’t know him personally. I don’t support sexism or mistreatment of anyone. But we can all do well to choose our villains carefully.