[Arisama]

Originally Posted by Lazarus

[list][*]Pregnancy: the 'verse has birth control. Presumably very good birth control. It's never actually brought up, but heavily implied in three places. 1) in the series, in the episode "Out of Gas", where Kaylee and Bester are having sex. If there wasn't reliable birth control, then it's likely she wouldn't have had random sex with a stranger. 2) In the movie, Kaylee's line "There ain't nothing been twixt my nethers in a long time that weren't run on batteries" (and I probably garbled slightly), for the same reason. We see that Kaylee is actually a fan of random one-night-standish sex. Probably of relationship type as well, but either way, she's not worried about getting pregnant. 3) In the series, Wash and Zoe definitely have sex. And yet, they still talk about (in Heart of Gold) having a child. It is thus very likely that their sex has little to no chance of this happening without their knowledge.

So, they use condoms - maybe..... But condoms break. The pill doesn't always work, and there's no mention ANYWHERE that they have developed perfect 100% birth-control. You mention that Kaylee uses a vibrator - but that doesn't show she has regular sex with a guy does it? Also, despite risks, women before the invention of any method of birth-control still engaged in sex, some depending on no more than faith in the rhythm method, so your mention of Kaylee having one-night stands occassionally doesn't prove she uses birth-control. Also, do Wash and Zoe use condoms, or extremely medicine of some kind? Your point particularly dies on it's ass when the poverty of most of the Rim and Border worls is taken in account, and what is specifically shown in the Firefly 'Verse is that medicine is extremely expensive, and often hard for normal people to get on a regular basis.

Originally Posted by Lazarus

[*]Conservative little towns: I believe they've only shown one fundamentalist town in the series and movie, and that was a backwater place with no outside communication, with the craziness of kidnapping people anyway. This can be used as a plot point, and in the series, it was to show how devoted Simon is to River, and, actually, how Loyal Mal is to all his crew. Most of the 'verse isn't fundamentalist. They may be conservative, some of them, but most ain't fundie..

Conservative Christian is still pretty damn bad for women to carry on with "Amorous" - I didn't see any sign of the local conservatives being Liberals and Left-Wingers promoting women's rights. Also I didn't saythat the 'Verse was entirely fundamentalist, I said it was strong element, and that's shown frequently in the series in the manner of dress and behaviour. How many women wore miniskirts in the series?

Originally Posted by Lazarus

[*]Rape: I guess it's possible, but it's also possible with male characters. This will only show up in a game if you and all your players are fine with the topic, and is generally a plot point to show other things, anyway - like, say, how protective of the character the rest are.

So, you see a lot of men getting pregnant then do you? I haven't. Not even once. Rape is a helluva lot more common for women than men, so your point fails. If the woman is acting even slightly "Amorous" her risk of being raped - even gang-raped - is a LOT WORSE for her than any man with "Amorous" isn't it?

This counter-argument of yours just died in the ass too, big time.

Originally Posted by Lazarus

[*]Slavers: you have a point, maybe, but why would they be more likely to pick someone who's Amorous, rather than not?

What planet are you living on?!

Think about the risk factors involved and what happens. If a guy acts like an Amorous stud, his risk of getting entrapped by some measure by use of a woman is going to be higher than if he wasn't behaving that way. Most (nearly all) slavers are male, even in the 'Verse...so your little slaver gang needs to take the added risk of using an extra person (a woman) as bait.

Easier to just grab women instead, and if they're acting like Amorous sluts they're at a much higher risk than a man acting the same way because of this. Follows the same sort of logic of the real world, where the vast majority of "human-trafficking" is in women and girls. You've also got a bigger market, lonely men and brothels all over the Rim at nasty dirty little mining towns where there are always a lot more women than men. The sex industry is big time money in the 'Verse, and it's not all controlled by the Companions Guild - far from it.

Originally Posted by Lazarus

Especially because I believe that Amorous does not require the character to behave wrongly, especially if (s)he is being coerced into the act.

In the opinion of most people in most human societies, a woman who acts like a slut isn't exactly praised is she?

Guys, however, will usually get praised as studs or similar.

So, a woman who acts Amorous is going to get in a lot more trouble than a guy with the same Complication.

Originally Posted by Lazarus

Here, I will note that Buddism, to my knowledge, is gender neutral. There are also faiths which are female-centric. These would still have persisted in the 'verse, just aren't the mainstream.

Christianity, however, which is encoutered more than half the time in the series in one way or another, is NOT gender neutral. As to other faiths that aren't mainstream and are female-centric, why even bother trying to pretend that "such-and-such oddball religion" is a significant factor when it's so rarely encountered? Another of your counter-arguments just died too.

Originally Posted by Lazarus

We've seen that odd little communities have their own little faiths (Our Mrs. Reynolds), so it's not actually hard to say that a female character is in a female-led church.

Of course it's not hard to say, anyone can just go and change the entire setting and it's not hard to say either, but we're talking about the 'Verse and the setting of Firefly/Serenity...and there is little evidence anywhere in the series that female-centric religions are mainstream or commonly encountered. Most are definitely patriarchal - Just like in the Wild West genre and post-Civil-War era that the series is based upon.

So this very weak counter-argument point of yours dies too.

Originally Posted by Lazarus

That's actually given me an idea for a matriarchal planet somewhere. Not that it's wrong, but rather, to see what the characters' reactions would be, and so on.Laz

Good, you go and do that. It's not a successful argument just because you can do it, but if you want to re-write the entire setting into being matriarchal, go ahead. It wouldn't be the Firefly/Serenity setting anymore if you did though, so it dies as a counter-argument as well.