Dollhouse – It Depends on What You Pay
Please note this vid deals with issues of rape and consent. More specifically, it’s a playful yet critical look at the troubling presentation of these issues in the Fox television show “Dollhouse”. Because these topics are intense, we feel viewers should be aware of the content before viewing.
The vid is fittingly titled “It Depends on What You Pay” by vidder Gianduja Kiss who expertly combines clips from the first season of Joss Whedon’s new television show “Dollhouse” with music from the 1960’s off-Broadway musical “The Fantasticks”.
For those unfamiliar with the premise of the show, it’s set inside a secretive corporation called the Dollhouse. People are coerced into handing over their bodies to the Dollhouse which then rents out those bodies for profit. The “actives” or “dolls” have their minds wiped and are then re-programed with the personalities and skills desired by each new “client”.
Gianduja Kiss’s vid brilliantly exposes the fact that these “dolls” have no way to consent to any of their “engagements” – sexual or otherwise – an issue the show ignores. The vid names this disturbing lack of consent for what it is – rape. This calling out of the show’s narrative is an important step in countering the current rape culture and its place in our culture of violence.
Here is the original vid post on dreamwidth where you can get a hi-res version.
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For more on these issues and “Dollhouse” check out this post on The Angry Black Woman “The problem with Dollhouse is not that I don’t understand subtlety” and this one on Feminist SF “Working in the Dollhouse” as well as Gianduja Kiss’s insightful posts on the topic.
In closing we would like to echo a recent tweet on the Feminist Frequency blog about “Dollhouse” that links to Joss Whedon’s inspiring 2006 Equality Now speech and reads:
Dear Joss, you should rewatch this video because I think you may have forgotten your principles, you might learn something from yourself. Love, Anita http://bit.ly/lBvP3
Category: vidding
While I appreciate where your coming from with this post, I have to say I think you really missed the mark here. The whole issue of rape and consent is one of the major themes of the show. You’re accusing the show of ignoring something that it is quite clearly exploring, and not just in the subtext. I recall an episode where one of the “dolls” is actually raped by one of the “handlers.” And there’s also an episode that features a troubled youth who’s struggling to cope with abuse she’s suffered as a child. Another is about a rich businessman who’s also a psychotic sexual predator… I mean, I could go on. The whole premise of the show is that the people in the dollhouse are being used and abused by the extremely wealthy and the extremely powerful. There are many threads of discussion that could be drawn out of this. The only thing troubling about it is in the fact that these are, in themselves troubling issues. Again, I see where you’re coming from, I think you’ve missed the point entirely. If anything the show should be commended for dealing with the idea of “rape culture” in the same way that you’re commending this video! And on a Fox TV channel to boot!