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Date Posted: 07:36:16 12/21/02 Sat
Author: Darby
Subject: Companions & Society (vague spoilers)

Okay, let me see if I'm starting to get this...

A Companion on board will get you into ports that wouldn't let you in otherwise. They can waltz into a sheriff's office and throw weight around. They have status at important social events.

Someone compared them to courtesans of past eras (for an interesting take on that, rent Dangerous Beauty), and that is probably in the neighborhood of what's going on here. But whereas courtesans commanded some measure of respect and power from their integration into society's highest levels (they knew things and people, knew how the local pecking order worked, and that made them dangerous to mess with), I would suspect that something different is going on there.

Companions provide a regulated service to the very rich, at a high price, and are treated with deference but often not respect. Why? First, why a space-borne prostitute brigade? The only reason that makes sense is sexually-transmitted disease, something longterm but extremely dangerous (think AIDS, but I'd be unwilling to think AIDS still untreatable a couple of centuries from now), something the locals might have that would keep them "safe" from sexual predation from the rich. The affluent would have access to tests if not treatment, but sexual mores among peers would be fairly careful and repressive (one can make a strong case that Victorian sexual repression can be connected to the syphilis spidemic, and similar periods of repression can be linked to similar outbreaks). So to whom do the uninitiated, the repulsive, and the particularly guarded turn?

My guess is that the Companion system originated during the later colonization period to provide safe services to those who could pay for them. If you're running a port, if you're a local official, you don't interfere with Companions because you can never tell whose wrath it might pull down on you. I can even imagine a situation where the Companion Guilds were used as negotiators during the war (but not for espionage - their confidentiality and other provisions could have prevented that - which would have made them trustworthy go-betweens and have kept their position in both societies secure), which might explain the nickname "Ambassador." I also suspect some personal backstory from the war has colored Mal's attitudes toward them.

This all would explain why there is a very different level of respect for Companions from different people. I've had problems with the amount of vitriol some "lower-caste" people have had with Inara, and the way some of her clients have treated her, but this could be a situation where whores have gained a sort of position with some, but overall they're still seen as whores. It still doesn't explain the implied self-loathing necessary for Inara to put up with Mal's attitude (yeah, yeah, she loooovvvves him, but how'd that come about when he treats her like trash?), but it maybe pulls some of the disparate things we've seen together.

- Darby, who has probably thought way too long on this...

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