A beautiful, petite, brunette young woman runs down the hall of an office building. She is chasing after a tall, African American young man who throws garbage cans behind him to stop the woman from catching up to him. They are both disheveled as they run outside. The woman jumps on top of him, pinning him down, and it is clear he cannot get out of her grasp. And she does all of this in a skirt that does not cover her butt, tights and six inch heels. Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse episode “Echoes” from season two could at first seem to serve as an example of the show’s sexist themes, but it could actually serve as an example of the shows feminist message of women’s strength when examined more deeply. While some may argue Dollhouse condoned sexually exploiting women, evidence from the show itself proves it was written by Whedon to advance his feminist agenda.
Dollhouse shows a world where the concept of consensual slavery has been embraced. The underground Dollhouse corporation ( the show specifically focuses on the Los Angeles branch) rents out people who are under contracts, or dolls, to rich clients. Adelle DeWitt, director of the Los Angeles branch, is shown as the one who recruits potential dolls. Most of the dolls, also referred to as actives, appear to have been recruited willingly into the program, as shown in flashbacks to their recruitment. People are recruited into the Dollhouse for different reasons. The main character Echo, whose real identity is Caroline, agrees to be a doll in exchange for not going to jail for bombing a building being used to experiment on animals. As a doll, their personalities and memories are temporarily erased, they are given code names and they are imprinted through a brain scan with new personality’s which clients request for temporary assignments. Their assignments range from being midwives, bodyguards, dates and lovers. During their time at the Dollhouse, they have no free will and they only do what their new personality was designed to do. After five years of being a doll, of which they will remember nothing, they will be released, be given back their original memories and be given substantial sums of money. Most of the employees of the Dollhouse see no moral ambiguity of this consensual slavery, although it becomes clear the dolls did not know the full details of what they would be used for when they signed their contracts.
Dollhouse examines the difference of sexualization of men and women in our society. There are major differences in males and females sexual assignments. Male dolls are occasionally shown being sent for sexual assignments, but they are more commonly seen in clothing, like military uniforms, that lets the audience know they are used for a physical task. Victor is the one male doll specifically shown going on a sexual assignment. It is revealed the client using him is actually Adelle DeWitt. While Adelle does use Victor as “Roger” for sexual needs, she also uses him because she is in need of basic companionship. “Roger” is not someone for Adelle to control but someone to love and comfort her. Whedon is reiterating how our society treats men not as sexual objects, but more as sources of strength who can serve as emotional support.
In Dollhouse, female dolls are usually used for sex because men only see women as sexual objects. Although female dolls are chosen for more than sex occasionally, male’s obsession with sex is often what drives men to use dolls. In the chapter "Love and Sex in Dollhouse” of her book Power and Control in the Television Worlds of Joss Whedon, Dr. Sherry Ginn, PhD in General-Experimental Psychology from the University of South Carolina, claims the show supports the idea males are more obsessed with sex in our society. She argues “given the majority of the active’s clients are male, it seems that evolutionary psychology’s predictions that men want to have sex with as many women as possible is supported by their actions with these people.” The male clients only ask what the dolls will do sexually without much concern for what the doll wants as a person. Even Adelle appears, by her body language when talking with the male clients, to be disgusted by how the men talk about the dolls. If she, the person running the program, is questioning the character of the clients, the audience is made to feel they should feel an even stronger concern. As a feminist, Whedon is telling the audience men are not respecting women if they just see them as sexual objects.
In Dollhouse, male clients choose their female dolls to have personalities they can have power over. A male professor hires Echo to be imprinted to be an unintelligent student because he can not get any of his actual students to have a sex with him. Whedon writes this man’s character in a way that shows he gets pleasure from being smarter than the student, like when he laughs at her inability to understand old English. Whedon is arguing men are not looking for someone to talk to or have a relationship with because women are just for sex. Whedon’s message of sexualizing woman is an essential part of feminism. In her book Feminism is for Everybody, Bell Hooks claims feminism is about ending sexism, oppression and sexual exploitation. She argues a definition like this “makes it clear the problem is sexism. And that clarity helps us remember that all of us, female and male, have been socialized from birth on to accept sexist thought and action.” Our society accepts sexism, so men think it is acceptable to treat women like they are just for sex. Whedon writes these male characters to show the audience the negative way men see women that, as a feminist, he is not going to accept or glorify.
Female dolls are highly sexualized by their clothing in Dollhouse because that is what the male clients want their dolls to look like. Echo is often dressed in what can barely be called a skirt, yet she is still able to defend herself when put in dangerous situations. Whedon is taking a stereotypical idea of women and arguing as a feminist that even if our culture sexualizes women and dresses them in such a way that makes their bodies the main focus, this does not actually diminish who they are. Echo is still a person with thoughts somewhere deep inside of her, and male’s obsessions about her body do not make those thoughts go away. Whedon is presenting the idea that as much as men can oppress women, they can never fully take away women’s power. Whedon claims Dollhouse is “the story of strength told from the point of view the weakest a person can be.” Echo, and the rest of the female dolls, is in the most vulnerable state a person could possibly be in. Yet, Echo fights through it because strength is always within her, no matter how oppressed she is. The Dollhouse tries to sexualize Echo to an extreme to take her strength and independence, but this is not an ideal that is condoned by Whedon.
Dollhouse shows a world where women’s sexual consent is not always needed. As the moral compass of the show, Ballard, Echo’s handler on assignments and former FBI agent, strongly voices his disapproval of the Dollhouse. When Adelle tries to reason with him the dolls have chosen their present situations, he tells her no one can chose to give up their rights. In the chapter “Companions, Dolls and Whores” of the book The Philosophy of Joss Whedon, Dr. Tait Szabo, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at The University of Wisconsin–Washington County, argues Whedon is making strong arguments against the dolls treatments. Szabo argues Whedon is telling the audience “Even if, in some case, Caroline voluntarily became an active, her subsequent choices as Echo are not voluntary. Any sexual activity she engages in is non consensual.” Whedon is arguing that if they do not have a choice in their sexual activities, this is exploiting women. It does not matter what justifications Adelle can come up with, or justifications our society comes up with. If female dolls have no choice to say no, they are being exploited. Whedon is saying while our society tries to justify exploitation of women, it is not acceptable to treat women in such a way.
Dollhouse demonstrates a clearly patriarchal society. Although the head of the Los Angeles branch is a woman, no other female administrators are shown. Male administrators come to Adelle’s office to question the way she is running her Dollhouse. But Adelle being surrounded by men does not make her powerless; after all it is under her leadership that the Dollhouse corporation is overthrown. The men that surround her are never able to really tell her what to do. Even when the Dollhouse demotes her to a regular employee, she outsmarts the men to get her job back. Dr. Misty K. Hook argues in the chapter "Dealing With the F-Word” from the book The Psychology of Joss Whedon: An Unauthorized Exploration of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly, by “creating such powerful women characters who make no apology for their strength, Joss is signifying his acceptance and support of such women.” Whedon writing strong female characters is essential to a feminist piece of writing. Feminism acts to change socially constructed ideas of gender roles and Whedon is challenging the stereotype women cannot have power over men. Whedon is reminding the audience women can have any role in the world they want, no matter the limitations society attempts to put on them.
In Dollhouse, Whedon uses themes that at first seem to be sexist in order to challenge stereotypical ideas of women. The Dollhouse treats women like they are not real people, but they fight through it. Whedon argues equality is so vital “we need it to stand on this earth as men and women, and the misogyny that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition. It is life out of balance and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who is confronted with it.” Whedon is arguing how important it is for our society to start seeing men and women as equals. Women are not toys to be played with. Women are strong, powerful, independent women who should be treated in a way which reflects this.
