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Joss Whedon identified as a feminist creates his female characters with inspiration from his mother. His passion of portraying the rights of woman to have equal opportunities and characteristics to those possessed by men is strongly represented throughout ‘Serenity.’

“Equality is not a concept. It’s not something we should be striving for. It’s a necessity. Equality is like gravity, 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 the imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who’s confronted with it. We need equality, kinda now.” Whedon thrives and whole-heartedly supports equality. He writes his female characters with power, passion, sexiness, coolness, funniness and dominance in order to maintain equality throughout his characters, no man is stronger, they are equal. Whedon is very strategic about emphasising woman power and equality. He creates strong female characters and is careful to surround them with men of similar strength who not only have no problem with the idea of a female leader, but, are in fact, engaged and even attracted to the idea. This approach emphasised the power of the woman and also that woman of higher dominance and masculinity are still as sexy and attractive.

The movie ‘Serenity’ follows the story of Mal a soldier fighting a galactic civil war alongside his ships crew; Zoe, Wash, Jayne and Kaylee, however their survival is threatened by two of the most redoubtable enemies; the Universal Alliance and the horrific, cannibalistic Reavers (savages who roam the edges of space.) On top of fighting the war, further complicating matters for Mal’s success include an additional two passengers to his ship, Simon and his telepathic sister River and a beautiful courtesan Inara a women who alternately inspires and infuriates him. However these obstacles he must endure to ensure his survival, his crew member’s survival, Simon and River’s survival, Inara’s survival and the survival of mankind.

Serenity represents the structure in which Joss Whedon creates his female characters; resilient, indestructible, intrepid and intellectual. In spite of psychological trauma, River is still vastly represented as intelligent, physically strong and alert. Rivers strength and agility is first demonstrated when Simon frees her from the government society as she manages to remain tranquil whilst being strapped helplessly to a chair. We get an insight to River’s hyper intelligence and her power after she tells Simon “they know you’re here.” The mise-en-scene ties in well, as the lighting and background music is very veiled and intense, the camera shots are edited at fast pace, emphasising the tension and the risk of being caught.

“All of our subjects are conditioned for combat but River… she’s a creature of extraordinary grace.” The Bar scene in which River fights undeniably highlights her dominance, sovereignty and malleability and her extraordinary power as she defeats a roomful of people. As River watches the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial, the colour, lighting and sound effects of the scene change dramatically. There is a suspenseful reverb hum in the background, creating an imagery of danger, fear and confusion. Rivers facial expressions whilst watching the commercial emphasises she is confused yet intrigued as behind a cartoon lady with octopuses emerging from her breasts hides a subliminal message that triggers her to fight. By not showing the audience what River can see, Whedon has created suspense as we want to know why she is so mesmerized by the commercial. In lead up to the fight all imagery in the background becomes de-saturated as the focus pours onto River. The build up to the fight is slow and concentrated. Whedon cuts to a close-up of River’s back, which then cuts to a close-up of her feet as her robe drops to the floor. The slow editing here, amplifies the impact of the tightly edited fight scene as it contrasts her innocence at the beginning to her immense physical strength during the fight. The beginning of the fight is entirely in slow motion creating trepidation and intensity, there is diminutive sound except for the accentuated diegetic punches and kicks. A few seconds into the fight a kick in the head of a parton by River is emphasised as the footage returns to its normal speed and other diegetic sounds-particularly screams and painful moans of the patrons- returns, conveying River’s bodily strength. The lighting in this scene is minimal and still, to highlight the contrast of the rooms purity to River’s indignation. Whedon concedes “Amazing kick-ass adolescent heroines seem to be a disease of mine.”

Whedon created Zoe as a confident, powerful, resilient, and a highly determinate character. Before the heist, Whedon uses a mid-shot of Zoe and Mal entering together side by side, he cuts to yet another mid-shot of Zoe and Mal in the bank standing side by side, portraying equality between the female character and the male character. Whedon then cuts to an audience view through the security camera looking down on Zoe, in which she shoots and kills the image. Further into the scene whilst River slowly and graciously walks around, scanning the room, we see a shot of Zoe standing tall, gun raised in hand, in which her back is sunlight by a gap in the roof, creating an imposing and powerful silhouette of her. She is also represented as dominant as she stands looking down on her oppositions. River’s hyper intelligence is represented as the camera pans and moves throughout the civilians, Whedon then cuts to a shot of River pointing with intent to one of the men. Whedon then cuts to an extreme-close-up of the man drawing his gun, which is then interrupted by Zoe loading her gun next to his head. “Do you know what the definition of a hero is? Someone who gets someone else killed.” A dutch tilt shows Zoe standing over the man, gun pointing to his head, representing Zoe as chiefly strong and dominant. The man, threatened and defeated, throws his gun away.
When the Reavers arrive, the crew run back to their mule. This scene is tightly and quickly edited to portray intensity and desperation. “They want us alive when they eat us.” Whedon cuts to a shot of Zoe confidently climbing into the pilot’s seat, then to an extreme-close-up of the handbrake being released as they make their escape. The mise-en-scene throughout this scene changes dramatically with the action and dialogue, engaging the audience to the determination and passion of the characters.

Whedon very carefully constructs his female characters to appear dominant, strong, resilient and determined. He not only constructs his female characters to be powerful but he also uses camera angles, camera shots, lighting, dialogue and height levels to emphasise their power. His determination to open the public’s eyes with the need for equality is vastly represented throughout Serenity as both River and Zoe in many scenes’ overpower the men. “His ability to relate to female characters is instinctive.”