Our Mrs. Reynolds/ Naked

Both the article “But She Was Naked” and the episode “Our Mrs. Reynolds” have proven one theory assumed throughout the history of man: men can never think clearly when there’s a beautiful and/or naked lady in front of them. It doesn’t matter who the man is, he will always succumb to the temptation of a woman. Put a naked woman in front of Shepard Book and he’ll go probably go to the special hell, or heaven, depending on who you ask. In all seriousness, a man’s mind fogs up so much once sex enters it that he can’t think clearly or make rational decisions anymore, making “separating artifice [trickery] and sincerity virtually impossible.” Saffron is a skilled siren, along with Inara, who uses this fault to her advantage: stealing a ship from the crew. She, like Inara, is skilled at what she does, but uses it in a negative way, to harm instead of to help.

Sometimes men can be so drawn in that just the words of the siren can mean confusion and disarray. In the case of the Magistrate hiring Inara to fix his son’s “problem,” Inara understood quickly that the Magistrate had too much power over his son, so she spoke up and left the seemingly confident man speechless. This scene made the boy a man, but not in the way that the father had intended.

This flaw doesn’t always have to include men. Sometimes, women can be drawn in by the siren’s music and become victims themselves. “One cannot always be themselves in the company of men,” Inara claims to a female companion of hers. She states it in a way that may suggest that she is just as capable of having a fogged mind like men are. However, the audience sees it as a meticulously placed move in her way of life.

If there’s one thing to pick up from this article, it is that companions are not only well trained in act of “love,” they are also well versed in the spoken act of seduction. They are women that can not only lure a man in by their looks, but also by her words, whether they’re true or not. Men, by nature, assume that they are cast in the role of “most dominant human” and to think of anything else is blasphemy. When the tables turn and it is revealed that it is the woman that actually has the upper hand, there’s no time before the woman takes advantage of the man and reveals her true motive: deceit.