The Devolution of Joss Whedon
Joss Whedon used to be able to write powerful female characters. This is true. He brought us Buffy and Faith and Willow and Anya and Zoe and Inara. But if you examine them, he fell into some pretty common and dangerous subtle misogynistic tropes.
Buffy, who could never just be Buffy. She could never be alone, standing confident in her power. She needed a man to complete her.
Faith was always under the thumb of powerful men, and found her power in her sex, which is fine, but it was the only power Whedon ever really let her have.
Willow's power was actually her greatest weakness. He had to take a character that was powerful in her femininity and in her own right and cripple her, because he can't handle powerful women. He made her weak.
Anya, who literally could not make her way in this newfangled world without a man. She had to make herself small to be with Xander and stay at his side because Xander couldn't stand the idea of loving someone who was bigger than him because he'd spent so long in the shadow of Buffy and Willow and other powerful women.
Zoe, who was his most powerful female character, without a doubt, and yet what did he do? he made her helplessly and hopelessly devoted to a man. Sure, it wasn't a romantic thing, but she craved and needed Mal's approval. Desperately.
Inara. We get to see Whedon's true feelings about Inara, who truly did claim her power through her sexuality successfully, through the lens of Mal. Mal calls her a whore, belittles her finding of her own power, her own way. And, if you listen to things they had planned for the future of Firefly and considered at other times, he planned on having Inara save everyone with a poison AFTER being brutalized by Roavers. So he wanted to give her agency through rape. Typical.
We see these misogynistic views come into light even more as he progressed in his writing. Dollhouse was the ultimate expression of it, and if it weren't for the powerful women working on Agents of Shield I dare say we'd see it there, too.
