Malcolm Reynolds in the television show
Firefly depicts masculinity as a man who does what is necessary to
survive, but lives by a set of morals that he refuses to break no
matter the consequences. The show Firefly is basically a western
located in outer space, and the characters are fugitives that are
hired by various people to do illegal jobs for them. The reason
Malcolm has chosen this way of life is because he was apart of the
outer planets who were forced to fall under the rule of the inner
planets called the Alliance. Rather than side with the people who he
had fought against in the war he decides to become an outlaw. This is
a pretty simplified explanation of the show but there it is.
In the beginning of the episode you
see Malcolm and his crew being hired by a man named Niska, a very
unpleasant man with a clear love of torture. Niska hires Malcolm to
steal a supply of medicine on an Alliance train, and with Malcolm's
history with the Alliance he has no issue with this. The plan runs
into a problem in the middle of the heist however, Malcolm and his
partner Zoe Washbern are left on the train and they have to try and
not get caught. During a conversation with the sheriff of the town
they come to find out that the medicine that they stole was for the
members of the town. Because the planet had been terraformed to make
it possible for human to live on there was as side effect, the
planet's ore that is being mined when mixed with oxygen releases a
gas which causes degeneration of bones and muscle.
After Malcolm and Zoe are rescued by a
fellow crew member he decides that he is going to return the medicine
to the people, even though he knows this is essentially signing his
death warrant. If you want to see what I mean as well as become a
member of the cult classic Firefly here is a link to watch the
episode.
I agree that a huge part of the masculinity persona is the idea that doing whatever it takes to survive. Based on your article, you looked at this article with a positive spin, but in the show the walking dead you see numerous case of when surviving takes a higher priority than displaying humanity. In the movie Contagion, grocery stores were raided, and home were broken into and people killed for the sake of protecting their own families. But I think we need to strike a balance between the two in society. If we could then maybe when faced with natural disasters we might not hear about things like these, and hear about people being heroes like Malcolm from Firefly.
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