MovieChat Forums > Killjoys (2015) Discussion > Are The Nine Matriarchal?

Are The Nine Matriarchal?

posted 9 years ago by raina_sadiablo
5 replies | jump to latest

One thing I noticed in the season finale is that, when Seyah Kendry was pointing out the various members of The Nine to John and Dutch is that all of the people she was pointing to were women. There were men in the background of that scene (and other scenes on Qresh), but the people that were singled out as being important (I'm assuming that they're the heads of their families) were all women.

So of the Nine families, known members are:

Kendry: Seyah Kendry seems to be their representative and/or head of her family.
Simms: Pawter's mother was pointed out by Kendry, and Pawter herself asked John to speak to her mother, not her father.
Hyponia(?): a woman and man wearing matching sashes were standing together, but Kendry pointed out the woman.
Derrish(?): two women standing together were pointed out by Kendry.

So I wonder if The Nine families are matriarchal. Or it's possible that they have true gender equality, and we've only been introduced to the families that either have more female members, or happen to have a woman as the head of the family.

[–] cosmic_surveyor 9 years ago

If it is a matriarchal society, it is complicated by harems, in vitro fertilizations, surrogacies and lines of successions. Wasn't the baby birthed on Lucy male?

And the sampling size is too small to suggest gender equality exists in this TV universe. Doctors (two females), Level 5 Killjoys (one female), RAC administrator (one female), outlaw bosses (one female). Everyone else outside of the Nine in charge or with authority is male.

___________

Est modus in rebus sunt certi denique fines quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum Goldilocks

[–] chrisjozo 9 years ago

Dutch, like the guys, isn't from Quresh. Her planet may be more Patriarchal than this one. We don't know what type of rule goes on in the guys' homeworld either.

Also the in vitro/surrogacy was expressly stated as a way of protecting the women in the nine families. They no longer have to go through the risks associated with child birth themselves.

Shawn: I solve a case every week and usually one around Christmas

[–] raina_sadiablo 9 years ago

Also the in vitro/surrogacy was expressly stated as a way of protecting the women in the nine families. They no longer have to go through the risks associated with child birth themselves.

That's what initially got me wondering whether The Nine are matriarchal. In our modern world, pregnancy isn't considered a huge risk for middle-class women with access to modern medicine. Assuming that the Killjoys universe has more advanced medicine than we do (i.e. laser scapels, nanobots), we can assume that The Nine have access to even more advanced medicine than we do. Therefore, the risk to the mother is probably minuscule.

I also noticed that we have never had a male member of The Nine named. We know that "Seyah" is the title used for women, but we have no idea what the equivalent title for men is.

Though I've also been thinking about how Dutch alluded to there being rumours of The Nine being inbred and having fertility issues. Given that Land Lehani was reduced to one sole living heir, I wonder whether she might have been correct and that they came up with the story about why they use surrogates to cover for the fact that they actually do have serious fertility issues. So the alternative interpretation is that The Nine either have complete gender equality, or they're actually patriarchal, and some families are ruled by women due to lack of male heirs (like how the British Monarch is patriarchal, but has had a few Queens due to lack of male heirs).

[–] There_Is_No_Sayid 9 years ago

Dutch isn't from the Quad and so the harem she grew up in isn't necessarily representative of Qresh.

[–] thenmadewild 9 years ago

This is what makes the scope of this universe so great- we know Dutch is from somewhere else, but it could literally be anywhere. The possibilities for what society she came from and how she may eventually be involved in politics related to that are endless. Delle Sayah seems to think she could be useful to her one day...

As for the Nine being matriarchal, I find it very interesting that this seems to be the direction they are taking. This show has given us a decent amount of interesting female characters, I can't wait to meet more of the Nine as well, hopefully we'll get that.