(25) Quote integration 2

                There are two approaches for feminism in media: promote women empowerment by showing how women are ideally supposed to be seen and treated, or raise awareness and stimulate reactions from people by showing real situations that women face, and how wrong they are. Whedon’s Dollhouse can be seen as an example of the second approach; a different kind of response to patriarchy and oppression in modern day society. Given, this might not be interpreted by viewers the same way as Whedon may have intended, but this is to be expected as everyone interprets things differently. One blogger shared her understanding of his show and wrote,

“Getting smarter about oppression, I would submit to you, requires making the visible manifestations of it or metaphors for it much, much uglier.
The answer to whether Joss Whedon and his showrunners know how rape-culturey the entire Dollhouse concept is would seem to be, at this point, a big huge Yes. The Dollhouse is a giant metaphor, not only for rape culture, but for patriarchy and oppression at large”  (Tiger Beatdown, 2009)

By showing exaggerated symbolisms of anti-feminist concepts and situations, Whedon has managed to create a metaphor for that type of culture, which definitely catches the attention of viewers and has successfully drawn responses from them. The fact that the audience has noticed and reacted to the kind of horrific situations that Whedon has placed his female characters in, means that they understand that this is wrong and that women are not supposed to be treated like that.

http://tigerbeatdown.blogspot.com/2009/04/dollhouse-joss-whedon-and-strange-and.html