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Wax Banks: Is Joss Whedon feminist enough?

Fred's 'pregnancy' is an infection, a transformation of her body, and the episode in which she dies is closer to Outbreak than Rosemary's Baby in plot and temperament. But the tale's body-angst and the helplessness of the men around her (who acquit themselves magnificently trying to save her) as she suffers alone with her beloved are linked, I think, to a generalized association of pregnancy (and the deadly, grotesque miracle of birth) with monstrosity in Whedon's work. Remember Ripley's gleeful words in Alien: Resurrection - 'There's a monster in your stomach. [...] In a few hours it will punch its way through your chest and you'll die. Any questions?' Stricken, the villain asks: 'Who are you?' 'I'm the monster's mother.' Not for nothing is the pregnancy that kills Cordelia her second such affliction.

A feminist analysis of Joss Whedon's various film and television work, with a particular focus on Angel as the male-centric counterpart to Buffy's superwomen. Found via Kalinara's Second Carnival of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans.