Bravo! I loved reading this - you write so beautifully, and with such erudition. I've seen so many moaning essays about how Joss is a terrible feminist that it's a joy to read an argument that looks at how the tradition of subversion is upheld throughout all his "girl's stories". And I can't believe I'd never yet come across the idea that "sex is bad for women" has biological experience behind it - this is a bit of a paradigm shift for me, because it's so obviously true (most of the time I don't hold much truck with evolutionary psychology, but this argument has a force that's completely undeiable. I can't believe I never made the connection ::whacks forehead with shovel::).