Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Whedonverse Cosplays Feminism
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Whedonverse Cosplays Feminism
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is synonymous with feminism since its inception. Joss Whedon, the writer and director of the show, has 'lauded himself as a champion of women's empowerment' (Estok, 2021) in all that time until 2021 when Ray Fisher came forward and called him out for his behavior on movie sets all the while years before when his wife said very similar things, no one did anything about him or believed her. Then Charisma came forward, and others followed, and finally, decades after it happened, he was stripped of his power positions that allowed him to abuse and terrorize people.
There are times when you can separate a creator from the creation, and there are even aspects of Buffy that still hold an essential role in the historical zeitgeist of strong women in television, specifically during the 90s and early 2000s, with the 'girl power' idea of feminism. However, when you consider how he went about 'womens empowerment', you see the chinks in the mask. If you have deconstructed from the patriarchy a bit.
Buffy is, in many ways, another example of "not like other girls," only this time she is feminine and physically strong. That's what Whedon saw as a 'strong female protagonist,' and at the time, that was an acceptable character creation. She is surrounded by men who want or love her, which I have theorized is a tactic in media to make us, as viewers, take a female protagonist seriously and to give them value as a character. Not to mention, it makes it more likely for fan favorites to still be men.
Then there are girls around Buffy who are representations of cliches; Willow, the nerdy girl who is supposedly not good-looking, but it's Alyson Hannigan, or Cordelia, the 'Queen Bee/Mean Girl' who isn't smart. Much like the "final girl" trope in horror movies, this is another example of sexism.
The show tackled a lot of heavy topics like bullying, school shootings, sexual assault, and suicide, which is another reason it is highly regarded, but that is invalidated in a lot of ways because of the insidious nature of misogyny and the violence against women in the show.
Xander, one of Buffy's besties, wants to date her and has been relegated to the 'Nice Guy' position, according to him. He has whole storylines dedicated to being put into a position to rape Buffy then 'doesn't do it because he's a good guy' or whining because she doesn't like him back. His treatment of Willow is even worse because she likes him, and he doesn't want her back. Xander is a consistent stream of misogyny, even though his supposedly two best friends are girls.
Buffy has preternatural stregnth, speed and healing abilitiies so the violence perpetrated against her feels like something that shouldn't be a big deal because she's a warrior and they are on 'equal footing' but this is not only incorrect but its actually why I call out Whedon's worldbuilding as well as how the characters interact with the world he put them in.
I haven't counted yet, but the show constantly pits Buffy against male villains, and this is purposeful, suggesting that it's okay, even normal, for men to hit a petite woman who appears to be unable to fight back. It normalizes it even more because Buffy fights back.
Then there are the storylines where she is blamed for being strong because she isn't woman enough. Some of her boyfriends don't feel 'manly' because she can beat them up. Xander gets mad at her because she doesn't let him get pummeled by a bully. She is later put in a position where she sleeps with two different characters who have beaten her up, and it's portrayed almost as foreplay, especially in the Spike storyline.
And this isn't even taking into account the many storylines about DV, rape and more where the men who do those things are 'not human' so it echoes the invalidiation of 'not all men'.
I will likely write about each episode through this lens sometime in the future, but for now, let's consider why this isn't just a one-time thing —it's a pattern.
Whedon's worldbuilding has normalized male characters hitting female characters in at least three shows.
The other shows I have as evidence are Firefly, with its movie follow-up, "Serenity," and Dollhouse.
Firefly actually aired before Buffy, and this time he has a very young girl with no preternatural strength getting into fisticuffs with characters, frequently male. And somehow, no one has a problem with it because she is a "strong female character." Also the other women in the show line up nicely into the cliches of women, with one thing that makes them seem more interesting. Zoe is the masculine woman, who is Captain Malcom Reynolds' second in command, and she's married to the pilot. I would say Zoe is actually the 'Buffy' iteration in this show, the 'not like other girls' and being 'one of the guys' while having value as a woman because she was married. Inara is a sex worker, and Mal wants to bang her so they have the 'will they, won't they' trope and he constantly screwed her over to keep her from making her money, having the audacity to say when she should or shouldn't do the job she had to make money and be independent. Then there is Kaylee who is the feminine mechanic. All these characters seem to be filled out because there is a subversion of the cliche, but they aren't much more than that.
The girl, River, who ends up fighting and being hit by men, is a sleeper agent who has been mentally damaged by men and turned into a weapon who then had to be saved by her brother, and then they both were taken in by another man: Captain Reynolds. Once again, there is the aspect of men taking away a woman's agency for the sake of what they want. Then, when that thing includes her getting into battles, it's only compelling as 'feminist content' instead of problematic.
Finally, the premise of Dollhouse is there is a massive underground corporation of people who are stripped of their identities for the sake of turning them into better hookers (there are both men and women slaves, for 'equality sake'). And then they are rented by wealthy individuals.
Echo is the main character who begins to emerge as a person in her 'doll' state, essentially. She is consistently put into positions where she is getting hit by men, whether she is fighting them, 'dating them', or around them. She has no superior strength; often, her 'character builds' doesn't even have combat training. She is coveted by three different men for various gross reasons. And in the end, she, much like Buffy, is a 'Chosen One' where her sacrifice is for the good of the world.
Much like Buffy, Dollhouse explored intense topics during its two-season run, but the way it approached them ultimately feels like a precursor to the Red Pill narrative.
This show solidified the issue with Whedon, which then resonated with my feelings about Buffy and Firefly.
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