Movies - Buffy the Vampire Slayer and social issues

Home > Listing Index > Movies > Buffy the Vampire Slayer and social issues

	Movies - Buffy the Vampire Slayer and social issues

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
has dealt with a number of social issues, including gender expectations, homosexuality and class, and has received a great deal of attention from television critics for its unusual approaches in discussing them. As described in the main article, Buffy often, though not always, approaches contemporary issues through a veil of metaphor. Even when the writers have eschewed metaphor and dealt more directly with contemporary issues, the series has generally integrated its commentary with multi-episode plot arcs; the series creator, Joss Whedon, is on record as saying that "there will never be a Very Special Episode of Buffy" .

Buffy and gender

Buffy has often been referred to as an explicitly feminist show by both its creators and critics. There is disagreement, however, on the nature of feminism in Buffy; some critics refer to the show as post-feminist , while others consider the "feminist" label for Buffy problematic .

In general, arguments for Buffy as a feminist show focus on the central conceit: as the possessor of an essential power, Buffy progresses from a light-headed, shallow teen, an instance of the American cheerleader stereotype, to a strong independent woman. As Whedon and others have often noted, the essential idea behind Buffy was to reverse the horror movie convention of the powerless woman.

As critics have noted, however, feminist themes in Buffy extend much further than this; an extensive bibliography of feminist interpretations of the show exists on the web . This section endeavors to treat some of the major themes in this form of criticism.

Despite her burden of duty as the "Slayer", Buffy is not depersonalized by her mission, and maintains — with some struggle — gendered essentials of her personality. Her depiction challenges a more typical portrayal of the driven woman — most famously, Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth — who must abandon "female" character traits in order to take on a more masculine, active role. The show's play on conventional gender expectations extends beyond the central character. The show consistently offers alternatives to established depictions of characters of each gender in other central characters, including Xander, Willow and Spike .

That Xander's two closest friends throughout the show, Willow and Buffy, are female, challenges both the normative expectation of homosocial socialization and the assumption of masculine leadership: Xander is — mostly — comfortable with taking the female figures within the group as superior in skill and power, and the show depicts his occasional attempts to assert priority as a source of humor .

Buffy's older, British Watcher Giles functions in many ways as a stand in for patriarchal authority. However, while beginning as a male figure of knowledge and power, Giles is gradually (and willingly) rendered redundant as a regulator of the group's activities . The Watcher's Council undergoes a similar evolution of role. Despite remaining an emotional focus of the gang, and playing a role as the only proper father-figure for Buffy, Xander and Willow, Giles is left, for the most part, in a passive position as his apprentice becomes a warrior and eventually a leader in her own right.

In general, the treatment of gender expectations on Buffy is lighthearted, but as the show progresses, feminist themes become more explicit. While many villains consider Buffy's sex an affront to their own power, two of the major villains that Buffy must confront in the final two seasons — Caleb and Warren — are essentially driven by misogyny, and have disturbing histories of sexual violence.

The most explicit reference to feminist principles appears in the final shows of the final season, especially in the last episode, Chosen. There, the plot to defeat the "First Evil" involves breaking an ancient contract, negotiated by male authority, to restrict the Slayer's powers to a single woman. In a speech to the "potentials" — young girls who will receive this power once the contract is broken — Buffy says:

"Every girl who could have the power... will have the power... can stand up, will stand up. Slayers... every one of us. Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?"

Buffy and homosexuality

Whedon has noted that it was always his desire to have a gay character on the show. As Buffy's main premise involved characters who were stereotyped as weak becoming strong and powerful, it is rumored that he initially planned to have a gay male character. Whedon himself has stated that he decided early on that he would make either Willow or Xander gay, and, while showing both engaging in heterosexual relationships, sprinkled the occasional innuendo of homosexuality into both of their characters (for example, the Xander-Larry mix-up about Xander's sexuality).

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and social issues ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Buffy the Vampire Slayer and social issues; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay