A couple of years ago I watched Buffy The Vampire Slayer for the first time, got hooked, then watched series 3-7 pretty much back to back. It didn’t immediately occur to me why it was probably one of the best pieces of Art I have ever witnessed because these things rarely do – you get lost in the story and, if you’re like me (the annoying person who wants to talk about films straight after you’ve seen them), you think and talk about the specifics afterwards. Obviously with a series you can talk about each episode afterwards, and one of the main advantages of this is that even when one episode isn’t as good as the previous or the one following it, each of them goes towards building this incredible fantasy world that seems real enough to be recogniseable to you. In Buffy, the town of Sunnydale, where demons and vampires and all sorts of nasties come out and gather around an ancient and mythical hell mouth, and where one girl, Buffy, is the girl chosen from her generation to kill them off, that world is finally destroyed by it’s creator (Joss Wheedon). With it he kills not only the whole idea of a town with demons and slayers, the original comic book style hero/ heroine story, but in the final episode turns it on it’s head with Buffy getting her witch friend Willow to channel the power and energy sourced in an ancient scythe to give every potential slayer the power that Buffy has, to share it, and remove Buffy as the only Heroine of the story. Buffy, in my circle (white, British, university educated, middle-class), was criticised for it’s ‘pop culture’ references, it’s ‘obnoxious’ and ‘obvious’ and ‘out of date’ references to and understanding of cultural and contemporary theory, and it’s stance on or depiction of (strong) women in the late 20th century. The general view seemed to be that it was unnecessary to be aware of and speak about what you know about what you’re doing/ making/ saying – that is, to have a writer say ‘Hey, I know this stuff, so I’m going to get it out of the way now, so we can get on with the story. Ok?’. As an aside, I think another of the reasons this happens is a general view, especially where I came from, and especially when I was growing up, that anything that is too popular must be tainted somehow, especially if it’s American, which is of course NONSENSE. All hail capitalism *bows*. I appreciated the various references to pop cult/ theory etc etc in Buffy because it made me feel more involved in the story, it made me enjoy the intelligence of the author but also, and most importantly, it didn’t matter a whit if I didn’t get it, because that wasn’t the point. What mattered was the story and that the information was shared, not hidden, or stowed away for only a professor and their pupils to contemplate. I haven’t ever seen a series or film that does as much referencing as Buffy, (except maybe Woody Allen films, but that’s not my time, so we’ll leave that out) so I don’t see how making them could be seen to be ‘out of date’.
However, the criticism that probably struck me the most was the one which undermined its depiction of the late 20th century girl/ woman. Buffy has all the characteristics of a feminists’ tour de force (by which I mean: this is what some ‘70’s feminists must have hoped for future generations of people [women]). Like hero’s in stories before hers, Buffy physically beats her opponents, and goes through all the problems this invites (boys, power, strength, alienation, death, depression etc etc). Academics spoke of post feminism, or Buffy as part of the (in England, Spice Girl) girl power generation. Post-feminism became (to me, as I learnt what it was) a rebellion against radical feminism (burn bra’s) which allowed the argument that, to put it simply, the material way you represent yourself – sexy clothes, make-up, flirtation, sex – is as legitimate a way to gain power as intelligence, an understanding of equality and so on. Girl Power is understanding that utilising your gender and sexuality can give you power and control and confidence, characteristics which have come to identify you as an ‘independent’ woman. I think that the post-feminist rebellion had to happen, but it seems to be an idea that is more and more used to justify a kind of female-ness that I think is quite backwards. The issue, as with any political or social argument really, is choice. In Buffy the story goes that the first slayer was physically tied to the power which made her a superhero, by men not brave enough to fight themselves, but powerful enough to force it onto someone defenceless. At it’s close, Buffy’s power is that she smashes destiny for the sake of winning a war, but you actually get the impression that she’s also a bit pissed off at having somebody (whoever it is) decide what she does with her life. Throughout the series Buffy goes from being a capable, but slightely dumb blonde girl, to growing into someone who understands enough to be able to make her own decisions about her life, and not live as others wish her to. She is liberated, but growing up she has her hang ups (which is universal), she is strong, but her strength alienates her at times and when she is weak, she is frightened in a way that girls are. The final episode demonstrates perhaps one of the most feminist things I’ve ever seen in my culture – the ability and struggle to fight against the men who’ve kept you down. However, because Buffy is a story, it’s universality shouldn’t alienate men because it is in essence a story about growing up. It’s central idea is of a girl growing up, yes, but does not concern the struggle between the sexes – it is a bigger war.
Here’s her final speech to her friends, teacher, and all the potential slayer’s:
BUFFY: I hate this. I hate being here. I hate that you have to be here. I hate that there’s evil and that I was chosen to fight it. I wish a whole lot of the time that I hadn’t been. I know a lot of you wish I hadn’t been, either. But this isn’t about wishes. This is about choices. I believe we can beat this evil. Not when it comes. Not when its army is ready. Now. Tomorrow morning I’m opening the Seal. I’m going down into the Hellmouth and I’m finishing this once and for all. Right now you’re asking yourselves what makes this different. What makes us anything more than a bunch of girls being picked off one by one? It’s true, none of you have the power that Faith and I do. So here’s the part where you make a choice.
(later on in the episode, just before the ubervamp army attacks, we flash back to the rest of this speech)
BUFFY: So here’s the part where you make a choice. What if you could have that power? now? In every generation one Slayer is born because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men. (She points at Willow, who smiles nervously.) This woman is more powerful than all of them combined. So I say we change the rule. I say my power should be our power. Tomorrow, Willow will use the essence of the scythe to change our destiny. From now on, every girl in the world who might be a Slayer, will be a Slayer. Every girl who could have the power, will have the power. Can’t stand up, will stand up. Slayers? every one of us. Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?
From ‘Chosen’ (Season 7)
I don’t think I really need to expound upon the speech, apart from to identify it’s most important word: CHOICE.
Cheesy to capitalise it, I know, but…
It is the main issue I have with current trends in understanding and discussing female-ness. To be honest, like our single and it’s controversial cover art, if everyone is happy then that’s fine. Bully for them. But I’ll not have my children grow up without choices, and if the current trend (I’m not naming examples until people ask me to, as there are too many) of suggesting that ‘this is what women are like’ (which is basic, but I spent ages trying to qualify it and I think someone else can do better) continues to saturate every form of media that I consume, then I don’t believe the choices available to (young) women will any longer be clear. I’ve had to go through the whole Whore or Goddess period I my life and I doubt that those options-as-ways-to-manipulate-for-power will ever leave me entirely, but I think that there are other choices, and this is why I started this.
There are loads more things I could say, and I expect people would like very specific answers to very specific questions, so feel free to ask them. I’ve also edited this first post several times, as those who know me will already know, because I’m pretty shitty at prose, but also because I wanted to try and fit everything I’ve thought about in the last couple of years into one post. But I’ll get to those things eventually
In the meantime, everyone should read Ariel Levy’s ‘Female Chauvinist Pigs’ as it is a very important American account of what is going on with women now, and why, and how, and all that. The best thing about it for me was drawing British parallels between her American examples.
I will post articles/ weird stuff I find/ art/ music/ links/ books and so on up here as I go on. I think you may need a blogspot account to comment eventually, but for now I’m leaving it open to anons.
Until then, then.
JI x
