Ghoul Power: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Sticks it to the System
BY JACKIE ESMONDE (This article is forthcoming in New Socialist Magazine)
"I've always been a huge fan of horror movies. And I saw so many horror
movies where there was that blonde girl who would always get herself
killed. I started feeling bad for her. I thought, it's time she had a
chance to "take back the night". The idea of Buffy came from the very
simple thought of a beautiful blonde girl walks into an alley, a monster
attacks her and she's not only ready for him, she trounces him."
--Joss Whedon, Creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Now in its seventh season, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a television cult
hit based on the premise that there is "one girl in all the world" -- the
slayer -- chosen to fight vampires and demons. The show revolves around
Buffy Summers' weekly battles with evil in the fictional town of Sunnydale.
Buffy is a show that defies pigeonholing, continuously alternating between
campy comedy, gothic horror, adventure, and drama.
Buffy, played by Sarah Michelle Geller, is a strong woman in every sense.
Many of the secondary characters are also strong women -- from Willow the
powerful witch to the no-nonsense demon Anya. Watching these characters
kick demon ass is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the show and a great
antidote to the mewling female characters that tend to populate most
popular television and film. The show quite deliberately sets out to
reverse typical depictions of women. Joss Whedon, the show's creator, has
also stated that one goal of the show is to use entertainment to popularize
feminism: "If I can make teenage boys comfortable with a girl who takes
charge of the situation without their knowing that's what's happening, it's
better than sitting down and selling them on feminism."
Buffy, then, is a consciously "feminist" show. But "feminism" encompasses
many different political perspectives, from the conservative to the
revolutionary. So just what kind of feminism is Whedon selling?
Powerful White Middle-Class Women Kicking Butt
The difficulty with celebrating Buffy as a "transgressive woman warrior" is
that in many ways the show merely reaffirms race, class and gender
hierarchies. Buffy is young, white, blonde, beautiful, and she has become
progressively (even alarmingly) thinner with each season. A discussion of
the two other slayers that appear on Buffy throws this problem into sharp
relief.
Though there can only be one slayer in service at a time (she is replaced
upon her death), when Buffy temporarily dies in the first season, a new
slayer, Kendra, a woman of colour with an accent of indeterminate origin,
is called forth. Though she arrives in Sunnydale by plane in the second
season, it is never clear where she came from. Buffy initially sees
Kendra's presence as a threat, stating that Kendra "creeps her out." Buffy
treats her as slow-witted and makes fun of her speech and dress. For
example, when Kendra asks Buffy the meanings of slang words like "wiggy,"
Buffy responds in pidgin English: "You know, no kicko, no fighto." On other
occasions, Buffy mimics Kendra's accent. Since Kendra's origins are unknown
to the audience as well as Buffy, we are invited to view her as utterly
strange and thus participate in Buffy's racism.
Buffy eventually befriends Kendra, giving her advice on how to be a better
fighter and a better dresser. Ultimately, Kendra is killed, leaving the
viewer with no doubt as to Buffy's intellectual and physical superiority.
Kendra shares the fate of most characters of colour on the show, who if
they are not the musical guests, are either innocent victims, or evil. In
either case, they are usually dead by the end of the show. Whether people
of colour appear as charity cases, entertainment, plot devices, or foes,
they are portrayed as expendable once they outgrow their utility to white
folks.
Faith, the slayer who replaces Kendra, first appears in the third season.
Unlike Buffy, Faith comes from a working-class background. Faith's skills
as a slayer are inferior to Buffy's, but she is more dangerous. Faith
represents the "dark" side of the slayer's power. The show continuously
highlights the differences between the two: Buffy's conservative clothing
signals her restraint and moral balance while Faith's dark, revealing
clothing highlights her promiscuity and unpredictability. Faith eventually
becomes a homicidal "rogue" slayer, fighting for the bad guys. The show
makes it clear that Faith's working-class roots make her incapable of
wielding power responsibly.
Celebrating Buffy merely because it shows a white woman kicking ass treads
awfully close to the vacuous "girl power" politics so pervasive in the
Spice-Girl-saturated 1990s -- a politics that is all surface presentation
posing no real challenge to oppression. Rather, the show reinforces white
supremacy and depictions of the "dangerous classes" as intellectually and
physically inferior.
In spite of these problems, there is more to the show than "girl power"
politics.
Staking the System: Demons as Social Problems
While many feminist writings on Buffy the Vampire Slayer tend to focus on
whether Buffy's appearance negates the show's feminism, it is worth looking
past Geller's cleavage to ogle the demons she fights. From the very first
show, where we learn that Sunnydale High School is on top of a hellmouth
(and thus literally "hell"), the show is steeped in symbolism, with the
demons serving as stand-ins for social problems.
YES Theres more...a lot more...
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