Buffy the Vampire Slayer is once again in the news, over a decade after the show ended. Mostly, this is due to a key Buffyverse player backing up Ray Fisher’s allegations of unprofessional behavior.
In a recent video, Clownfish TV spoke about Charisma Carpenter’s (Cordelia Chase) statement, as well as talking a bit about the current controversy and his ex-wife’s claims at the time of their divorce.
She wasn’t alone. Another article shared Sarah Michelle Geller’s (Buffy Summers) and Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn Summers).
Is “Buffy” Really Feminist?
As he is often hailed for portraying strong heroines in popular culture, we find these developments interesting. Let’s take a look at Buffy, its inspiration, and why we can’t exactly get behind the “feminist” label often attached to the series.
Let’s not get us wrong here. We do love the series. We’re even a fan of season four, which a lot of people see as a low point. Well, until season 6 and 7 came along.
But those first five seasons brought great comedy. Plus, lots of touching moments, as well as several groundbreaking concept episodes. However, let’s talk about the main point of Buffy.
The Beginning
There are a couple of things that helped inspire this show. One was the creator’s own high school experiences.
In fact, one writer said they wouldn’t have Buffy if Joss Whedon had a great high school experience. So the “High school is Hell” metaphor that marked the first three seasons makes sense. However, there was another inspiration.
Whedon famously spoke about how horror movies were also a huge inspiration for the series. In particular, the poor blonde girl about to be killed trope. He’d spoken about wanting to empower her, to flip the script so she is the thing the monsters fear. A great idea, in theory.
However, we do see a weakness already. Many of the women in horror end up being the tough ones that manage to survive. That’s why the final girl’s a thing. So, it wasn’t exactly a unique concept, but there were enough twists to make it entertaining. But here’s where things go wrong.
Are they really empowered?
We submit that most of the female characters of the Buffy-verse aren’t exactly the empowered feminist heroes they’re made out to be. And it starts with Buffy herself. She started off an average girl dealing as best she could with the crazy hand life dealt her.
But something shifted as the show went on. Buffy turned into a miserable person, one who felt weighed down by her gifts, rather than empowered.
She started making terrible, reckless decisions in the last season or so, and when she was called out on it, the writers made her out to be the injured party. Then she pouted and left, leaving Faith (Eliza Dushku) and the rest to carry out their plan.
While they carefully planned before engaging in other activities, Buffy lay chastely in Spike’s arms and whined. Yet, somehow, the others failed while she managed to save them.
Without a single thought. Also, let’s not get started on how she never actually saved the world by herself. When it came down to it, she needed Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon) to talk Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) down one season, while Spike (James Marsters) sacrificed himself in another.
And every other big season-ending save happened mostly because of the others. And let’s not even get started on how her power is the result a simulated rape on some woman many, many generations before.
Falling apart
Willow was also a victim of this whole crumbling under one’s power thing. She went from being a little rebellious about studying magic without Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) to a full-on crack addict metaphor, complete with “magic den”.
It could have been interesting in a power corrupts story, but going to addiction made her more a victim of her ability as well. And let’s not forget she spent most of the rest of her run after that running from magic, rather than confronting her demon. Even when her friends were about to die, she say there and cried about how she can’t do it. It seemed a bit disappointing.
Character assassination
Cordelia also suffered at the hands of the writers. She started off the typical mean girl. A stereotype that actually become a well-rounded, honest, feisty, fully-developed character.
This really kicked up once she moved to ANGEL. However, just before her run ended, the character became a shadow of her former self. More a Buffy clone than anything, and lost all the interesting aspects about her.
Carpenter herself talks about some of the damage done in her statement, and we can see where she feels the writing was almost purposeful.
The 100th episode return was ultimately an insult, except for her one moment with Angel (David Boreanaz) when they watched an old commercial featuring Doyle (Glenn Quinn). That was a great, touching scene and it felt like she was finally back to form in this one. And then, she died.
The other extreme
On the other hand, we have at least one character that was barely developed at all: Fred Burkle (Amy Acker). They seemed to try, but their attempts ended up feeling false, and the actress didn’t get much of anything interesting to do until she became Illyria.
Until then, she was your typical Mary Sue that everyone loves, who’s perfect at everything. And whose own boyfriend basically comes up with, “she can really eat” as something good about her.
Again, we think there are a lot of great aspects of the show. And they really hit it out of the park with Faith and her journey from evil to redemption, without sacrificing her fire. We just don’t think it’s the ultimate example of female empowerment.
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