post Buffy s3

Yes, of course she is.

Well, duuuuh! She kicks ass and she doesn't have to assume a male 'butch' demeanour to get away with it. She fights darkness, saves the world and hands her homework in on time. Her strength isn't undermined by a pseudo-submissive role that so characterised the female TV superheroes of yesteryear (Wonder Woman - secretary, Bewitched - housewife, I Dream of Jeannie - marshmallow). Most importantly the series does not treat her with the stereotype nor the kid gloves that is typical of television's treatment of 'minorities', she has faults, she makes mistakes, sometimes she gets away with them and sometimes they nearly destroy all creation. She's not a woman, she's a person.

 

Well, maybe not.

Back before the Watchers were conceived the Slayer was a feminist icon, but as has happened so often before a patriarchy imposed itself over the top of a completely female occupation. The Watchers are a male-centred society. How many have we seen so far? Five by my counting (up to the present UK episode) all men but for the one was hell-bent on unimaginable power. You can bet in centuries past that the gender ratio was even worse, how many women would have gotten the education necessary to become a Watcher?

In the army who would you say is in command? The soldiers or the generals? When a Watcher dies it's a tragedy. When a Slayer bites the bullet it's an occupational hazard. So a Slayer has a Watcher like a dance troupe has a manager and a prostitute has a pimp.

Giles is nice, and Giles is sweet and Giles truly cares for Buffy but he is the single Watcher we have encountered that has allowed himself to come so close to their charge, to defer to her judgement on occasion, and he was censured and dismissed for it. The Watchers claim total authority over the Slayers including the power to try and imprison them for their natural lives. This authority has no supernatural origin as the Slayer's does, they assume it because they feel it is their place. What about the one Slayer who bucked the Watcher's authority? She's portrayed as an irresponsible, self-serving tramp. So Buffy can keep staking vamps until she's doing it with a wooden zimmerframe but she'll never truly acquire the liberation that feminism seeks.

 

Postfeminism?

Postfeminist writers have criticised the feminist movement for seeking equality within the structures of male society. The Slayer isn't feminist, she's postfeminist. She's a empowered woman within a structure that cannot be anything but inherently female, so much so that the label of 'female' is superfluous. Only women can be Slayers, therefore it's only women that set the standard of achievement within the field. Equality doesn't come into it. It would be like men demanding equality within the field of ovary donors. But just because the Slayer doesn't slip into an easy category doesn't mean she's not a good role model for the viewers and TV's bean-counters.

Go to Masquerade's Feminism in BtVS


Opinions

Jacqui 21/3/00
Aside from that, I think Buffy *is* a feminist role model. She is a real feminine woman (in a teenage american kind of way), has bucked the patriarchal watcher system, and takes strength from a non-gender-roled (but not non-gendered) group of sister/brother-supporters.

On the other hand (to use your technique) her power is supernatural in origin, so perhaps has little relevance to real women. Maybe she falls into the category of one of Antonia Fraser's 'Warrior Queens' and, as such, is a 'singular exception' rather than a role model.

Vox 22/3/00
I'm not familiar with Antonia Fraser but I can imagine that a (flawed) argument could run that Buffy is not a feminist icon because she is _not_ an ordinary girl. She needs super powers to be treated equally by the men around her. The show does have other strong female characters Willow ('Willow power' is a by-word on the Buffynet), Cordelia, Jenny, Anya, Faith. All of these of course are human as well and so are not perfect icon material at every second: Willow has been pushed around a lot in the past, Cordelia's original cruelty to others which is rapidly becoming more 'straight-talking' than belittling, Anya has her obsession with Xander, Faith... yes well I think there's a pretty good reason why Faith will never make it as a feminist icon. The most consistent icon I've seen in the show has been Jenny, intelligent but not arrogant, sexy but not vain, proactive but not aggressive, supportive but not submissive and was ultimately killed by the alpha-male of the show asserting his dominance, a killing that was portrayed in a rather bad light by all concerned (though you can see how the excuse of Angel's soul might draw parallels with 'I only get angry because I love you' pseudo-reasoning, but you can read too many things into stuff that was put in to make good tv).


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Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: The Series are the property of the WB Network or perhaps Fox, maybe both. I'll leave them to work it out and contact me with the result. This web site, its operators and any content on this site relating to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" are not authorized by Fox. No copyright infringement intended. This site is for entertainment purposes only and does not profit in any way.

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The Above the Law banner is an altered form of a screen-cap taken from the The Slayer Show, the original screen-cap is © the WB. ll, having a female villain like Faith would be to stereotype women as 'irresponsible, self-serving tramps'. So that's out too.

Okay, sarcasm mode off now. You may claim that I've taken your words too far with what I've said above, but I don't really think it's an inaccurate description of where your points are headed.

I can't even say whether Buffy's a feminist icon or not, because I've no idea what on earth you mean by it. It seems to be someone in something like the caricature I've drawn above - a girl with absolutely, positively, no trace of submission to, friendship towards, or reliance upon any men whatsoever. If that's what it is, then of course Buffy isn't - thank goodness. It'd be the dullest, most preachy and least intelligent show on TV - unlike one of the most, as it is now.

If, on the other hand, you're asking whether Buffy is 'liberated' then of course she is. She does what she wants and doesn't take orders from anyone because of their gender - male or female. The Watchers Council is mostly male - and of course she *always* does exactly what *they* say, doesn't she? Why, just look at her with Wesley. A model of obedient submission.

If you think for a moment that Buffy is some poor, downtrodded girl suffering under a 'patriarchy' - well, there's not much I can say, simply because there's such an insane amount of evidence against it that I can't even begin to set it down. You'd go nuts even trying to count the number of times Buffy *hasn't* obeyed her supposed 'patriarchy'.

Sorry if I'm seeming aggressive here, but I think this whole question is ridiculous. It's like trying to come up with reasons why the citizens of the former USSR actually had generous personal freedom and wealth. You'll ignore giant facts in favour of tiny ones and end up with a picture that does nothing but mislead. And in the process, you'll work up a righteous anger against a 'sexist' show that's actually the least sexist show I know of.

Now by all means go ahead and fry me - I'm used to it. :) But before you do, try doing something. Instead of looking, as you have done so far, for reasons Buffy *is* a patriarchal, sexist, or unliberated show, go through the series for reasons why it *isn't*. I'd wager you find at least two in the second category for each in the first. Buffy the Vampire Slayer *is* a genuinely non-sexist show, and looking for reasons to prove otherwise'll only spoil what I think is one of the best shows on television.

katie 2/9/00
Buffy is definately the best role model ever. She kicks ass and could depend on herself without a man. She is not very feminist herself but she is a feminist icon to me. She is my role model and she always will be. She has also taught me alot and I feel that Buffy has given me guidance more than anything else in my life.

Paul Pratt 20/9/00
I agree with #1buffyfankm . Joss Whedon himself said that yes Buffy is the representative of woman finally getting the upper hand on those that have it in for them. Your forgetting that the mythology is only that, mythology. Essentially, filler to make the writers have more to work with. The show isn't strictly about Mythology like Star Wars is. Buffy is allegory for all the things we teens go through in life. So in my opinion, what little it is, is yes i think woman can look up to her because she can face up to the evils, she can be her own person in spite of the slayers traditional "alone" role. Your also forgetting the fact that the Slayer isn't a tool of the watchers, she is a warror for the powers that be, to hold the balance of power. The watcher is one who gives her the information and teachers her to be a weapon. Watchers are teachers, not bosses. The only bosses in Buffy are the darkness and the light. Which go beyond any type of feminist or shovanist debates.Then again, thats mythology. So i've dug my own grave, but i'm just defeating all arguments on both sides of the fence for everyone who wants to take Buffy at face value and those who truly now what the show is about, and some that may take it beyond.

Vox 4/10/00
Just wanted to clear something up that has been causing some confusion, the title of the article is "Is _the Slayer_ a feminist icon?" and not, is Buffy a feminist icon. Buffy is, of course, one example of a slayer but she is not the entire institution, especially as she has taken steps that distance her more and more from the traditional role of the Slayer (breaking from the watcher's council etc.).

There's also a difficulty concerning the definitions of 'feminist icon' and 'postfeminism' and I have to admit that I have only nebulous ideas of what those two concepts are which makes this article less rigorously argued and more of a soundbite than my others.

(no name entered) 8/10/00
I think one of the show's greatest achievements is that it managed to mostly sidestep the feminist issue (except in the form of motifs and hidden threads).

If it didn't, the show would've been lost in pointless arguments and ridiculous, didactic statements which would've distract the show from more important issues.

Instead, Buffy isn't the Slayer BECAUSE she's a girl she the Slayer AND a girl, and that's that. By laying down the rules from the one, the writers managed to avoid making Buffy a symbol and thanks to that she's a real person.

Yes, she's the Slayer, but she still has problems She's powerful, yet flawed. She's street smart and resourseful, but not very interlligent. What's more, shew seems to realize it, which is why she has no problems turning to friends and authority figures for help, even when they're male.


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Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: The Series are the property of the WB Network or perhaps Fox, maybe both. I'll leave them to work it out and contact me with the result. This web site, its operators and any content on this site relating to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" are not authorized by Fox. No copyright infringement intended. This site is for entertainment purposes only and does not profit in any way.

The picture was taken from The Official Buffy website and is © the WB.

The Above the Law banner is an altered form of a screen-cap taken from the The Slayer Show, the original screen-cap is © the WB.