Monsters & Metaphors in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
When I turned 11, someone gifted me season one of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BTVS) on DVD. I was extremely excited because I loved The Vampire Diaries and Twilight. There was just something about vampires, how uncanny their human qualities were. BTVS was different though, it was one of my first experiences with feminism and a strong woman lead. Buffy Summers is only fifteen years old when we are introduced to her, making her relatable to young girls but also glorified for her maturity, “courage, strength, and general feistiness” (Harbin 22). Seeing another young girl on the tv being so strong and fierce showed me another side of what women were. She was the ultimate superhero to me, she literally died and came back to life to save humanity. The show had multiple gender role reversals, which created comedy in the show but also women empowerment. Another role reversal in the show is that for a majority of the episodes, the monsters were afraid of Buffy, not the other way around. Rachel Thompson notes in article “Staking it to the Man” that the monsters Buffy fights throughout the series represent larger fears, for example, domestic violence, evil step-parents, and self esteem issues (22); when Buffy has her first sexual experience, Angel loses his soul and ridicules her for it, this represents how society reacts to young women and their sexuality. When Buffy kills Angel in season 2, in a way she is killing her own rebellion, another one of her fears. My research focused on gender role reversal in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the metaphors behind monsters, and Buffy’s journey as a heroine. This research will help me understand Buffy’s character, gender role reversal, and what monsters represent in the show and historically throughout media. In my adaptation, I will be writing a short story from Buffy’s perspective depicting my very own episode to fit into season 2 after Buffy kills Angel, featuring a new monster that represents the fear of being alone and never being normal. In doing so, Buffy will not only conquer those fears for herself, but for everyone else, saying that there is no reason to fear being romantically alone or never being normal because women are more than wives and mothers, and being normal is overrated. Annotated Bibliography ‘“You Know You Wanna Dance”: Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Contemporary Gothic Heroine” * This paper focuses on Buffy Summers character as a contemporary gothic heroine which is not exactly something I need for my research, however, it also touches on Buffy’s want to be a normal teenager and what role reversal does for the show. When touching on these things, Harbin writes, Numerous gender reversals create much of the show’s comedy, as in the times when Buffy rescues the male characters. Buffy performs something more complex than simple role reversal, however, combining her longing to be “normal” with her refusal to be a victim. Many of the show’s most ironic and painful moments arise from Buffy’s frustrated wish to have an ordinary life. She longs to worry about nothing more serious than dating or exams. One of the show’s most charming paradoxes lies in the fact that Buffy’s first rebellious gestures come in the form of her attempts to be normal (25). Harbin’s observations will inform my project on Buffy’s moral character and her worries or fears of not being normal. Her not being normal, makes her a misfit, but she is the best kind of misfit. Buffy refuses to be a victim, this is important to my project because it proves that Buffy always wins against the monsters she fights, she doesn’t give up. "Unpleasant Consequences: First Sex in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica Mars, and Gilmore Girls." * This text focuses on the personality of characters in BTVS, Veronica Mars, and Gilmore Girls and their first sexual experiences. When discussing Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Jones writes, Buffy’s physical powers are matched by an inner strength and a sense of self that is uniquely and innately her own. An ongoing motif throughout the series is Buffy’s desire to eschew her specialness and become an ordinary teenager, one who can hangout with her friends, date boys, shop, and wonder about her future. Instead she is cast into a role that seems to allow little room for independent agency or subjectivity, complicating the layers of social and personal identity that define her (69). This description of Buffy’s search for self will help me embody her want to be normal or “ordinary” in my adaptation. “Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” This review compiles studies focusing on Buffy the Vampire Slayer such as: comparisons of BTVS to other works, for example, Frankenstein, scholarly essays, how the show deals with the question of “Otherness”, and more. While I do personally think BTVS is empowering for women, Kuykendal adds, Buffy has often been touted as a vehicle of liberation for young women, showing a slight, blonde girl with the power to turn hulking vampires into dust and to tear down heavy doors with her bare hands. In a provocative essay, entitled “ My Emotions Give Me Power: The Containment of Girls’ Anger in Buffy” Elyce Rae Helford turns that assumption on its head and point out that while yes, Buffy does often contain positive messages of empowerment intended for young girls, it tends to limit itself in what kinds of power young women are expected to have in our society (353). Kuykendal notes that Helford also thinks Buffy conforms to society’s standards at “almost an alarming degree” (353). However, I think Buffy conforming to society just shows her desire to fit into society as most “outcasts” do before they accept who they are. Also, while I do think Buffy as a whole promotes feminism, it was aired 21 years ago, and feminism has changed greatly since then. Kuykendal’s writing on these various studies helps me in my research to see varying views on empowerment when it comes to BTVS. “How Buffy the Vampire Slayer Redefined TV Storytelling.” In this article, David Sims covers how creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Joss Whedon’s narrative “seamlessly blending episodes-of-the-week with heavy serialization— set the tone for the Golden Age of television.” Sims comments, “Buffy is being lauded for the vitality of its female characters, its clever mixing of fantasy and horror tropes with regular teen anxieties, and the radical empathy of its characterizations.” He later adds that, [Whedon] did this by making sure every season had a “big bad”: a villain or antihero with larger machinations developing in the background of every episode, twinned to our hero Buffy and her resolute band of friends in some magical way. Every season would build to an action-packed climax with sacrifices made and lessons learned, but along the way, Buffy would face off against minions of the “big bad,” problems of her own making, and various other monsters of the week amid whirlwinds of teen angst. This helps my research by painting the picture of what BTVS and its creator really did to change television in the 90s for the better with strong female characters. “Staking it to the Man” Author Rachel Thompson has focused this article around the question: “is [Buffy the Vampire Slayer] whaling on patriarchy?” (22). When writing about the “evil entity of the week” in BTVS, Thompson adds, It usually ends badly for the evil-du-jour. But demons aren’t just demons in Sunnydale. They represent the teenage world of dating violence, evil step-dads, and low self-esteem. Buffy takes on issues in so not an after-school-special fashion– an intention of the producers. Feminists, academics, teenagers, and sci-fi geeks of all ages love Buffy because choices are spun out of an ethical framework that is a brilliant blend of mythical pop culture, high art and post-modern commentary. But make no mistake, the myth and metaphor here is definitely not of the biblical variety (22-23). This will help me in my project to create a new metaphorical monster in my Buffy the Vampire Slayer adaptation. “What Would Buffy Do? The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual Guide.” The article cleverly titled “What Would Buffy Do?” explores the religious controversies in BTVS. The author notes that while “She’s mocked religion as “freaky,” and explained that she hasn’t accepted Jesus as her personal savior because she “just got really busy”’ (43). They argue that, “In each season finale, victory over the forces of darkness ultimately derives not from supernatural power but from human (and occasionally vampire) love. This is not an explicitly or exclusively Christian message, it is and can certainly be inspiring” (43). This article helps my adaptation by further proving that Buffy and her “Scooby gang” win over the forces of evil. Works Cited Harbin, Leigh. "'You know you wanna dance': Buffy the Vampire Slayer as contemporary gothic heroine." Studies in the Humanities, vol. 33, no. 1, 2005, p. 22+. General OneFile, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A151544980/GPS?u=maine&sid=GPS&xid=cac058d1. Accessed 10 Dec. 2018. Jones, Caroline E. "Unpleasant consequences: first sex in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica Mars, and Gilmore Girls." Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures, vol. 5, no. 1, 2013, p. 65+. General OneFile, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A362727669/GPS?u=maine&sid=GPS&xid=6e17647a. Accessed 10 Dec. 2018. Kuykendal, Dorothy. "Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Extrapolation, vol. 43, no. 3, 2002, p. 352+. General OneFile, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A95777428/GPS?u=maine&sid=GPS&xid=3dff4031. Accessed 10 Dec. 2018. Sims, David. “How 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Redefined TV Storytelling.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 10 Mar. 2017, www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/03/how-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-redefined-tv-storytelling/519174/. Thompson, Rachel. "Staking it to the man." Herizons, Summer 2002, p. 22+. Business Collection, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A89022216/GPS?u=maine&sid=GPS&xid=00077135. Accessed 10 Dec. 2018. "What Would Buffy Do? The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual Guide." Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, vol. 16, 2007. General OneFile, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A171320279/GPS?u=maine&sid=GPS&xid=138df41b. Accessed 10 Dec. 2018. |