Pop Culture Staple: Buffy The Vampire Slayer

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I’m struggling through some writer’s block, so I’ve decided to repost another old blog post of mine from a defunct blog. I hope you enjoy it.

From the very first scene of the Buffy TV series, two things are abundantly clear. First, this is not the lackluster film version of Whedon’s vision that had been churned out several years before, starring Kristy Swanson and Luke Perry. In fact, it is obvious in that first episode that the tone of the series and the movie could not be further apart. While the movie was campy for camp’s sake, including a role for Paul “Pee-Wee” Ruebens, the TV show was edgier, darker, and infinitely smarter.

The second thing that immediately was clear in the opening scene of Buffy is that this was not your prototypical show about vampires. The first image that is shown on-screen is that of a beautiful, young blonde woman being led into a deserted high school by a stereotypically delinquent young man. However, in that first scene, we learn that things are never what they seem in Sunnydale, CA(the fictional setting of the show).  As soon as the young lady confirms that they are all alone in the school, her face transforms into that of a vampire and she attacks the young man, sucking his blood dry. This scene alone turns the standard horror genre cliché of beautiful young girls being in danger on its head. When coupled with the fact that the hero of the series is actually a heroine, who also happens to be young, blonde, and beautiful, you start to see that Whedon has, very consciously, made a choice to subvert standard gender norms through his choice to portray a strong female as his lead character. This is a fact that has been confirmed in multiple interviews by Mr. Whedon himself.

Now, as a women’s rights activist and feminist, this would be enough of a reason for me to include this show as a Pop Culture Staple, but there is so much more to love about this show.

Women Can Kick Ass, Too!

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Self identifying as a feminist, a nerd, and a popular culture junkie, all while being a 32-year-old man, can be a tricky tight rope to walk. Hell, identifying as a feminist male is often greeted with snorts of derision and outright hostility, from both sides of the feminist debate. I’ve been told that I only call myself a feminist to get women by other feminists(an argument that is not sated by the fact that my fiancée was, at the time we met, the president of the largest feminist organization on our college campus) and a “feminist male eunuch” by the sad, and horribly named, men’s rights activists(MRAs). When you combine my passion for equality and feminism with my love of nerd and popular culture these identifications become even more difficult.

It will come as no shock to anyone that some aspects of popular culture, and, by extension, nerd culture, is not conducive to equal rights among genders(not to mention races, ages, or capabilities). In fact, one of the oft-cited criticisms of comic books, which I can completely identify with, is that they over-sexualize the female form. Do a Google Image search for Power Girl if you want a very clear example of this. She is a strong female superhero, with roughly the same power-set as her cousin, Superman, yet the artists insist on drawing her with a costume that has a circle cut out over her breasts, thus giving a clear shot of her cleavage. This is not uncommon. In fact, if you look at a majority of comic books on the stands today, you would think it is impossible to fight crime without cleavage.

And this is not limited to comic books. Television and movies, hell, even novels, are guilty of these same sexist tropes. Women are rarely the heroes, and when they are they are portrayed in an overly sexualized manner. We never get an ugly, or even a plain looking, women as the heroes of movies or series. In a rare case where the networks attempt to buck this trend on television, we are treated to shows that become all about the uniqueness of the fact that the lead is not a supermodel, which leads to some painfully bad writing. Anybody who ever sat through an episode of Ugly Betty or Drop Dead Diva can attest to this fact.

Still, for all the faults that exist in the various media, there are some great materials out there that combine my passion for equality and my passion for nerd stuff. Don’t believe me? Well, keep reading.