Pop Culture Staple: Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Image via Wikipedia

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.

I Believe…

Image by Sevi_Lwa via Flickr

I believe in Jim Gordon. I believe in Harvey Dent. I believe in Gotham City.-Batman in “The Long Halloween“

A very common tool in popular culture is what has become known simply as “a crisis of faith”. This is, as the name would imply, a moment when the person, be they a character in a TV show, book, movie, comic book, or some other venue(even real life), begins to question the very essence of what they believe. It is a shared trait of most humans that what they believe, or do not believe, is very important to their sense of self. No matter how much I, as an educated and intelligent human, would like to believe that I am above such base traits as having my self-worth and my sense of self tied up with what I believe, I know that this is not the case. Whether it be religion, politics, or just about any other subject you can think of, what you believe is the essence of who you are and how you act in any given situation.

This is the same when it comes to popular culture.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. What is all this talk of belief in the first post of a pop culture blog and, more importantly, why the fuck should I care? These are both legitimate and valid questions, which I will address as this post moves on, but first, I’m going to ask you to trust me while we get a few preliminaries out-of-the-way.

First, let me introduce myself. My name is Tanner. I’m a 32-year old college graduate(Rock Chalk Jayhawk!) with a degree in political science. I work as a media technician. None of this matters. What matters is that I’m also a 32-year old pop culture junkie. I eat, breathe, and sleep the aspects of culture that most academics deem to be too base and puerile to bother with. These include, but are not limited to, popular television, movies, books, comic books, and sports. In broad strokes, these are the building blocks of popular culture, and, as such, will be the basis for most of the material that is put on this blog.

But enough with that. Let us discuss my initial topic of belief.