O HAY THAR. Wank ahoy!

[agilebrit]

Why, yes, I wander around in Wank_Report to see what the buzz in fandom (and other places) is all about these days. Some of it is hilarious, some of it is sad, and some of it is rage-inducing.

This one is more WTF-inducing than anything else, and I wouldn't be linking to it if it weren't for this post, in which the poster asserts that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was an anti-feminist show.

Why, yes, that was my head you heard exploding. A show that had women as the most powerful beings on the planet...was anti-feminist.

Her reasoning?
Buffy - whenever she becomes sexually involved, is the victim of abuse
Faith - depicted as sexually open, is "evil"
Jenny - gets involved with Giles, is killed for shock value
Anya - depicted as sexually open, is jilted at the altar and also goes "evil"
Tara - in a committed lesbian relationship, killed for shock value
Willow - in a committed lesbian relationship, "magic" formerly equated with this relationship now equated to crack, goes evil

Waitaminute. Buffy was the "victim of abuse"? WHEN? Was that before or after she beat the everliving snot out of Spike and left him to die in an alley? Was that before or after she said "If you tell anyone, I'll kill you"? When did she ever let Angelus abuse her? She's the friggin' Slayer, dude; she gave as good as she got. When did Riley abuse her? HOW THE HELL could Riley abuse her in the first place? Did I miss that episode? Parker? She kicked his ass.

Faith? Was evil for about a season. After that? Big Damn Hero. Ditto Anya.

You could debate the "killing for shock value" bit until the cows come home. I personally disagree with that assessment; there were plotful reasons that Jenny and Tara died, and while some folks might not like those particular plots, they weren't pointless. Angelus had damn good reasons for wanting Jenny dead; Tara's death was the catalyst for Willow's meltdown and subsequent redemption.

As for Willow and the "crack magic" aspect, the poster seems to be assuming a cause-and-effect with the Tara relationship that I just don't see, since Will started with the magic before she met Tara. Also? Willow = Big Damn Hero in "Chosen" and through the rest of S7 as well.

Dude, Joss tortures all his characters. You could even argue that Jenny had it a lot easier than Giles did; after all, she's just dead. Giles had to find her in his bed and then live with that image seared on his brain for the rest of his life. Angel goes evil with a moment of pure happiness...think he doesn't consider that every time he gets laid? Xander leaves Anya at the altar and loses an eye. Riley cheats on Buffy with a vamp ho and loses Buffy completely.

In the meantime, Harmony has sex with the liaison to the Senior Partners and gets a letter of recommendation from Angel before he goes off to fight evil. The liaison? Dies. Lindsey falls in love with another liaison--and is killed by a "flunky." Eve's fate, meantime, is unknown, although I always assumed she died when the building came down. She might have lived, though.

Point being, no one in the BuffyVerse was allowed happy couplehood, at least not for long. Hell, Fred and Wes got ONE episode, and as far as we know didn't even sleep together before Fred became Illyria and Wes's world came crashing down on his poor head. Oh, and look. He died too.

It's amazing what you can read into a show when you're looking at it through a certain pair of glasses or smoking the bad crack.

Okay, I'm sure I had a towel over here somewhere...ah, there it is. *cleans up*

Comments

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

I'm just surprised that's the first you've heard this. A lot of my friends consider Buffy anti-feminist.

Though I would say Buffy wasn't abused, but an abuser. Unless you count abandonment by her father. They may be referring to the scene in the bathroom.

I don't think they're saying that Tara caused the crack thing. I think they're saying that when Tara was first on the show, magic was a metaphor for lesbianism. Later, magic was a metaphor for crack, thereby perverting the idea.

I'm not saying I agree, though forcing all the Potentials to become Slayers seems to me to be a type of violation, since Buffy knew the Slayer power came from darkness. And that it would lead to a more difficult life for those girls. But she was desperate, and she had a world to save.

I'm not saying I agree. I'm saying that many people I respect, long-time Buffy fans, do.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Huh. Well, this is what I get for being on the fringes of fandom; I apparently miss a lot of meta. Because I didn't get the "magic as a metaphor for lesbianism" at ALL, I didn't ever think of it that way--mainly because she started with the magic LONG before she ever met Tara. And I think the "magic as crack" would have happened even if they'd used a boy instead of Tara and the same exact same storyline went down. *beats off plot bunny with a 2x4, because Jonathan as Willow's boyfriend after Oz left would have been AWESOME*

Of course, then it would have been, "She's being punished for having sex." Which is silly, because horrible things happened to everyone whether they were having sex or not.

Apparently the writers can't win. If they have a show that focuses on female characters, and bad things happen to those female characters, then they're anti-feminist--even if horrible things are happening to the male characters as well. If they have a show with not enough female characters, and bad things happen to them, while bad things happen to the male characters...yup, that's anti-feminist too.

[midnightsjane.livejournal.com]

. And I think the "magic as crack" would have happened even if they'd used a boy instead of Tara
*nods* I never had a problem with the magic as crack theme, because I saw it more as magic as power to make the world as Willow wanted it to be. Willow showed from the start of the series that she preferred the 'easy' way of fixing things to her liking, and magic gave her the power to do that. IMHO, that was what the addiction was; it had very little to do with whether she was straight, gay, or bi.
I think that a lot of people who think Buffy is anti-feminist don't seem to understand that being a feminist doesn't mean you are always doing the right thing, or that you don't have bad things happen to you. Feminism in my view means that women have the same choices and opportunities as men; to do great things, and to screw up.
Just my 2 pennies.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

You're two pennies are worth at least a buck. :) You have, I believe, the sensible view.

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised as well. You should understand that Correct Thought is imposed by the Party leadership - it is not based upon facts or observation, but on the will of the leader(s). Buffy is anti-feminist because she doesn't spout the correct slogans and behave in the correct bull-dyke fashion - but mainly because she's slender, well-groomed, physically attractive to men... She is antifeminist because the feminists loathe her on sight.

Put away your intricate rebuttals; she's anti-feminist because they say she is. No other reason is required.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

But, but...I just...The show wasn't about slogans. What slogans? I don't even know what "behaving in correct bull-dyke fashion" means--Lord knows she settled enough arguments with her fists and smacked Spike around enough to make me loathe her during S6. She was totally the "abusive boyfriend(TM)" during all that. So much so that the fandom apparently didn't get the memo that Spike was supposed to be the "bad boyfriend" and thus the writers (*throws rocks at Marti Noxon*) had him attempt to rape her (OMG OOC) towards the end of the season so we'd get it.

Not only that, but she threw him across the room and fended him off! She's a strong woman! How in the HELL is that anti-feminist???

I guess my brain just doesn't work like that. I don't see collective female victimization around every corner and in every syllable that characters on a screen utter.

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

I know that. You know that. I find the character irritating in theory and practice. None of that apparently matters. Her pariah status has been decreed. Of course, that doesn't mean you or anyone has to agree with it.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, it appears to be a minority view among the fandom at large. Yes, some of the Buffy fandom is batshit insane, but a lot of it, by and large, appears to be a fairly sensible and thoughtful bunch.

Eh, Angel was always my first love anyway, show-wise. Buffy was just along for the ride when I started tuning in. And then there was Spike...

Good times.

allow me to miss the point completely.

[bullet4fob.livejournal.com]

uhm. yeah. how in the world was Faith or Anya depicted as "sexually open"??

effin slashers.

all right i'll kind of deal with the point. BUFFY WAS THE ABUSER. everytime she is losing an argument with Angel or she punched him in the mouth (i feel like a tool b/c i can't remember when but I know this happened. .i haven't seen a Buffy episode in like a year). and she slapped Dawn across the face when Dawn hurt her feelings. she hit Faith too in season 7 when Faith said something she didn't like. now i think Buffy is beyond fabulous i'm not saying she's a bad person but she was the one who uses physical violence to settle disputes. and when Angel FINALLY hit her back in season 4 she was so shocked..."You hit me!!?!?!?!?!!?!?!!?!?!" and her shocked outrage was because she was the one who does the hitting. and everyone knows that.

Re: allow me to miss the point completely.

[bullet4fob.livejournal.com]

the line should read "....argument with Angel she punched"

Re: allow me to miss the point completely.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Well, you know, Anya's main source of conversational fodder was how many orgasms Xander had given her the night before. She was shallow like that. *sarcastic nod* And drunken comfort sex in the Magic Box with Spike meant she was a total slut and needed to be punished for that, y'all--didn't you get that memo?

And Faith did all that sexy dancing, and popped Xander's cherry, and said things to Spike that made his eyes cross when she was in Buffy's body, and then there was the whole sex-with-Principal Wood thing...

Yeah, okay, I got nothin'. As far as I can see, both of them only slept with two people in the entire course of the show. They might have been *cough* frank about it...but I don't see how what happened to either of them was a result of sex.

Apparently if you look at the show through a certain pair of glasses, it's all about sex and punishing women for having it. And I think that cheapens the show, a terrible lot, because it was about so much more than who was sleeping with whom. Faith's journey alone...I just...*throws up hands*

Whatever, dudes. Talk to the hand.

Re: allow me to miss the point completely.

[bullet4fob.livejournal.com]

oh!! i thought "sexually open" meant that Anya and Faith were bisexual or like flexible like they would have gone for a boy or a girl as a sexual partner. i didn't know it just meant like slutty.

okay. i don't think it's fair to call any of the girl's a slut really (except Faith who tried to steal Buffy's bf twice; she is clearly a tramp. and maybe Willow for what she did to Oz with Xander, tsk. tsk.)

but like you said: Buffy was an anti-woman show; whtvr.

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

I considered Buffy pro-human. (Later, Buffy became at least willing to consider that not all non-humans were evil.)

Buffy ran the show. She was a leader. She determined how her life ran. She had to live within certain parameters--like all humans do--but she was in charge of her destiny. How could that be anti-feminist?

It must be very unfulfilling to view the world through crap-covered glasses.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

How could that be anti-feminist?

Only if you're looking for it so hard you see it in *everything.*

It must be very unfulfilling to view the world through crap-covered glasses.

Oh, dear, I'm so very glad I didn't have anything in my mouth when I read that. *sporfles*