Warning: There will be spoilers in here regarding Season 7 of the TV show Buffy, as well as the bullshit Season 8 graphic novel. Just sayin'.
So, Season 7 of Buffy was pretty much a feminist's dream come true. Buffy saves the world again, but she also undermines the patriarchal manner in which she, and all slayers before her, were given their power. She refuses to abide by the masculine, singular/loner power structure, and not only collaborates with her friends throughout the series to make saving the world a group effort, but in the end she makes the decision (and Willow executes it) to share her power with any and all women who would be potentials themselves. She gives up her "specialness" to create female unity, because she knows that, superpowers aside, she will always be special even if she shares her mystical strength with other women: rejecting competition in favor of cooperation. The idea of "Saving the World" became secondary to changing the world, a more powerful and provocative statement to women and girls everywhere, as well as the men who like the show and can (maybe sometimes) interpret the real messages behind it.
Like most people who love a book, or series, or set of characters, I (and most fans, I would wager) was greedy to chew away some more at these characters. I love them, I wanted to see more of them, and I was eager for a Joss-helmed and original TV crew movie (instead it will be a bullshit remake that I want no part of). When I learned this was not going to happen, I decided to just be okay with reading the Season 8 graphic novel that they started putting out. It seemed brilliant--I like graphic novels. I like Buffy. And I was jazzed that a lot of the writers were doing it (Marti Noxen, Jane Espenson, Drew Goddard, etc), and the artwork was pretty dope. This should be the thing for me.
It quickly became apparent to me that Season 7 was the ending it should have been, and trying to push beyond that was stupid and undermined its efficacy. Season 8 sucks. In looking for titillation, a gay sex scene was written (not between Buffy and Willow, but Buffy and someone else)--not to actually make a statement about sexual orientation, but to sexualize Gay Woman Sex for patriarchal pleasure. Buffy is not actually gay, or bisexual, or even propelling towards experimentation, but really just...bored. And I guess she decided to throw a bone to the woman that had a thing for her. That is lame. Buffy's obvious discomfort and eventual acceptance and full-on understanding of Willow and Tara's relationship in Season 4 was indicative of her complexity and ability to grow spiritually. This Season 8 nonsense was fodder for people looking for Sexy Sex. It went nowhere, and was quickly tossed in favor of Buffy having that Sexy Sex with males. If they were looking to provide more characters and story for people who want LGBT representation, they dropped the ball in their execution of it, and it reads more like woman-on-woman porn for dudes. And speaking of porn...
I fell behind in my reading, but I still have a lot of issues that I purchased and hadn't read. I was paging through one called, "Twilight Part 3," to try and find a fun, graphic novel example of a colon for my grammar class, and I was totally grossed out by the Raunch Culture Love that was happening in it. I immediately looked at the cover to see who had written it (Dudes) and whether or not the writer/writers were on the show (No). I then went back and stared at the pages. It was nothing but kama sutra sex betwixt the Buffster and Angel (and isn't that relationship tired yet?), wherein we see a lot of cartoonish sex, graphic in nature and extremely exploitative. I couldn't believe this was the same story I'd fallen in love with. Buffy was always a sexy show (like Star Trek), and that doesn't bother me, but this was totally gauche, and the repercussions of the sex (and btw, the Scooby Gang were somehow privy to it all in a very voyeuristic and judgy way), was that it was "destroying the world." So not only was it graphic and lame, it was also very "You're a bad bad girl if you have sex," kind of thing, which I thought was really misogynistic. Again, why did they hire these guys? Joss hasn't been minding the store.
And, to completely undermine the Pro-Shared Women Power, Buffy somehow becomes a God (Because it's no longer okay for her to be on par with other women), takes the magic from the world (Can't share?) and then, I believe, she and every other slayer lose their power. I guess when a clearcut ending is made, such as the one at the end of Season 7, one is forced to come up with some kind of frantic diversion to create story complication.
A few months ago, E Weekly interviewed Joss Whedon about the scripts he'd written (and were rejected by DC) for Wonder Woman, and he'd said, regarding the need for more empowered female characters: "Maybe Wonder Woman isn't the Wonder Woman we need right now." In our lust to keep the story of Buffy going, maybe we've undermined her power. Maybe, as Stephen King said, "Sometimes dead is better": in terms of Buffy, sometimes an ending is better, and she may not be the Wonder Woman we need right now (Though it breaks my heart in two to say so).
2 comments:
Ugh. I was thinking about picking up the graphic novels, but perhaps I won't waste my time. Season 5 of "Angel" takes place after season 7 of "Buffy" and I've been making my way through that.
Well, in addition to the above annoying nonsense, I'd say Graphic Novels have become too focused on the artwork. Don't get me wrong, it's beautiful--but if you look at them in the 80's, they have a *ton* of writing. Maybe Egon was right--"Print is dead."
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