Studying with the Slayer

[ariad]

As some of you know, I am leading a Buffy the Vampire Slayer course next semester at my university. I'm a senior at UC Berkeley, and we have a program that allows undergrads to design and facilitate pass/no pass courses. A couple of examples that will be offered next semester are Intro to Soviet Animation and The History of Queer Comics. The DeCal

Comments

[shifty_gardener]

Why you gotta make me evilllllllllll Joss Whedon?

It's interesting how most shows code overt sexuality as bad (for girls, anyhow) - I was so disappointed in Once Upon a Time for making Ruby change the way she dressed/the amount of makeup she wore once she "matured."

[ariad]

I posted McAvan's essay because I think it's very well-written, but I actually disagree with it on the bisexuality = evil part. All the examples of bisexuality that McAvan cites I interpret more as hypersexuality than bisexuality, i.e., "This character is so sexual that she's flirting with everybody!!" None of those characters are explicitly bisexual, and the closest thing we get to an actual depiction of bisexuality isn't at all negative.

That being said, the show does code overt sexuality as evil.

[enjoyyourcocoa]

evil lesbians!

[ariad]

Potentially problematic, yes, but it was one time and the character was redeemed and became the single most powerful and pure symbol of good in the entire series, so I mean she was a character with a very dramatic arc and also a lesbian, and that's a thing that writers should be able to do. It would be cause for concern if any other lesbian character in Joss Whedon's work were evil or coded as bad, but Tara, Kennedy, Satsu, and Mag are always decidedly good, and Kilo is redeemed within like two minutes of turning on the other characters.

So like, IMO yellow card at best.

[enjoyyourcocoa]

Yeah, Joss Whedon is the only person I'm not miffed at for using the evil lesbian trope. That is sort of the point. It's just funny because Sarah always talks about how the gay people end up being evil, "evilgays" and because Buffy is a tv show and that the concept of evil is easier to identify when there's magic that I could actually recognize it. But of course Willow isn't actually the evil!lesbian trope because her character isn't gay, she bounces back and is strong and not the only evil person and not the only gay person and etc.

[ariad]

and omg the use of eyeliner in Buffy. I almost wrote an essay about that.