BtVS: A Fireman, When the Floods Roll Back
aka 'A Deconstruction of Society's Demonization of Women'
It's a theme that's more subtle in the earlier seasons, but they let us know right from the beginning that season seven is going to be more explicit. Buffy's explanation to Dawn in Lessons is a way of using the power that women are 'allowed' to have against people who seem to have more ('who has the power?'). Then, as the season goes on, she finds ways to reclaim the power that belongs to women by right, by being human and alive and strong.
In Chosen, Buffy faces down the First Evil, wearing her face, and realizes that it only has the power that she gives it. That by not believing her cause is hopeless, she gives it new hope. That by not allowing her face to represent evil, evil loses. In Season Seven, the metaphor takes center stage, but the premise and the thought behind it is most clearly laid out in Restless, the fourth season finale.
In Restless, Buffy comes face to face with the First Slayer. The First Slayer, who we later found out was chained by the first kind of Watcher, is certain that if a woman is that strong, she is doomed to be alone, to be lonely. Society says that a strong women, one who refuses to be used, is a bitch.
Buffy stands against that -- no, she says. Times are different. Strong women can have friends, strong women can have lives. Strength is not a male trait, and women do not have to lose pieces of themselves in order to be strong.
Buffy's dream in Restless lays this false conflict out and ends in a full-out speech from Buffy, where we get to hear exactly what Joss is saying (though in metaphorical terms).
Anya: "Buffy! Wake up! Buffy, you have to wake up right away!"
Buffy: "I'm not really in charge of these things."
Anya: "Please wake up. Oh, please."
Buffy: "I need my beauty sleep. So stop it, okay?"
It starts at the beginning, with Buffy's denial of her power. Anya, former demon, urges and even pleads for Buffy to wake up. But Buffy doesn't want to take charge. She wants to remain a child, protected and cosseted (see: Buffy/Angel; ex. "Let her sleep."). But the First Slayer, slayerhood, womanhood -- it's inside her. It's there, even if she fights it, even if she ignores it. In the end, she has to understand that, or she'll always be asleep.
Buffy: "Faith and I just made that bed."
Faith -- the other living Slayer. The one who fell and who redeemed herself, in the end. Betrayer and lost one. They both made the bed, because Faith, too, is asleep to the true nature of the Slayer. After Buffy wakes up to her true nature, she begins to understand that she isn't alone.
Tara: "For who?"
Buffy: "I thought you were here to tell me."
Next comes Tara. In the fifth season episode, Family, we see an clear connection between Tara and Buffy. At this point, Tara is an unknown to Buffy, a representative of a purely female (sapphic) power. Tara is what we see after Buffy wakes up, Tara is what Buffy is, in her heart -- protective and kind, fierce and loving. Female and possessing of a great inner power, and of great love and forgiveness. But Tara can't tell her that -- Buffy has to find it out for herself.
Buffy: "The guys aren't here, are they? We were gonna hang out and, watch movies t-"
Tara: "You lost them."
Buffy: "No. No. I think they need me to find them."
Buffy's friends are lost and it's so late. A theme that Buffy returns to, over and over. She loses her friends, but she can always find them again, because they want to be found. As she says in Touched -- being the Slayer made her different, but she was the one who made it stay that way.
Tara offers two things to her, here. She lets Buffy know that the clock is wrong, that she has plenty of time to find her friends, and she shows Buffy that she has all the strength that she needs. She shows Buffy the 'Manos' card that represented Buffy as 'the Hand' in the Primeval spell.
Again, Buffy tries to deny herself, deny who she is. She isn't 'the Hand', she's just a girl. But her heart knows better, knows that Buffy's journey is long from over. Here, Buffy wants to be normal, fit into society's rules ("Even if those rules make you a slave," Mal Reynolds, Shindig).
Then, there's interesting stuff with Buffy's mom (older women, trapped in the wall -- glass ceiling), and when Buffy tries to follow Xander, she only finds Riley and Adam. Riley, the guy who couldn't quite handle loving a woman stronger than himself. And Adam, who can never understand the source of Buffy's power. No Xanders here. Xander, who understands the power of the heart and who only loves women who are strong. Riley calls her 'killer', brings her fears out into the open. "I guess the Slayer is just a killer after all." (Buffy, The Gift)
And then we meet her, the First Slayer.
Buffy: "Let her speak for herself. That's what's done in polite circles."
For a woman to be strong, she has to stand up for herself. She can't expect other people to do it for her.
Buffy: "Why do you follow me?"
First Slayer (Tara): "I don't."
Buffy: "Where are my friends?"
First Slayer (Tara): "You're asking the wrong questions."
Here (and even later, when she's in the subdream), Buffy denies that the First Slayer is in her heart. A shadow doesn't follow someone, it's a natural part of them. It just isn't always visible.
First Slayer (Tara): "I have no speech. No name. I live in the action of death, the blood cry, the penetrating wound. I am destruction. Absolute ... alone."
Buffy: "The Slayer."
First Slayer (Tara): "The first."
This is Buffy's fear -- that to be the Slayer is to be alone. That to be the Slayer is to be a killer. That her inner power is that of a monster. That being a Slayer is only a Watcher away from being a demon ("We're not demons." "Is that a fact?").
Buffy: "I am not alone."
First Slayer (Tara): "The Slayer does not walk in this world."
"...but I exist here. I must learn to walk in this world." Illyria, Shells. This is where Wesley comes into play. In BtVS, we see the relationship from the side of the Slayer. In AtS, we see it from the side of the Watcher. Illyria, powerful and dangerous, like Buffy. The Watcher should not be there to bar the Slayer from becoming part of the world, the Watcher should be the one helping her understand that she's already a part of it. A relationship of equals, not one of a general and his footsoldier.
Buffy: "I walk. I talk. I shop, I sneeze. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out. And I don't sleep on a bed of bones."
Ah. firemen. I've seen more than one essay talk about how Buffy is a fireman. But I haven't yet seen any that mention this:
As late as 2004, just about 2% of the nation's firefighters were women. (Career Climb Slow for Female Firefighters, at Women's News)
Two percent. That's... incredibly low. And it was lower still back when Joss wrote that line.
"Men have a very large ego invested in the business . . . So when anything happens that impacts their 'corner on the market,' they tend to feel threatened." (Rita B. Wessel, from 'Career Climb Slow' at Women's News)
Firemen -- even though we're supposed to call them 'firefighters' now, this is a job that still stands as an example of a 'traditionally male' job. It's intensely physical and requires a lot of strength and resilience. Women are certainly capable of becoming firefighters, but the climate remains male.
While few male officers ever say that women just don't belong, many believe that having women in the firehouse douses the family code of "we sleep together, we socialize together and we put our lives on the line as a team," said Michael Servello, a retired deputy chief in the Hartsdale, N.Y., department. ('Career Climb Slow', Women's News)
There's the social side of things. And what Joss shows us in Season Seven is very much like a firehouse -- all those people, male and female, under one roof, working as a team. Creating a family. Being firefighters. Buffy is not alone, because Joss understands that men and women can work together and be a team. Being strong doesn't mean being alone.
And, above all, it implies that Buffy's true job is to protect and aid, not attack and destroy. Buffy says that she will stand against the fire after the water leaves. She will protect the vulnerable places.
Buffy: "That's it. I'm waking up."
But after she says that, and appears to wake up, we have another brief dream sequence. Buffy isn't awake yet. It's a slow process. She finally wakes up after Touched.
Ready to wake up some more people.
It's a theme that's more subtle in the earlier seasons, but they let us know right from the beginning that season seven is going to be more explicit. Buffy's explanation to Dawn in Lessons is a way of using the power that women are 'allowed' to have against people who seem to have more ('who has the power?'). Then, as the season goes on, she finds ways to reclaim the power that belongs to women by right, by being human and alive and strong.
In Chosen, Buffy faces down the First Evil, wearing her face, and realizes that it only has the power that she gives it. That by not believing her cause is hopeless, she gives it new hope. That by not allowing her face to represent evil, evil loses. In Season Seven, the metaphor takes center stage, but the premise and the thought behind it is most clearly laid out in Restless, the fourth season finale.
In Restless, Buffy comes face to face with the First Slayer. The First Slayer, who we later found out was chained by the first kind of Watcher, is certain that if a woman is that strong, she is doomed to be alone, to be lonely. Society says that a strong women, one who refuses to be used, is a bitch.
Buffy stands against that -- no, she says. Times are different. Strong women can have friends, strong women can have lives. Strength is not a male trait, and women do not have to lose pieces of themselves in order to be strong.
Buffy's dream in Restless lays this false conflict out and ends in a full-out speech from Buffy, where we get to hear exactly what Joss is saying (though in metaphorical terms).
Anya: "Buffy! Wake up! Buffy, you have to wake up right away!"
Buffy: "I'm not really in charge of these things."
Anya: "Please wake up. Oh, please."
Buffy: "I need my beauty sleep. So stop it, okay?"
It starts at the beginning, with Buffy's denial of her power. Anya, former demon, urges and even pleads for Buffy to wake up. But Buffy doesn't want to take charge. She wants to remain a child, protected and cosseted (see: Buffy/Angel; ex. "Let her sleep."). But the First Slayer, slayerhood, womanhood -- it's inside her. It's there, even if she fights it, even if she ignores it. In the end, she has to understand that, or she'll always be asleep.
Buffy: "Faith and I just made that bed."
Faith -- the other living Slayer. The one who fell and who redeemed herself, in the end. Betrayer and lost one. They both made the bed, because Faith, too, is asleep to the true nature of the Slayer. After Buffy wakes up to her true nature, she begins to understand that she isn't alone.
Tara: "For who?"
Buffy: "I thought you were here to tell me."
Next comes Tara. In the fifth season episode, Family, we see an clear connection between Tara and Buffy. At this point, Tara is an unknown to Buffy, a representative of a purely female (sapphic) power. Tara is what we see after Buffy wakes up, Tara is what Buffy is, in her heart -- protective and kind, fierce and loving. Female and possessing of a great inner power, and of great love and forgiveness. But Tara can't tell her that -- Buffy has to find it out for herself.
Buffy: "The guys aren't here, are they? We were gonna hang out and, watch movies t-"
Tara: "You lost them."
Buffy: "No. No. I think they need me to find them."
Buffy's friends are lost and it's so late. A theme that Buffy returns to, over and over. She loses her friends, but she can always find them again, because they want to be found. As she says in Touched -- being the Slayer made her different, but she was the one who made it stay that way.
Tara offers two things to her, here. She lets Buffy know that the clock is wrong, that she has plenty of time to find her friends, and she shows Buffy that she has all the strength that she needs. She shows Buffy the 'Manos' card that represented Buffy as 'the Hand' in the Primeval spell.
Again, Buffy tries to deny herself, deny who she is. She isn't 'the Hand', she's just a girl. But her heart knows better, knows that Buffy's journey is long from over. Here, Buffy wants to be normal, fit into society's rules ("Even if those rules make you a slave," Mal Reynolds, Shindig).
Then, there's interesting stuff with Buffy's mom (older women, trapped in the wall -- glass ceiling), and when Buffy tries to follow Xander, she only finds Riley and Adam. Riley, the guy who couldn't quite handle loving a woman stronger than himself. And Adam, who can never understand the source of Buffy's power. No Xanders here. Xander, who understands the power of the heart and who only loves women who are strong. Riley calls her 'killer', brings her fears out into the open. "I guess the Slayer is just a killer after all." (Buffy, The Gift)
And then we meet her, the First Slayer.
Buffy: "Let her speak for herself. That's what's done in polite circles."
For a woman to be strong, she has to stand up for herself. She can't expect other people to do it for her.
Buffy: "Why do you follow me?"
First Slayer (Tara): "I don't."
Buffy: "Where are my friends?"
First Slayer (Tara): "You're asking the wrong questions."
Here (and even later, when she's in the subdream), Buffy denies that the First Slayer is in her heart. A shadow doesn't follow someone, it's a natural part of them. It just isn't always visible.
First Slayer (Tara): "I have no speech. No name. I live in the action of death, the blood cry, the penetrating wound. I am destruction. Absolute ... alone."
Buffy: "The Slayer."
First Slayer (Tara): "The first."
This is Buffy's fear -- that to be the Slayer is to be alone. That to be the Slayer is to be a killer. That her inner power is that of a monster. That being a Slayer is only a Watcher away from being a demon ("We're not demons." "Is that a fact?").
Buffy: "I am not alone."
First Slayer (Tara): "The Slayer does not walk in this world."
"...but I exist here. I must learn to walk in this world." Illyria, Shells. This is where Wesley comes into play. In BtVS, we see the relationship from the side of the Slayer. In AtS, we see it from the side of the Watcher. Illyria, powerful and dangerous, like Buffy. The Watcher should not be there to bar the Slayer from becoming part of the world, the Watcher should be the one helping her understand that she's already a part of it. A relationship of equals, not one of a general and his footsoldier.
Buffy: "I walk. I talk. I shop, I sneeze. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out. And I don't sleep on a bed of bones."
Ah. firemen. I've seen more than one essay talk about how Buffy is a fireman. But I haven't yet seen any that mention this:
As late as 2004, just about 2% of the nation's firefighters were women. (Career Climb Slow for Female Firefighters, at Women's News)
Two percent. That's... incredibly low. And it was lower still back when Joss wrote that line.
"Men have a very large ego invested in the business . . . So when anything happens that impacts their 'corner on the market,' they tend to feel threatened." (Rita B. Wessel, from 'Career Climb Slow' at Women's News)
Firemen -- even though we're supposed to call them 'firefighters' now, this is a job that still stands as an example of a 'traditionally male' job. It's intensely physical and requires a lot of strength and resilience. Women are certainly capable of becoming firefighters, but the climate remains male.
While few male officers ever say that women just don't belong, many believe that having women in the firehouse douses the family code of "we sleep together, we socialize together and we put our lives on the line as a team," said Michael Servello, a retired deputy chief in the Hartsdale, N.Y., department. ('Career Climb Slow', Women's News)
There's the social side of things. And what Joss shows us in Season Seven is very much like a firehouse -- all those people, male and female, under one roof, working as a team. Creating a family. Being firefighters. Buffy is not alone, because Joss understands that men and women can work together and be a team. Being strong doesn't mean being alone.
And, above all, it implies that Buffy's true job is to protect and aid, not attack and destroy. Buffy says that she will stand against the fire after the water leaves. She will protect the vulnerable places.
Buffy: "That's it. I'm waking up."
But after she says that, and appears to wake up, we have another brief dream sequence. Buffy isn't awake yet. It's a slow process. She finally wakes up after Touched.
Ready to wake up some more people.