The Feminist Filter: When She Was Bad

[gabrielleabelle]

Well, I think I'm up for this. Let's all hunker down and get started on S2 of The Feminist Filter!

Mission Statement:This series is intended to outline the feminist text of each episode so as to provoke and encourage open discussion. It's not so much about making value judgments about events and/or characters but about analyzing the series from a

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Yay return of the F F! As I said elsewhere, I'm trying to keep my fandom involvement kind of low key right now. But I had one thought that I want to share. I wonder how much of Buffy's "sexy dance" is a bit of a response to Angel's mode of behaviour? I.e. this episode portrays the power of female sexuality to be wielded as a weapon, the way she specifically uses her sex appeal to hurt Xander and Angel by taunting them with the fact that they can't have sex with her, and to hurt Willow by reminding her that she (Buffy) has sex appeal and hold over Xander that Willow doesn't. And in a sense it reflects the meme of women having that crazy sexual power over men (like in Dollhouse's Belle Chose). But in a sense there is a male-gendered equivalent, which is basically Angel: he is the mysterious tall dark stranger who uses his sexual attractiveness to manipulate women constantly. And Buffy specifically.

Because Buffy comments in this episode about Angel's stalking not being a turn-on, while we sort of know that *for Buffy*, at times it kind of is romantic and sexy (or at least, Angel's general aloof tall dark black clad hunk of a night thing is, as she indicates in Angel the episode and a few other places), it seems as if death has opened her eyes a bit to Angel's manipulations. And it's there that she turns the tables on Angel by using her own sexuality to get back at, and manipulate him -- and Xander and Willow in the process. By the episode's end, she is back to..."normal" and she readjusts to her life as it used to be, and her eyes shut again with respect to Angel's manipulations, just as she shuts down *her* ability to (consciously) use her sexuality as a weapon. Something interesting about the whole thing. There is still a very gendered difference between the way Angel's sexual manipulations take the form of aloofness, and Buffy's sexual manipulations take the form of a more direct near-sexual proposition.

On the Parent Issues front, the people Buffy specifically goes out of her way to wound or try to hurt are Angel, Willow, Xander, and Cordelia. She is not mean to Joyce, Hank or Giles; she is aloof with them. But it's Giles, more than anyone else, who is connected to the Master in her dreams. I think there is something interesting that Giles never gets Buffy's wrath directly, when he is maybe the person she should emotionally feel the most betrayed by. The power discrepancy is too great, perhaps? I bring it up because I think there is something about Buffy not being able to assail the patriarchy representative in Giles, and so taking much of her anger at him out on others. Not that she doesn't have anger at Xander, Willow, Angel and Cordelia too, of course, but she doesn't dream about them killing her. Giles, for his part, fills the role of being the friendliest, best-meaning instance of the patriarchy there is, which is why he is not actually a bad guy despite representing an institution dedicated to using women until their death. And that's perhaps why Buffy recognizes she can't actually act on her fear/anger at him. And of course, she relies on him to protect/love her, especially when her relationship with her own father is disintegrating.

[gabrielleabelle]

I wonder how much of Buffy's "sexy dance" is a bit of a response to Angel's mode of behaviour?

Ooooo...interesting! Lemme chew on that a bit.

I think there is something interesting that Giles never gets Buffy's wrath directly, when he is maybe the person she should emotionally feel the most betrayed by. The power discrepancy is too great, perhaps? I bring it up because I think there is something about Buffy not being able to assail the patriarchy representative in Giles, and so taking much of her anger at him out on others.

I can definitely see that. I think a lot of these issues come to a head in Helpless, when Giles more directly betrays her on behalf of the patriarchal institution. But we're definitely getting the seeds sown even this early on that Buffy, at least unconsciously, is clued in to the role Giles has in her life.

Love your thoughts! Thanks for coming out of fandom semi-hiatus to comment. :)

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Thanks! :D

I do think she gets it by Helpless. But it isn't until LMPTM that Buffy really actually makes the choice to shut Giles out and sort of...assert her dominance when it comes to her own life. It's too bad there isn't that much time to examine what their dynamic is after she's shut him out of a dominant position. Things sort of get resolved by his complimenting her plan as "bloody brilliant," I guess.

[gabrielleabelle]

Yeah, I've never been happy with the resolution to the Buffy/Giles rift at the end of LMPTM. One of those S7 threads that never adequately got addressed. :/