The Feminist Filter: Halloween

[gabrielleabelle]

Alright! Let's do Halloween! This one is particularly rich in the feminist text, so make yourself some tea. :)

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

Comments

[gabrielleabelle]

It's some interesting positioning, because that set of traits/actions that make up "the feminine" is usually construed as Other, and activities that code masculine are considered normal. Buffy connecting normalcy to femininity does offer a little bit of complexity to that, though I don't know if I can evaluate it as positive or negative.

Good point.

This series is making me really appreciate how much Xander was used (particularly during the early seasons) to highlight a lot of issues around anxious masculinity.

Very much so. It appears to be a common theme for Xander at this point.

Willow pointedly doesn't say Buffy should have dressed up like Superman or whoever. I don't know if that's an essentialist statement that male superheroes would be completely inaccessible to a young woman, or if it's deliberately claiming a powerful woman as the best thing to be.

I'd never thought of that. I think, going Doylist, part of it was just a shout-out to the other big "girl power" show of the time. Watsonian-wise, it carries some interesting implications, though. Especially with the point you raise about Willow not wondering why she didn't dress up as Xena.

I know Buffy's character gets the focus with this meta because most of the feminist text at this point centers around her, but it's also valuable to look at how Willow is affected by...everything. She usually has a different way of handling things and, even at this point, comes across as more enlightened on gender matters than Buffy is (not surprising considering Willow's mother).