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

Comments

[andygrrrl]

Lots of interesting observations. I've always found Buffy's behavior in this episode to be kind of jarring; she's traumatized by her encounter with the Master so...she acts like a "slutty bitch"? Slutty bitch = traumatized girl is an equation that doesn't make sense to me, but the show pushes it heavily, both with Faith and Buffy's later behavior in Season 6. I guess it boils down to the fact that misogyny equates sexually confident/aggressive women as threatening and bad, and of course any woman who expresses anger assertively is Teh Evil. There also seems to be some correlation with power -- women with power are often portrayed this way, and of course Cordelia (and Harmony) have this characteristic. Cordelia is a bitca simply because she's queen bee of the school; trauma itself doesn't seem essential to this trope.

[gabrielleabelle]

Interesting point. The show definitely falls into the trope of female displays of sexuality being negative. Anya's overt sexuality is played for comedy and makes the other characters uncomfortable. The only time Buffy's sexuality is shown in a positive light is with Riley. I do have a lot of issues with how sex is portrayed in the series.

The specific instance of Buffy acting like a "slutty bitch" as a result of trauma doesn't bother me so much because there's a lot more going on than just that. The episode manages to give her a depth and dimension that rounds her out as a fully developed character that neutralizes the trope for me.

[debetesse]

I tend to see it more as "Buffy's life has been taken out of her control in a traumatizing way. To make up for that lack of control, she's going to control what she can, especially if she can use it to traumatize others. Because you know you have control when you are able to hurt other people." It's a not-uncommon response for kids who have been sexually abused.

[amycooper]

This. Plus I saw her behavior as protective distancing.

[lynnenne]

Slutty bitch = traumatized girl is an equation that doesn't make sense to me, but the show pushes it heavily, both with Faith and Buffy's later behavior in Season 6. I guess it boils down to the fact that misogyny equates sexually confident/aggressive women as threatening and bad, and of course any woman who expresses anger assertively is Teh Evil.

*nods* I loathe this episode with the power of a thousand suns, for exactly this reason.