The Feminist Filter: When She Was Bad
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 ( Read more... )
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 ( Read more... )
The obvious implication is her offering up sexual favors in return for her life being saved. This plays into an age-old traditional narrative of women offering up their bodies in return for help from men (marriage was the ultimate example of this exchange of sex for economic security and protection). It's so traditional, it's become an expectation among some people.I find it especially interesting given that Buffy is constantly saving other people, and as far as I can remember is never "rewarded" with sexual favors. It speaks both to the gender dynamic - Buffy, the attractive young female saving the day, throws people off script enough that they don't respond that way; perhaps also they assume that as a woman she wouldn't want that particular reward? - but also to this other idea that people take Buffy's saving them for granted ( ... )
Reply
The closest reversal I can even think of is Buffy and Riley having sex in The I in Team after fighting the Polgara. However, that wasn't so much a case of Buffy rescuing Riley as it was the two of them fighting together.
Oh! Actually, we do get one good example of Buffy being offered sex/romance after rescuing a guy: In OMWF during "Going Through the Motions". The "How can I repay...?" "Whatever" dude. It's played for comedy, though.
So interesting! In fact, even in AtS, we get a couple instances of Angel being offered sex by women he's saved/protected.
Reply
In the Zeppo, Xander saves Faith (although mostly with his getaway car and less with brawling). Directly afterwards, they have sex. Although that scene does interesting stuff with the reverse gender dynamic (Faith seduces the virgin Xander, then denies him an emotional connection afterwards) it's maybe part of a problematic pattern where a man saving a woman is followed by sex/romance.
(This is also after the teaser, where Faith mocks Xander's masculinity after he's scared by a demon: "That was real manly how you shrieked and all.")
Also: Spike & Buffy's first real kiss in Once More With Feeling comes after Spike saves Buffy. (And in this case is maybe intentionally playing into the trope, given the cinematic quality of the episode.) Although I don't think the Buffy/Spike dynamic is anything like Buffy/Angel - I read one as subversive, and the other as an upfront attempt to overturn gender dynamics. But I'd be interested to see if there's other Spike/Buffy moments that buy into this
Reply
Reply
The damsel/rewards is repeatedly addressed from Buffy's side in Beer Bad with Parker. You know, till she whacks him on the head.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment