The Feminist Filter: Surprise

[gabrielleabelle]

Come on, you know you guys have been waiting for this one. :)

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 feminist framework so as to see what

Comments

[lynnenne]

'want' isn't always the right thing *to* do. To act on want can be wrong.

I always felt that the dialogue here implies that women - especially teenaged girls - acting on their sexual desires is somehow "wrong." This is heightened by the previous episode, "Bad Eggs," which reinforces the potentially negative consequences of sex (i.e. unintended pregnancy). The whole series of episodes, from "Bad Eggs" to "Innocence" (and beyond) reads a bit like an abstinence lecture: Sex bad! Chastity good!

It's kind of ironic that the only healthy sexual relationship Buffy ever has on the show is with Riley, with whom she has no chemistry whatsover. *g*

[gabrielleabelle]

I think that's definitely a part of it. I think it also gets wrapped up in the Forbidden Love aspect of the Buffy/Angel relationship (which acts a demonstrative vehicle for the SEX IS BAD message).

It's kind of ironic that the only healthy sexual relationship Buffy ever has on the show is with Riley, with whom she has no chemistry whatsover. *g*

That's why Buffy totally boffed with Spike in the fade-to-black in Chosen in my head-canon. *nods*

[norwie2010]

That's why Buffy totally boffed with Spike in the fade-to-black in Chosen in my head-canon. *nods*

Totally! Including candle wax! (Spike references this in his last scene on the show: "It kind of stings"... *nods*)

[gabrielleabelle]

You, sir, have single-handedly made my morning. Well done!

[pocochina]

I don't...disagree, exactly. The narrative is reacting to a lot of ugly attitudes, but it's doing so in a way that's arguably critical. It's really common for heartbreak to be rolled into all the other "have sex and YOU WILL DIE" crap. But the message of S2 is that even if you have sex and there's a dire consequence, you can still keep it from being the end of the world. It doesn't take away your identity a la "being a virgin" or not What's left? Me.

Which all sounds very obvious and should be expected, I agree. But I think for girls whose supposedly-reliable sources of information about sex are implying (or outright stating, HI MOM!) that having sex is a death sentence, this is as radical a message as the original girl-in-the-alley metaphor. I think it all functions to further subvert the virginial final girl trope, if all this danger follows sex and she still wins in the end.

(edit: uh, moved to the right thread, sorry!)

[stormwreath]

The narrative is reacting to a lot of ugly attitudes, but it's doing so in a way that's arguably critical. It's really common for heartbreak to be rolled into all the other "have sex and YOU WILL DIE" crap. But the message of S2 is that even if you have sex and there's a dire consequence, you can still keep it from being the end of the world.

I'd agree with that... I don't read the story from Bad Eggs to Innocence (and then to the end of the season) as saying that sex is bad, but rather that it's scary and potentially dangerous. It can lead to pregnancy ('Bad Eggs') or your ex becoming an abusive stalker ('Surprise/Innocence'), or you yourself becoming obsessive and suicidal ('I Only Have Eyes For You') or jealous and possessive ('Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered'). So yeah, sex can have nasty after-effects.

But I agree with you: the overall message of the season is that you can survive all that. It doesn't change who you are as a person, nor does it reflect on your moral character. Remember, 'Innocence' ends with both Giles and

[norwie2010]

This. On top of that, i'm baffled to encounter the idea in fandom from time to time that Buffy somehow "fails" because Angel becomes evol. I think Joyce and Giles make it very clear that Buffy is neither to blame, nor "damaged goods" in any way.

I think some of the "sex is bad" stuff is actually coming retroactively from season "longing" 3. Because i that season it is text (and also: poor Faith!).

[gabrielleabelle]

I kinda agree with both of you, oddly enough.

This is something we'll address directly in the Innocence outline. That and the general cultural trope of "the innocent love-struck girl sleeping with a dude and getting burned", which gets repeated in S4 with Parker (though less "love-struck" and more "optimistic"). The persistent cultural portrayal of young girls wanting love and only getting sex, getting hurt, etc, is a subtle way of reinforcing the message that girls want love when they have sex (and thus that icky "hook-up culture" that the feminists have wrought is harmful to their pure hearts).

[mcjulie]

But the message of S2 is that even if you have sex and there's a dire consequence, you can still keep it from being the end of the world. It doesn't take away your identity a la "being a virgin" or not What's left? Me.

I really, really like this interpretation.

There are a few Buffy eps that could be read as "punishment for being naughty" (Reptile Boy comes instantly to mind) but I think the overall show message tends to be more nuanced than that.

[samsom]

Sometimes I think too nuanced.

I think it might have been a more powerful message for Buffy to have sex without the horrifying consequences, because whatever positive message the writers may have intended sort of got lost in the roar of sex is bad that jumps out from some episodes.