The Feminist Filter: Dead Man's Party

[gabrielleabelle]

I'm done with my final and, thus, done with my undergrad! *dances*

I'm celebrating by having a beer and slapping up the feminist filter post for Dead Man's Party. What? My way of celebrating is UNIQUE!

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

Comments

[kikimay]

Congratulations for your undergrad! Congratulations!

I hate Xander. I don't like his attitude, especially when he's all judgmental with Buffy. He dismisses her emotional trauma and, basically, all the things happened after Angel lost his soul, including Jenny's death, because the problem is gone. But, when Angel come back, he seems pretty upset after seeing him with Buffy. He contradicts himself. I think he blames Buffy for chosing as "honey" a demon like Angelus and sleeping with him. Cordelia enforces this though about blame:it was Buffy's fault the evilness of Angel. Generally I hate the fact that Buffy is supposed to be ashamed of herself in S3. Brrr.

[gabrielleabelle]

Thank you!

And yeah, Xander doesn't make himself look very good in early S3. At all.

[itsnotmymind]

Despite the fact that Xander is being a total jerk in this episode, I have sympathy with him. The fact is that Angel was killing people--Xander or anyone he loved could have been killed by Angel--and Buffy refrained from killing Angel when she had the opportunity. Xander was powerless to stop Angel. He was dependent on Buffy. I really don't know why they didn't summon Kendra if Buffy couldn't bring herself to kill Angel, but given that they didn't, this leaves everyone dependent on Buffy, whose failure to act got Jenny Calendar killed. A situation like that is guaranteed to build resentment

[local_max]

Yeah, that -- see also my reply to ever-neutral below. None of it excuses his behaviour, but it makes total emotional sense and has to do with gender issues, so, +1.

[ceciliaj]

The "meet any nice pimps?" comment is really gross, especially considering that, at the end of this season, Xander will decide to go on the road a la Jack Kerouac, a romantic fantasy he has. It's true to the dudely spirit of Kerouac et al's literary legacy in the U.S. cultural imagination that Xander sees things this way, but it's not cool that he has to deny Buffy the agency of a self-discovery road trip of her own. Of course, as is often the case for Xander, it turns out that he was actually projecting his own sexual insecurities onto Buffy, because, during his road trip, he is the one whose body ends up being exploited.

[gabrielleabelle]

Oh, good point.

[ever_neutral]

CONGRATS!

3. Oddly, I feel like Xander's dismissiveness here stems from his expectation for Buffy to be the perfect Strong Woman™. Ergo, Buffy reacting the way she did - like a young woman struggling to cope with trauma - is somehow unacceptable to him. He puts her on a pedestal, and then believes he has the right to judge her when she fails to live up to his idealised image of her.

[local_max]

Ooh, good point. I think, too, Xander is attacking a Straw Buffy who thinks that she DID behave as the Perfect Strong Woman [TM]. Buffy doesn't SEEM to think that leaving Sunnydale for a few months and not calling was imperfect, so she must believe she handled it perfectly, and needs to be told she didn't

[ever_neutral]

I think, too, Xander is attacking a Straw Buffy who thinks that she DID behave as the Perfect Strong Woman [TM]. Buffy doesn't SEEM to think that leaving Sunnydale for a few months and not calling was imperfect, so she must believe she handled it perfectly, and needs to be told she didn't.

Yeah, this.

My other favourite thing about Xander here -- is that he is acting as Protector (falsely)

Good point. He definitely seems to be projecting his own hurt and anger at her abandonment of him, and expressing it very badly. That's probably a gender thing too. He can't talk about his feelings of betrayal, but he can be aggressive and angry.

[local_max]

Good point. He definitely seems to be projecting his own hurt and anger at her abandonment of him, and expressing it very badly. That's probably a gender thing too. He can't talk about his feelings of betrayal, but he can be aggressive and angry.

Ooh, right. And that actually shows up really nicely in the contrast with Willow, who reacts in a "traditionally feminine" way -- she talks about her own feelings of hurt. And of course, she *can't* be "aggressive and angry," even though a part of her probably is angry (not that she should be, but you know where I'm going hopefully). Well, actually, first she avoids dealing with it period in typical Avoidant Personality Disorder way, but when she talks about it it opens her up to accusations of being self-absorbed. But it's generally a better way to deal.

[rpowell]

The plot of the episode revolves around a Nigerian mask that Joyce got from her gallery. Joyce refers to it as "primitive art". African art is often used to convey a savage evil, in this case, zombies. While we later learn that it is an ancient artifact, it's notable that it falls into a particularly racist trope with regards to anything from the African continent.

You are the first person that I know who has caught on this. Good call!

[gabrielleabelle]

Thanks. It kinda makes me cringe, to be honest. That, plus the depiction of the First Slayer later in Restless (especially with Buffy's "haircare" comment *cringe*). Not high moments for the show.

[itsnotmymind]

It's interesting that Buffy compares attending a girls' school to foot-binding, a misogynistic Chinese tradition. Buffy's no doubt referencing the restrictiveness of the environment, but the analogy doesn't work very well.Sounds like teenage overdramaticness to me: not being allowed to be a full adult yet = being oppressed. Not an unheard of attitude

[gabrielleabelle]

Sounds like teenage overdramaticness to me: not being allowed to be a full adult yet = being oppressed. Not an unheard of attitude.

Good point.

Re: points to consider 2: The very fact that it is described as "primitive" carries some implicit racism. Ancient art from Europe is less likely to be called "primitive". It gives the impression that art created by black people is inherently less civilized than art created by white people.

Definitely. Old art from Europe usually just gets called "ancient" or is specified by what time period it's from (whereas, of course, that doesn't matter in Africa because it's all the same, I suppose).

Point 3: *nods*

[mcjulie]

As I get all squee-full about the King Tut exhibit opening here in Seattle, the notion of African art as "primitive" seems particularly absurd.