[meta] the problem with insiders: the heroic outsider (1/5)
Herein lies the newest meta series in the works - this time dealing with the Insiders vs. Outsiders Narrative that Buffy operates on through all seven series. (I am not going to touch on the comics because ugh, that's why.) Although this is all related to my larger Dawn project, there's going to be a lot less Dawn in this series than usual. Mostly
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Comments 14
There is so much here to talk about but there are two things that are screaming at me:
Firstly - the mention of Cat and Olive is SO intriguing given their status as "modern AU" versions of older stories (how times have changed - not) and in the same way that Buffy is Joss' "AU" horror movie victim. None of them can quite fit into the worlds that they've been placed in, so they have to shatter it from the outside. (And on another note, all the bullshitty things about sex and sexuality in the Buffyverse correlate to the sexual constraints in Easy A and 10 Things, except Buffy never manages to overthrow hers - which is VERY TELLING IMO ( ... )
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(I needed this comment like you don't even know.)
except Buffy never manages to overthrow hers - which is VERY TELLING IMO
yes. in terms of a feminine/romance story - Buffy is always subservient to it AND never gets a reward.
(I don't even want to talk about this it will make me angry. the one thing that Bulman's analysis neglects - is how the 'reward' is different for males and females - esp in terms of what they are expected to reject. Olive and Cat reject a system that makes them objects, only to 'get the guy' - and in Buffy's case, she keeps getting/caring about having the guy and that somehow is punishable? go to hell joss)
Faith is the single most important person on the series. (It infuriates me the lack of support that Giles and Joyce offer her. I am forever bitter about that.) (especially Joyce willing to throw Faith into the fray for Buffy's college education. HELLO MIDDLE CLASS METAPHOR)
Am I a villain because I spent childhood with an alcoholic dad who lost his job and spent my Mum's money on ( ... )
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Faith is the single most important person on the series. (It infuriates me the lack of support that Giles and Joyce offer her. I am forever bitter about that.) (especially Joyce willing to throw Faith into the fray for Buffy's college education. HELLO MIDDLE CLASS METAPHOR)#Thank ( ... )
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hardest year ever i have never been so upset
#Thank
(I try not to spout my Joyce-scepticism, but I think S5 overly romanticized her and fans tend to forget S3 and how little she [and Giles] did to protect a helpless girl at their fingertips WHO WAS BEGGING FOR HELP DON'T EVEN LOOK AT ME)
EVERYTHING YOU HAVE TO SAY. (especially about Cordy omg my queen)
she is the embodiment of all the poor little kids with troubled childhoods and she gets twisted into a villainous puppet for an upperclass elitist politician? The glittery fuck??exactly. It's so troubling that the most common reading is: "but Faith WANTED it" like bull fucking shit. Faith wanting to be loved and accepted does NOT mean she is somehow lesser than Buffy (who has HER OWN daddy issues). glittery fuck indeed ( ... )
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The fallacy of course being that you will finally belong if you prove yourself independent and strong enough to not want it.
JESUS CHRIST.
THIS. FOR REAL.
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I KNOW RIGHT. UGH.
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This post is a fucking godsend.
Truly, Faith was more of a danger to the middle-class idealism of Buffy than she ever was to Buffy or her friends.
My girl. MY GIRL. FURIOUS ABOUT IT.
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Thank you.
FURIOUS ABOUT IT.
FOREVER FUCKING FURIOUS ABOUT IT.
btvs is just such a failure on so many levels in hindsight it makes me so angry
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An interesting point. As a non-American, living in a culture which often celebrates the offbeat, I hadn't really thought of it that way. In this context it's interesting that two regular critics of American values are Giles and Spike, neither of whom, for totally different reasons, are ever going to buy into that ideal, or achieve popularity through difference. Angel, OTOH, seems to have been assimilated by his host society to a much greater degree, and is actually (in his own show) better at navigating it and achieving that form of acceptance.
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Giles and Spike are very interesting because they both participate in several layers of Othering? Generationally, job-status (Watcher/vampire), and being British. And I've never thought about them in terms of this construct but... I would almost say that of any of the characters, they both really exemplify this myth of the Individual? Because Giles is portrayed so often as being very different from the Watchers - he's not invited to their picnics and isn't kept in the loop. In fact, he becomes a Hero in his own right when he rejects the Council for his love for Buffy. That's a really important moment for him. (Especially in contrast to Wesley - the Council Poster Boy.) And, the more we learn about Giles the less he is the Council-strawman and the more he is ( ... )
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See also: my constant bemusement at Glee's cultural markers.
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Gabrielle
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Faith has always been a favorite of mine. Like clockwork_hart1, I grew up poor/low-middle class, so there was very little about Buffy or Willow's lives that I could identify with. Faith's disordered life and abandonment issues I understood. And it's always bothered me the way the series uses her.
♥
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