Buffy - Superhero?

[Willow Rosenberg]

I found this article that I thought was really intriguing about how Buffy is supposed to represent female power, but she really doesn't represent much of the female population.

Here's an exerpt:

We need some superheroines now more than ever. We need witches, mutants, slayers and freaks to fight for us and along side us. Maybe Girls Who Bite Back, edited by Emily Pohl-Weary (Sumach Press, 2004), will help us find some.
Half the authors in GWBB think Buffy the Vampire Slayer epitomizes girl power. Let's ask her. Hey, skinny blonde teenager, you star in your own TV show. You karate-chop through vamps and demons the way that a chef juliennes carrots! You're strong, smart and always witty. You're the coolest thing since Wonder Bread, right?
On second thought, maybe not. You see, Buffy, you ARE Wonder Bread. You're perfectly white, just like all your friends. As Candra Gill points out in her essay "Cuz the Black Chick Always Gets It First: Dynamics of Race in Buffy the Vampire Slayer," any characters of color on the show are either subservient, dead, minor, or several of the above. Buffy, you're supposed to be an Everygirl, but you aren't. Your bourgeois, homogenous world isn't as rich and as multi-colored as ours. You can't be our superhero. You're too boring.

Source

 

[Jenny]

Oh man sooo don't agree with that article! I don't even know where to begin. Ok so because Buffy is blonde, petite, has nice clothes...only other blonde, petite, girls are going to look up to her? For real? Bullcrap.

I don't think people associate with only Buffy, they associate with the idea of the Slayer. Look in Chosen. They made ALL of the potential girls, regardless of race, age, or sexuality the slayer. I guess just the thought of a WOMAN, regardless of her colour or social status, having that much power, being that GOOD through and through is inspiring to other women.

Your bourgeois, homogenous world isn't as rich and as multi-colored as ours. You can't be our superhero. You're too boring.

That's funny because that's the last thing I've ever considered the Buffyverse to be. 😀

 

[Xander]

So what if SMG is a petite little blonde, its often referred that Sarah dies her hair, and obviously Buffy does but its never mentioned. In a flashback to her childhood shes brunette, so its not a case of blondes are better, they can't make an actress (much less the lead one) change her hair colour. And Buffy is bound to be petite, for petes sake every night she goes and fights vampires. Maybe Weight Watchers should try that?!?

And it seems that we are all trying to be a bit PC. Im not normally one to tout out the "PC gone mad" argument but we don't need to see in every frame a male, a female, a white person, a black person, a mix-raced person, a chinese person, a disable person, an elderly person and a cat! I never really met a "coloured" (or whatever term you prefer) person until I went to high school and never really became friends with one until last year at work. Its not like Buffy is like "Nope, no black people! My friends are all white for a reason!", its just thats what happens from time to time.

 

[Xin Rong]

What about principal wood, he was a man character and it had loads of cultures that wheren't american, e.g. spike angel, to a certain extent jenny calendar romania- im not sure but does californai have a lot of black people in it if it dosnt then it would seem that this would be a good reason for their not being a lot of different ethnic groups

 

[eponinethen]

I don't think BtVS is the ideal when it comes to this, it's not Always anti-sexism, anti-racism and so on. Not always politically correct in every way. And it's not supposed to be, it's not a political TV show. But, I do think Buffy is a good super hero. And btw, what are we comparing to..?
The idea was to have that blonde girl cliche, looking like she couldn't open a door by herself, turning out ot be this super cool strong vampire slaying hero. That's what's so great about it.
And sure, there aren't as many black people as white people, there aren't as many gay characters as straight, all girls aren't superstrong, many of the strong character (mostly villains) are male... But so what..? We've got our wonderful female superhero. And there are a lot of strong female characters, more than on most shows. Buffy can't do everything, it can't be everything.. But to me it's kinda perfect, and I'd call it a feministic show without hesitating a second.

 

[LadyLavinia]

It's possible that this article has a small point. This isn't the first article to complain about the lack of ethnic diversity in BtVS, which is set in a state well known for ethnic diversity. Let's face it - we didn't really see that many ethnically diverse characters until Season 7. And one could not help but wonder if such complaints had led Whedon to include the Charles Gunn character in AtS.

But there is a more important matter I want to bring up. Why is it so important for the public to enjoy stories about "superheroes/superheroines"? Why do we need these stories? Why do need a hero so badly? I think that the author had a point in the following passage:

Carly Stasko's essay, the best and truest of the lot, tells you "How to Be Your Own Superhero." In her words, superheroism sounds an awful lot like finding what you're good at and what makes you happy, then striving, no matter what, to do good. We can do that!

Maybe if we can learn to appreciate our own strengths, we wouldn't be so dependent upon stories about so-called superheroes/superheroines.

 

[eponinethen]

I have never thought about why I need a superhero. Actually I have never felt that I need a superhero. I just think that since there are so man male superheroes, there should be some female as well.
But of course you are tru LadyLavinia, we shouldn't need them. But I really don't think I need the character Buffy in that way. Or any superhero at all really.. they have actually never interested me until I found BtVS. But I also really do believe that these characters/shows can help us appreciate our own strenghts, become more confident about ourselves. Maybe we shouldn't need someone to help us with that, maybe we should be able to be that strong, just by ourselves... But I don't know.. are we..? And do we need to be..? If it helps..?

 

[Spike My Darlin]

I for one don't need a superhero male/female at all. I want a superhero story because they are fun, they are different than the real world where everyone is powerless.

As for the race thing, big frelling deal. When hiring talent for a show it is about finding the best for the role that show up and audition. If no Latinos show up you can't hire one, if they do show up and they are all poor actors or good actors but don't fit the part you shouldn't hire them because they are Latino, because that is racism.

So Buffy didn't have any friends who weren't white, big deal. You associate with people who you have things in common with. She was a social outcast and she felt closer to those who were also social outcasts. If Xander was Chinese she would have still hanged out with him because he would sill have been a social outcast.

 

[SpikedBuffy]

The epitome of Buffy's superheroness is not because she represents the average girl. Of course she doesn't Is there even an average female out there? Good luck on that one.

The meaning is that we idolize that she is a GIRL and can take care of herself. Nobody cares that she is blond or a stick. What they care about is that she can take care of herself, and every female has it inside her to be all that she can be! (not thinking Army here). It's all about heavy feminism, and it makes me proud to be a female! I know that if I really want to, I can take care of myself.

Race has got nothing to do with it. Boil it all down, and what do you have? Males and Females. The point is, that all females are the same (work with me here) regardless of height, weight, color, race, ethnicity, hair color, etc. It's just about being a woman.

Hello, did you watch Chosen? That's what it is all about. Every girl who might be Slayer, will be a Slayer.

Every woman who wants to be powerful, beautiful, sexy, and in control, can be just that. It just takes brains.

 

[nerd4hire]

As far as "ethnic diversity" goes Buffy/Angel has tons of it. As far as articles written complaining about the lack of ED in B/A, I read the one about Gunn. It proposed ridiculous concepts, and was badly researched.

And hey, black men got Blade, why can't skinny blond girls have a Buffy as a power model? 😀

 

[eponinethen]

As for the race thing, big frelling deal. When hiring talent for a show it is about finding the best for the role that show up and audition. If no Latinos show up you can't hire one, if they do show up and they are all poor actors or good actors but don't fit the part you shouldn't hire them because they are Latino, because that is racism.

Well, you're right. But if BtVS was a TV show that was supposed to be actively politiccally, anti-rasism, and so on... they would try hard to find good actors of "different colors", so that all Buffy's friends (or Buffy herself) weren't white, because that would be making a point and being a political TV show. (But that is not what BtVS is, so I'm not complaining. As I said, BtVS can't do everything, and maybe shouldn't be extremely politically correct, 'cause that tend to irritate people even more.)

 

[Jenny]

The epitome of Buffy's superheroness is not because she represents the average girl. Of course she doesn't Is there even an average female out there? Good luck on that one.

What they care about is that she can take care of herself, and every female has it inside her to be all that she can be!

I just wanted to meantion that these are two VERY excellent points and that I agree completely. Good job.