Is there a double standard between Willow and Buffy's sexuality? (spoilers for s8)

[Blaze]

Not trying to re-ignite any debates about sexuality but I found this Joss quote from E! online interview (taken from Slayer: The complete episode guide) about Willow's sexuality. I found it interesting:

"Marti and I debated about whether or not Willow was bisexual, experimenting, going back and forth. We thought, after Tara, it really would be disingenuous of us to have her be anything less than gay. So we decided that's pretty much final- that's who she is. To backtrack on that would make it appear as if Tara's death was something other than it was."

Personally, I think he made the right choice to keep Willow the way she was, (even though I don't like Kennedy) to change her 'back' would've been the wrong choice, and I think, harmful to a lot of gay/lesbian fans of the show. It would've sent a bad message.

Completely agree. I know that back then as a 13-14yo, I wouldn't have been happy if they all of a sudden made her "straight" again. It would have sent the wrong message especially to the younger demographic.

My question is this, would the network have allowed it, to have Willow as a confirmed bi-sexual?
Personally I doubt it, most US networks are very wary of that whole subject. They prefer firm labels on their character's sexuality, at least back then.
And what do you think the fans would've made of it?

I'm not sure if they would have been happy with the term bisexual, but I think they would have been happy with Willow dating a guy again. I'm not too too sure about the timeline here, but I think s7 of Buffy was on around the same time as a lot of other shows doing that whole gay thing with a character before them going back to guys a few episodes later (trying to think of examples, the O.C. comes to mind, I think it came out 1-2 years after Buffy ended). Essentially that whole gay thing before being straight again was being done to death back then (and still is today).

As for fans, considering Twillow has a decent group of supporters, I could see people getting mad about it. But who knows, a lot of people loved her with Oz. Personally I'm glad with what we got.

 

[Still a Scoobie]

If Oz had come back, I think we could all have accepted that (and maybe it wouldn't have been as detrimental to the younger gay audience as some random guy might have been), but - imo - Willow definitely needed to be with a girl, for the good of the character and the show.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

One of the things that Joss would have been aware of at the time and probably would despise is the very lucrative cottage industry that has grown up among neocon Christians in America of turning a gay person straight again. They use slogans such as "pray the gay away" and target gays whose parents are aghast that their child could be gay. I think it would have been an extreme disservice to have Willow revert to heterosexuality because that would only give some credence to the idea that it could be done. If you are wondering what would force the networks to tread lightly in that area, the money earned by these sexual charlatans and their political connections would definitely be it.

Please note that this is not a comment on religion, but on the politics that the networks had to face and this effect did affect the writing content of the show.

 

[thetopher]

One of the things that Joss would have been aware of at the time and probably would despise is the very lucrative cottage industry that has grown up among neocon Christians in America of turning a gay person straight again. They use slogans such as "pray the gay away" and target gays whose parents are aghast that their child could be gay. I think it would have been an extreme disservice to have Willow revert to heterosexuality because that would only give some credence to the idea that it could be done. If you are wondering what would force the networks to tread lightly in that area, the money earned by these sexual charlatans and their political connections would definitely be it.

Please note that this is not a comment on religion, but on the politics that the networks had to face and this effect did affect the writing content of the show.

I agree with you. Especially the point about the networks.

But now I have this cringe-making image of the show writers trying to write a metaphor-monster-of-the-week around the whole 'pray the gay away'! Like they did with pretty much every challenge/fear that young adults faced ever, (drug addiction, depression, dating a guy who's bad for you...)
I imagining some demon that drains your 'true self' away, or maybe that demon Toth's spell that turns Willow into 'straight' Willow and 'gay' Willow. *shudder*
Thank god they didn't decide to go this route with the character.

---------- Post added at 10:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:51 AM ----------

Completely agree. I know that back then as a 13-14yo, I wouldn't have been happy if they all of a sudden made her "straight" again. It would have sent the wrong message especially to the younger demographic.



I'm not sure if they would have been happy with the term bisexual, but I think they would have been happy with Willow dating a guy again. I'm not too too sure about the timeline here, but I think s7 of Buffy was on around the same time as a lot of other shows doing that whole gay thing with a character before them going back to guys a few episodes later (trying to think of examples, the O.C. comes to mind, I think it came out 1-2 years after Buffy ended). Essentially that whole gay thing before being straight again was being done to death back then (and still is today).

As for fans, considering Twillow has a decent group of supporters, I could see people getting mad about it. But who knows, a lot of people loved her with Oz. Personally I'm glad with what we got.

Yeah, I saw a lot of 'les-faux' relationships in other shows during/after Buffy. It would often involve a straight female character falling for a guest character (also female) we'd never seen before. It would tick by in the background for a while before finally, for some contrived reason, they'd break up and the main character would go back to dating guys again. 🙁

I'm not saying that this doesn't happen in real life, I'm sure it does. But it became a pattern on a lot of tweenage shows (plus British soaps that would shout out about their 'daring' new plotline) it just got so predictable. 🙁
Which I guess is why Willow/Tara got some much praise- it felt like a real couple that just happened to be a gay couple. 🙂

 

[Blaze]

I agree with you. Especially the point about the networks.

But now I have this cringe-making image of the show writers trying to write a metaphor-monster-of-the-week around the whole 'pray the gay away'! Like they did with pretty much every challenge/fear that young adults faced ever, (drug addiction, depression, dating a guy who's bad for you...)
I imagining some demon that drains your 'true self' away, or maybe that demon Toth's spell that turns Willow into 'straight' Willow and 'gay' Willow. *shudder*
Thank god they didn't decide to go this route with the character.

Thank god it wasn't a metaphor demon of the week, but they touched on that in Tabula Rasa, where Willow is "straight" until she falls again for Tara. I agree that a demon of the week would have been very, very cringe worthy 😛 We also got a bit of this with vamp Willow, where we almost had "straight" Willow and "gay" Willow in the same room.

Yeah, I saw a lot of 'les-faux' relationships in other shows during/after Buffy. It would often involve a straight female character falling for a guest character (also female) we'd never seen before. It would tick by in the background for a while before finally, for some contrived reason, they'd break up and the main character would go back to dating guys again. 🙁

I'm not saying that this doesn't happen in real life, I'm sure it does. But it became a pattern on a lot of tweenage shows (plus British soaps that would shout out about their 'daring' new plotline) it just got so predictable. 🙁
Which I guess is why Willow/Tara got some much praise- it felt like a real couple that just happened to be a gay couple. 🙂

Yes, that's exactly what I was talking about! And it happened to always involved a female character. It got annoying really fast, seemed like the shows just did it to be cool, when in reality it was more annoying than anything else. I think that's why I'm still iffy about seeing bisexuals on TV because no one can seem to do it right.

 

[Xin Rong]

I agree with you. Especially the point about the networks.

But now I have this cringe-making image of the show writers trying to write a metaphor-monster-of-the-week around the whole 'pray the gay away'! Like they did with pretty much every challenge/fear that young adults faced ever, (drug addiction, depression, dating a guy who's bad for you...)
I imagining some demon that drains your 'true self' away, or maybe that demon Toth's spell that turns Willow into 'straight' Willow and 'gay' Willow. *shudder*
Thank god they didn't decide to go this route with the character.

---------- Post added at 10:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:51 AM ----------



Yeah, I saw a lot of 'les-faux' relationships in other shows during/after Buffy. It would often involve a straight female character falling for a guest character (also female) we'd never seen before. It would tick by in the background for a while before finally, for some contrived reason, they'd break up and the main character would go back to dating guys again. 🙁

I'm not saying that this doesn't happen in real life, I'm sure it does. But it became a pattern on a lot of tweenage shows (plus British soaps that would shout out about their 'daring' new plotline) it just got so predictable. 🙁
Which I guess is why Willow/Tara got some much praise- it felt like a real couple that just happened to be a gay couple. 🙂

I'm thinking Marissa in the O.C. that's exactly what happened there