The use of metaphor in Buffy episodes

[Emmy]

I would like to continue a discussion which was started on the "check in" board.
It is about ideas people might have of the real meanings of the Buffy episodes ie: what real life problems they represent.
Some examples are:
Angel's need for blood as a representation of a person struggling with alcoholism.
Willow's addiction to magic as similar to the behaviour of a drug addict.
Bad Eggs as a discussion of what it is like to be a teenage single parent and feel your life, and your free will, taken over by the baby.
Ted as an example of the feeling that no man is good enough to marry your mother.
The Initiative's indiscriminate slaying of Demons, even if they are good members of society like Oz, as a parallel with racism.
Innocence as a discussion of the fear women have that their boyfriends will leave them, or consider them to be easy, if they go too far.
Please feel free to share any thoughts of your own, or anything you might have heard or read on this subject.
If you want to read the first messages, go to the same title on the check in box.

 

[Spike's Princess]

Dawn date in "season 6 "going all the way" it a metaphor for date rape. (almost date rape) There are a lot of metaphor in btvs. It takes real life problems teenagers face today and change it around. Buffy dealing with a oder man (angel) she all full of life thinking of their futrue together, but Angel (the older man does not take it as seriously as she does. he changes.. which is usualy how older guys , younger girls relationship goes. there is so much I can say on the subject🙂

 

[gman992]

All I can do is stand-up for my gender and say "Hey!" There are tons of men out there who want serious relationships. The problem is that young women are always attracted to the wrong men in the first place, and let go those who love them completely. I mean look at what happened with Buffy and Angel/Spike. They both attack her, and yet, she still loves them...

 

[Emmy]

In Beauty and the Beasts, Buffy discussed Angel turning evil with the school counsellor the way a woman in a relationship with domestic violence would discuss her partner. In a way there were lots of parallels with this scenario. The way everything between them was okay at first, then he turned evil, he stalked her and he kept insisting he still loved her. He came back from hell, told her he had changed and she wasn't sure whether to take him back.
This isn't supposed to be saying anything about men as a whole, just some men who do this to their girlfriends.
The relationship with Spike was a little different. There was violence in that relationship but it was almost as if the violence was okay with both of them. It's different if both parties are consenting.

 

[Soulgasm]

i think the metaphors are like lost and never noticed to the audience because of the demographics...buffy is a damn deep show but it gets a bum rap for being a teen show...that pisses me off...hulk mad!!!