Spectatorship and Gender. - Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Yvonne Tasker
The show raises some contradictions to the article. There is also the notion of social interaction between the teenagers. The premise of Buffy is that, at all time throughout history, a single, young woman designated as the slayer has the combination of intelligence, strength and courage necessary to fight the demons roaming the earth. In keeping with the millennial mindset, the late 1990's opened a hellmouth in Sunnydale, California, resulting in an extraordinary number of demons for the current slayer, Buffy Summers, to conquer. What makes Buffy so different from many current television offerings is that it portrays psychoanalytically charged themes so effectively through the use of supernatural mythology. Current episodes continue this theme of the shifting nature of good and evil, as characters are portrayed as sometimes making not only bad choices, but also morally wrong ones. Angel's (Buffy's boyfriend, of sorts) curse held that if he ever experienced a moment of perfect human happiness the spell would be lifted. Sex with Buffy qualified for this happiness and the spell, one that suppressed his vampiric nature, was lifted, restoring him to his former devilish self. This moment was the rebirth of the evil and vengeful Angelus.
A female must go through a physical transformation, for instance, building muscles for people to realise her status change. The suggestion that an action heroine is really a man is derived from the theory that women should always be represented through codes of femininity. The life and death nature of Buffy and Angelus' relationship is exaggerated, but, in the context of the show, these episodes nicely demonstrate the emotional complexity of any ordinary human relationships. Buffy demonstrates adult love quite well in its exploration of the aggression that often accompanies intimate love relationships. Angelus is clearly the aggressor, so Buffy's violent response to him is understandable. This is associated with the usual feminine code of; when a woman is done wrong, she turns into a vengeful machine. In placing the shows heroine in the position of seeking revenge, we see her capacity for rage, which is clearly not a very feminine thing to be doing.
The show raises some contradictions to the article. There is also the notion of social interaction between the teenagers. The premise of Buffy is that, at all time throughout history, a single, young woman designated as the slayer has the combination of intelligence, strength and courage necessary to fight the demons roaming the earth. In keeping with the millennial mindset, the late 1990's opened a hellmouth in Sunnydale, California, resulting in an extraordinary number of demons for the current slayer, Buffy Summers, to conquer. What makes Buffy so different from many current television offerings is that it portrays psychoanalytically charged themes so effectively through the use of supernatural mythology. Current episodes continue this theme of the shifting nature of good and evil, as characters are portrayed as sometimes making not only bad choices, but also morally wrong ones. Angel's (Buffy's boyfriend, of sorts) curse held that if he ever experienced a moment of perfect human happiness the spell would be lifted. Sex with Buffy qualified for this happiness and the spell, one that suppressed his vampiric nature, was lifted, restoring him to his former devilish self. This moment was the rebirth of the evil and vengeful Angelus.
A female must go through a physical transformation, for instance, building muscles for people to realise her status change. The suggestion that an action heroine is really a man is derived from the theory that women should always be represented through codes of femininity. The life and death nature of Buffy and Angelus' relationship is exaggerated, but, in the context of the show, these episodes nicely demonstrate the emotional complexity of any ordinary human relationships. Buffy demonstrates adult love quite well in its exploration of the aggression that often accompanies intimate love relationships. Angelus is clearly the aggressor, so Buffy's violent response to him is understandable. This is associated with the usual feminine code of; when a woman is done wrong, she turns into a vengeful machine. In placing the shows heroine in the position of seeking revenge, we see her capacity for rage, which is clearly not a very feminine thing to be doing.
