Buffy vs. The Fridge

Before I begin, I’d like to warn any and all Buffy fans that this post is rife with spoilers for the entire Buffy series. I spoil the comics as well, if you’re not there yet, so beware. Beware! Now, on with the show.

What do you keep in your refrigerator? Is it carrots? Is it half a jar of yellowing mayonnaise? Is it the sliced-and-diced body of your girlfriend? Because that’s what the Green Lantern found in his, apparently. Not the mayonnaise, but the girlfriend. And it’s this fridge issue that seems to be cropping up everywhere in pop culture these days.

For those of you who’ve never heard of the Women in Refrigerators trend, I'll link to the wikipedia article, but I also found a lot of other fun sites. I especially enjoyed a certain blog post entitled “The Dolls in Topher’s Fridge”, but would like to reserve all Dollhouse discussion in this blog for a later date when I’ve had time to rewatch all the episodes. But if you’re into Dollhouse, I highly suggest checking it out.

Anyway, some online discussion led me to believe that Buffy is a series that exhibits WiR syndrome. It's hard for me to believe that a show like Buffy, that's clearly unlike most comic books just in the fact that it features a female lead instead of a male, could be a show where people believe the women are put in refrigerators, so to speak. After all, Jessie's death in the first episode seems like Joss was trying to set up his own precedent for the show right off the bat. The death of Jessie said anyone could die at any moment for any reason, with little to no warning, no matter how likeable they were. (Joyce's body in the corner of your screen a second before Buffy turned around? Yuh-huh.)

But in Jessie’s fatal encounter with the wrong side of a stake, Joss isn't just telling fans that this will be a series fraught with surprise and, well, death. To me Jessie's death is the anti-WiR death. For all the pretty little comic queens who are around just long enough to prove how much they matter to the main character and then die in a twisted way, there is Jessie, a young male, around just long enough to prove how much he matters as a friend to Xander, and then it's off to Dustville for the poor sap. I believe that in the seven television seasons of Buffy, none of the deaths can be called a Women in Refrigerator type of death, and that deaths like Jessie’s prove just how gender-equal the deaths are. Jessie was Buffy’s first ever damsel in distress.

Even Tara going crazy didn't last terribly long, and as much as people want to argue that Tara's death was a classic case of a women being...refrigeratored, it's a totally unmerited argument. Tara was a well-developed character and was around for more than just a gruesome death. I think the thing that sets the deaths in Buffy apart for me is that they aren't just done to motivate the main character to act. I believe Willow's reaction to Tara's death is a callback to the trend of comic book heroes charging off to avenge the gruesome deaths of their girlfriends, but Joss turns Willow’s would-be rightful rampage on its head. Though in the end Willow flays Warren alive, she also tries to kill Buffy and end the world, and has to spend a lot of re-coop time in the giant grassy field-filled rehab that is England, realizing that even though it may seem right, vengeance has its price.

But as much as I like the TV show, and as much as I can understand most of the deaths that happen, I wonder if the comic-book season eight of Buffy isn't falling into all the classic comic traps that Joss's TV show seem to be lampooning. Xander's love interest Renee is impaled by the newest baddie in a full blood-soaked page in the end of “Wolves at the Gate: Part 3”. I don’t know exactly how much influence Joss has on the actual writing of the comic book, so I’d like to think he’s somehow not involved.

So no women in fridges, at least on the TV Buffy. But can Joss turn the comic world around with Buffy season eight? Or will the Buffy franchise fall into line with the new medium it must inhabit?

I Can Never Ignore Buffy for Too Long

So it comes to no surprise that my first actual entry is devoted to a discussion of feminism...and of course Buffy the Vampire Slayer. With a strong female lead and a brilliant set of supporting characters, Buffy pleads the case that all hope for the modern world is not lost. And that's not just because Buffy Summers always finds a way to save the world.

A rather insightful blog that discusses Buffy and its feminist themes is this ain't livin', a site authored by s. e. smith (penname meloukia) that covers topics from health care to Harry Potter and everything in between. smith updates her blog quite often, and most of her posts are rather lengthy, but in-depth and chock full of witty wisdom and insightful social commentary.

Recently on her blog, smith has written a series of examinations into how Joss Whedon’s shows reflect his personal claims of being a feminist, and if his work stands up as a reflection of his personal beliefs, or if his beliefs are sacrificed for the sake of plot and audience size. She warns her audience numerous times that it isn't her right in any way to judge Joss's personal beliefs or to revoke his feminist card, and I think she succeeds in never judging his beliefs on their own, just the choices he makes as a key component of the show. I cannot wait to tackle this very same topic of whether or not Buffy holds up as a feminist character.

In her article on female empowerment in Buffy, smith discusses Buffy’s relationships with Angel, Riley, and Spike, and the role that Willow and Joyce play in the series. It’s an article founded on a plethora of evidence from the show, and which requires a certain amount of background Buffy-knowledge. Her article on demons and Slayers is a follow-up to her first article, and dives into the other Slayers and Slayer-potentials and the demons that are featured each week on Buffy. These articles provide a great basis for future debate about whether or not Buffy is a good example of a feminist show, or if it’s just Joss’s personal opinions and the lens through which one looks that provide the basis for any opinions one might form.These articles provide a thorough discussion of exact particulars that would support the argument for Buffy being as feminist as some may claim, but also gives the differing side of the argument, detailing in which ways Buffy fails as an exemplar of gender equality in prime time television.

Where smith fails, however, is in giving the show some deserved wiggle room. In the end, Buffy wasn’t made in a vacuum, and had to be accepted by network executives. In terms of how progressive it is, one has to look at the culture in which it was made, and the other forces that controlled the show. Though smith recognizes that “it’s hard to be consistently on message for 7 seasons”, she also berates Joss for incorporating a character like Jenny Calendar, saying that she was used simply as a plot device and that her existence in the show “is another case of a situation in which feminism had to take a back seat to storytelling”. It’s in details like this that smith’s opinion differs from my own. While it would be nice to think that the sole purpose of Buffy would be to fight the battle for feminism, it wasn’t. Buffy had to be a compelling drama, and though I recognize that the title of “compelling drama” doesn’t give a show free reign to be as anti-feminist as possible, it’s clear that a scripted show without plot or variant characters wouldn’t last terribly long on prime-time television, even if it were spouting the most honest social theory. While smith’s articles on Whedon’s work bring up many good points and backs up those assertions with ample evidence, there are many holes in the argument made.

It is those holes that I would like to dutifully fill in my upcoming posts, and I would like to just as thoroughly dissect what it is about BtVS that makes it feminist television. this ain't livin' provides solid groundwork for the upcoming debate I would like to make in favor of Buffy being a mostly gender-equal view of life, and that Whedon’s personal beliefs do, for the most part, make it through to the final cut.