Regaining "Masculinity" - Buffy as a Feminist Text



Obviously, the question of Buffy's feminist intentions has arisen quite often - particularly with many authors who deal with the series. "Whether the show communicates a feminist message ('women can also be super-heroes') or an antifeminist message ('women can be accepted if they act like men and accept male norms') remains a matter of controversy" (Ramet, 2). And this question is also one which I have been tackling throughout my arguments (and, generally speaking, my conclusions so far have leaned more towards the antifeminist message). However, I would like to now rebuke most of my previous discussions in favor of seeing Buffy as a pro-feminist series. What, then, was the point of me arguing in such length against Buffy as a feminist text? In order to fully understand a text, it is necessary to look at all aspects of it. It was important to address the possible anti-feminist messages in order to understand the feminist ones. I believe that, among the seemingly anti-feminist messages in Buffy, we can actually find a deeper, more complex feminist message - and this is the goal I will work towards in this section.

Let us then begin to look at the aspects of the series which scream feminist. To begin with, in the previous two sections, I discussed the many ways in which Buffy thought in a female-gendered way and also fulfilled a much more "feminine" role rather than the masculine hero she was supposed to be portraying. To counter this, let us consider what Riviere has to say about masquerade- "since femininity is not natural but constructed - through processes such as the castration complex but also, we might add, through things like watching movies - there are ways of thinking about femininity as just that, a construction. Femininity can be seen as a mask, a masquerade, performed by mimicking what being a woman is meant to be about." (Rose, 123). It is, obviously, undeniable that Buffy is a woman - even her being placed in a more masculine role will not take that away. Therefore, I would suggest that much of Buffy's "feminine" behavior can be read as a masquerade - something which she feels the need to perform in order to counter her "masculinity."

That being said, perhaps we should consider the fact that other characters in the series all look to Buffy to fulfill this masculine hero role. The masquerade of femininity is used to counter this - but we must also consider the fact that there doesn't necessarily need to be a differentiation between masculine and feminine roles. That is to say, why is it that, because Buffy is able to fight and kill demons, she must be placed into a "masculine" role? Why can't she simply be a female that happens to be powerful, who doesn't need to rely on the culturally constructed ideals of typical masculine vs. feminine roles? I would argue that the series is attempting to do just that - break the boundary between these "typical" roles, by melding a character who has traits of both masculinity and femininity.

If this idea isn't convincing enough, let us look back to the two episodes (Surprise and Becoming, Part I) in order to read Buffy as a feminist text. While I have previously argued that Buffy and Angel's encounter at the beginning of Surprise objectified Buffy and relied heavily on the male gaze, it can easily be seen the other way around if looked at in a different manner. When Angel first opens the door, he is shirtless - I would argue that this works in objectifying Angel over Buffy, and in turn he becomes the source of visual pleasure, rather than Buffy. Instead of scopophilia revolving around the female, we now see it revolving around the male. It is certainly not unusual to have male vampire leads as attractive and objectified - "Lestat, Louis, Angel, and Spike are young, dashing, and handsome, and they invoke strong sexual fantasies on the part of their audiences" (Spaise, 3). This list of well-known vampires (including Angel) are all attractive men - which crushes the male gaze, since they are the ones now being seen as merely attractive objects.

Another physical/sexual encounter involving Buffy and Angel is the scene in which they have sex. While I previously argued that Buffy was both passive and submissive, we eventually see her controlling the situation. Indeed, she was at first quiet and subject to the male gaze and fetishistic scopophilia - but when they are about to actually engage in the act, it is Buffy who urges it on. There is a brief conversation between the two in which Angel states, "Buffy, maybe we shouldn't" and Buffy cuts him off by saying, "don't" and kissing him. This scene plays out similarly to the scene cited in my first section, where Angel silences Buffy's worries by kissing her. This time, it is Buffy's turn to silence Angel's worries, now taking on the masculine role that Angel once had.

Now that we have discussed the sexual encounters between the two characters, let us also return to the fighting scenes. While Buffy may not be at her best when Angel is around, that doesn't take away the fact that she is still a female heroine who is the only one chosen to fight against demons. As most Buffy-watchers know, the only people capable of being slayers are females - because of this, Buffy de-masculinizes most males around her (in other words, she is more physically capable than any of them, a role which is thought to be "typically male"). We can also look to the fact that about 99% of the vampires Buffy fights against are male - showing her domination over them.

The fact that Buffy is a strong female lead, who has the ability to dominate almost any male, resonates with many females and essentially interpellates them. "Clearly girls appropriate those parts of masculine ideology - not acting like sissies, being in control, exercising dominance, performing with daring and bravado - that they see in the culture enacted by powerful boys and men. They also see these increasingly enacted by girls (on TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dark Angel, and Alias, and movies like Charlie's Angels, Tomb Raider, and Kill Bill)" (Brown, 9). It is important that girls are seeing a female character who is overthrowing this typical idea of "men do the fighting" - because this means the boundaries between the masculine and feminine roles are being broken.

Something also interesting to consider is an argument which Jowett makes; "Buffy's ability to present femininity and masculinity as unstable is tied to blending, and sometimes subverting, the genres of the soap opera (traditionally viewed as feminine) and horror/action (traditionally viewed as masculine" (Fredrick, 2). This is another way in which Buffy works towards breaking the barriers between these typical masculine/feminine roles, and another reason why I view the series as feminist.

We must also return to the male figure which has dominated Buffy's life so often, Angel. In Becoming, Part I we are given numerous flashbacks into Angel's life - which essentially shows the audience how he has become who he is "today." In these flashbacks we see: a woman a sire angel (turning him into an evil vampire), a woman cursing him (giving him a soul back - turning him "good" - so that he must suffer for the destruction he caused when he was evil), and a young teenage girl (Buffy) turning him evil again by permitting him one true moment of happiness (having sex with him). From these flashbacks, we can clearly see that it is females who have defined and shaped Angel's life for him. This greatly plays into the castration complex, and is also potentially the reason for Angel's attempts to dominate Buffy - he feels threatened by her. We have also, on numerous occasions, seen Buffy save a shirtless angel which works in creating Buffy as the masculine figure and Angel as the castrated one (Undead TV, 2). This resonates especially with Buffy and Angel's encounter at the beginning of Surprise, where Buffy greets a shirtless Angel in the morning. She has seen Angel's fate of death in her dreams (and, as anyone who watches Buffy knows, her dreams always come true) and she is coming to save him. However, because he ignores her and silences her by kissing her, the dream does eventually come true - and it is Buffy herself who kills him. Which brings us back to my arguments in the first and second sections, where I state that men seem to dominate her (especially Angel). While it may seem that they dominate her, they never really do - Buffy also chooses her duty over them. "The deeply felt emotional bonds do not undermine the heroine's ability or independence. These men play a crucial role in their lives, but the heroines do not prioritize these relationships above others or above their duties" (Lotz, 78 - emphasis added). When Buffy realizes she must kill Angel to fulfill her duty, she doesn't let her emotional bond with him control that.

Let us also look towards the fact that Angel turns evil after he and Buffy have sex. While initially it seems that his turning evil is a way of punishing Buffy for straying from a typical "feminine" role in order to fulfill a more "masculine" one, I would argue that he becomes evil as a way of showing a parallel that patriarchy can be seen as evil. "Female-centered action dramas [often] affirm a revised masculinity and demonize hegemonic masculinity [...] The empowerment of action heroines only seems possible when male companions embody a masculinity that does not threaten women, consequently making hegemonic masculinity 'evil'" (Lotz, 78-79). We see that, because Angel has threatened Buffy's heroine role, he becomes evil. Indeed, it is not Buffy who had caused Angel to become evil, but he had caused himself to become evil by threatening her ability to fulfill her duty as the slayer/as "masculine."

Therefore, I would say that this series fulfills a much more pro-feminist message than an anti-feminist one. While there may be some complications in the plot, we must also remember that Buffy cannot always be the superhero who doesn't have any emotions or who doesn't play into some female conventions/stereotypes. But we must also remember that just because this may sometimes happen, it doesn't mean a series is entirely anti-feminist. Buffy the Vampire Slayer clearly works towards breaking the boundaries of typical male/females roles, and so we cannot always categorize what the heroine does into "feminist" or "antifeminist," because that destroys the show's entire purpose.

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