BtVS:
“In every generation one slayer is born. Because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago made up that rule.”
Yes. A bunch of men enslaved endless generations of young women to do their bidding. Young women, because they’re seen as impressionable and easy to control. Forced to fight humanity’s fight, be destined to die young, and live a horrible life.
Then the men turned into watchers, other powerful men put in place to maintain control over the enslaved women…
But this is where things get a bit more complicated.
Because it was an oppressive system put in place to fight another oppressive system.
Let’s start with the types of evil a slayer fight.
Mostly the demons and vampires are metaphors of sexism in today’s society. Such as men using their physical strength to establish power in a multitude of ways. To be dominant by being typically masculine.
Now lets take a moment to think about a slayers powers. The first and biggest one being the added physical strength, which is seen as a masculine trait. This puts a slayer on even grounds as most evils in a physical fight. But isn’t this fighting fire with fire? Yes. And this is where Buffy Summers come in.
BtVS is a very feminist driven show. But I feel like a lot of people completely missed the point of Why.
It’s not cause Buffy is a women with superpowers, in fact this is an oppressive aspect in a lot of ways. It’s how she uses them that’s empowering.
Buffy is unapologetically girly. Not just her appearance and the way she speaks, but her behavior. She lets her emotions rule her, she sees them as a total asset and not as a weakness.
But these things don’t get any respect. If you’re girly, you’re an airhead. If you’re emotional, you’re irrational. Being feminine is one of the most shameful things you can be according to society. If you want to shame a man, put him in a dress.
Feminism is a lot of things. But part of it is destroying the idea that you’re less worthy of respect due to your feminine traits.
And Buffy Summers takes this idea and crushes it under her stylish yet affordable boots.
There is a big war of emotion vs logic in the Buffyverse. And at the end of the day emotion always wins. Which isn’t just beautiful, it’s feminine.
The council have for thousands of years pushed logic logic logic on their slayers to maintain control over them.
It’s a cold and inhumane way to look at the world. But yet it’s viewed as the correct and respectable choice in most life situations.
This world teaches you to push your empathy aside when it’s one of the most important attributes any human can have.
So while it’s extremely satisfying to see our short and girly Buffy kick big evil butts, the emotional aspect of it don’t get enough recognition. In fact it’s often seen as silly. Isn’t it strange that having a strong moral compass is seen as silly?
Everything around Buffy is trying to control her. Trying to make her feel like she’s supposed to fall in line and push down her feminine and empathic traits. The vampires/demons, the council, the knights of byzantium, evil hell gods, principal snyder, even her friends.
It takes a lot to stand up and fight back. To take charge, stand tall, and demand respect. Especially when you’re a woman, because we’re expected to be submissive and apologetic. The fact that Buffy demands authority continuously without compromising her feminine personality is something to truly admire. And it’s truly rebellious due to social standards and gender roles. It’s also something I believe a lot of us wish we had the courage to do in our own lives.
A slayer is such an interesting thing…
A slayer is a feminist. Created and leashed by misogynistic men in order to fight patriarchy. Not enough to overrule it, of course. But enough to keep it from ending the world, while still being the more powerful force.
Buffy Summers takes this leash, burns it, and turns a vision of Chosen Many into reality. This is the uprising of the feminist movement in the Buffyverse.
“There is only one thing on this earth more powerful than evil, and that’s us.”
…
Then in the comics: The slayers end up getting negative associations and a bad reputation. Sounds eerie familiar doesn’t it?
Cheloneuniverse 