Buffy Assessment Task

Courtney's Media Assignment on Representations in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Content: • Explaination on the History of Feminism • Joss Whedon Biography • Key Themes communicated through Buffy the Vampire Slayer • "The Pack" Episode Review • Review summaries of the series

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Key Themes in Buffy

In Buffy The Vampire Slayer Joss Whedon communicates important themes that are relevant in our society. The most prominent of the these is the topic of Feminism versus the Patriarchy and of teenage worries, both of which are evident through the interactions of the characters.

The Feminism versus Patriarchy theme is evident through the characters of  the show and how they are represented as either "feminist friendly" or "patriarchal friendly". The villains of the show, such as the vampires in "Welcome to the Hellmouth" and "The Harvest", represent patriarchal friendliness through their trying to take over the earth for themselves, and to infect others to become fellow vampires, or spread the patriarchal "virus".

The characters of Buffy provide evidence for the fact that Joss is presenting the topic of Feminism versus the Patriarchy through their attitudes, behaviour and actions. In the first two episodes Luke and Darla, the vampires, both represent patriarchy friendly gender models. Luke is shown as dominant, aggressive and overpowering. He does the Master's (who represents the Patriarchy as a whole) bidding as his Vessel and attacks others, killing or otherwise infecting them with the virus. Darla is portrayed as patriarchal friendly though her obedient, submissive behaviour. She also wishes to spread the virus, for example when she infected Jesse, who became a patriarchal friendly vampire. Buffy, Xander, Willow and Giles are feminist friendly, which is evident through their actions to protect their friends and others from the dangers of the supernatural world, that represents the patriarchy, they are unaware of.

In addition to this, teenage worries, such as bullying and relationships with family and peers is a key theme through the Buffy series. This is shown through Buffy and her friend's interactions with others. Evidence for this is present in "The Pack" when the pack in question are walking around the Zoo on a field trip, making fun of other students and hassling them. They even take it as far as pushing another classmate up against the Hyena cage and threaten to push him into the pit.

For Buffy, the stress of relationships with her parents and with her peers comes with her being a Vampire Slayer, and not being able to tell them. It causes her peers to make judgements about her and look down on her, calling her "weird" and other things of the sort, as for lack of any other explanation for her odd behaviour. An example of how her being a Slayer affects her relationship with her parents is in "The Harvest" when Buffy's mother sees Buffy's urgency as a teenage phase, stating "Everything is life or death when you're a sixteen-year-old girl," which gives a sense of belittlement to Buffy and not taking her seriously, which adds to the strain of having a good relationship with her.

Joss has communicated these different themes in Buffy using the main group of character's interactions with villains and other students, using subtext, such as with those characters who represent the patriarchy, and in more obvious ways, such with the schoolyard bullies in "The Pack".

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"The Pack" Episode Review

Title: The Pack

Air Date: May 1997

Cast and Characters

Sarah Michelle Gellar – Buffy Summers Alyson Hannigan – Willow Rosenberg Anthony Head – Rupert Giles Nicholas Brendon – Xander Harris Charisma Carpenter – Cordelia Chase Ken Lerner – Principle Bob Flutie Eoin Bailey – Kyle DuFours Michael McCraine – Rhonda Kelley Brian Gross – Tor  Hauer Jennifer Sky – Heidi Barrie Jeff Maynard - Lance

Plot Synopsis

Buffy and her classmates are on a field trip to the zoo. A gang of four students bully another student and take him into the Hyena House, which is off-limits. Xander follows the gang into the House but Buffy and Willow are stopped by a warden, who tells them the Hyenas just arrived from Africa, and they are able to call people’s names, separate them from others, and devour them.

Inside the Hyena House, where a magical symbol that the gang, the boy and Xander don't notice lies on the floor. Xander defends the boy when , but while doing so becomes possessed by the Hyena, as do the rest of the gang.

Xander becomes part of the gang, and his behavior changes. He becomes cruel, insulting and mean, and begins scratching himself and smelling others.

Later, Xander tells Willow he doesn't need her help with school work anymore, and then makes fun of her. Buffy confronts him on this but he and the gang walk off laughing. They come to find the pig Herbert, when Xander suggests lunch the pigs squeals in terror.

Giles claims that there is nothing wrong with Xander, and he is simply being a teenager, but has a change of heart when the pig is discovered eaten to the bone, and decides to check his books. When finds that they could be dealing with a case of possession, Buffy runs to find Xander and finds Herbert's cage destroyed. Xander walks in on her assessing the scene, then pins her to the floor and wall and tries to sexually assualt her, when she knocks him out with a desk. She drags him to the library and locks him in a book cage.

Meanwhile, when Principle Flutie finds, the pig dead, he believes that the original gang of four are involved and so calls them into his office. He decides to call their parents and send them home, but instead, the gang start laughing and scratch him, and then eat him.

When he returns from a teacher's meeting, Giles informs Willow and Buffy what happened to Principle Flutie. Buffy and Giles decide to go see the zoo warden and Willow is left to guard Xander. Xander tries to trick Willow into letting him out of the cage, but Willow isn't fooled.

The warden, Buffy and Giles hatch a plan to lure to gang to the Hyena House to perform the reverse trans-possession rituals using Xander as bait, when they realize the gang will already be after him and that Willow is with him.

Back at the Library the gang break in and begin to hunt down Willow but Buffy and Giles arrive and rescue her. The five turn to a different target: a family in a car, but Buffy saves them as well and uses herself as bait to lure them back to the Hyena House, where the warden is waiting to perform the ritual. Giles realizes that the warden tried to perform the possession on himself, hence why the symbol was painted on the floor when Xander and the others first went in there, and the warden knocks him unconscious.

When Willow reaches the Hyena House, before Buffy, the warden ties her up and claims it is the predatory act that will trigger the rituals and save the gang. Buffy arrives with the others behind her and the warden shouts a spell that creates the flashy-eyed look in the students again and the animal spirits are transferred into him and his eyes flash as well. He tries to bite Willow but Xander, now freed from the spell sees her and pushes the warden of her. Buffy faces off with the warded and knocks him into the Hyena's cage, where he is eaten by them.

The next day, Xander claims he doesn't remember anything that happened while he was possessed. Giles mentions he never read anything about memory loss being involved in animal possession and promises Xander to keep that a secret.

'Killer' Quotes

Xander (to Buffy): "Well, every school has 'em. See, you start a new school, you get your desks, your blackboards, and some mean kids."

Giles (to Buffy): "It's devastating. He's turned into a sixteen year old boy. Of course, you'll have to kill him."

Xander (to Willow): "...I won't be needing your math help anymore, which means I won't have to look at your pasty face again."

Themes:

In this episode the major themes prominent include the topic of feminism versus the patriarchy and of bullying. This is displayed through the Pack's actions of making fun of their fellow students such as Buffy and Lance. It is also shown once the pack and Xander have been possessed by the Hyenas and so have been infected with the "patriarchal virus".

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Key Moments

Top Left - Xander and the pack being possessed by the Hyena

Top Right - The pack harassing Principle Flutie and are about to eat him

Bottom Left - The Warden about to eat Willow after being possessed by the Hyena

Bottom Right - Xander pinning Buffy to the ground and appears to be about to sexually assault her

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Key Moments - Annotated

This scene shows Xander telling Willow he no longer needs her help with math, so he won't be hanging out with her anymore.

In this episode Xander becomes Patriarchal friendly. He loses his feminist friendly attitudes, becomes insensitive to others and begins acting in a predatory manner. This is displayed through technical codes, character performance codes and character appearance codes.

In this scene, the lighting is dark which suggests Xander is dangerous and menacing and he is often shown throughout the episode from a low camera angle, suggesting he is imposing and intimidating (Technical codes).

Xander's expression, stance and dialogue (Character performance codes) contribute to show his new-found patriarchal friendly attitude. The way he is standing over Willow, looking down on her and saying “I won’t have to look at your pasty face again.” and then laughing in her face, adds to his representation as dominant and as having lost his feminist friendly qualities.

 The way he is dressed also contributes to his new attitudes (Character appearance codes) as he is now shown wearing black leather jackets, as opposed to his usual casual dress style, which suggests his perceived superiority.

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History of Feminism

Feminism is defined as the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. It is a collection of movements and ideologies that are aimed at establishing equal rights for women on these grounds. This aim also includes establishing equal opportunities for women in education and employment. Generally, feminism is categorized into three "waves".

The first "wave" is responsible for the beginning of the feminist movement, in the late 1800's to the early 1900's. The focus was on obtaining civil rights, largely on the right for women to vote, run for office and for property rights, although the women of the first "wave" campaigned on a wife range of issues. These issues included the guardianship of infant, divorce, equal pay, protective legislation for women workers and access to higher education and medical professions. Due to this early campaigning, women gained the right to vote in the United States in August 1920.

The second "wave" of feminism began in the 1960's and is often put to blame for the negative "hairy-legged, anti-feminime, man-hating" stereotype of feminists. They fought for not only the formal equality that allowed them to vote but also substantive equality. They challenged the social norms and criticised gender identities and gender stereotypes. They sought to invalidate legally endorsed discrimination in practice, to attain laws that allowed women to join the military and to guarantee equal pay.

The third "wave" of feminism is the continuation of the second wave, adding to it's achievements and works to deal with the struggles of today's world and overcome the failures of the last wave. Today's feminists recognizes the ability for people to create and pursue their own ideas about feminism, but is generally viewed as an all-encompassing wave that works towards gender, racial, social and economic justice.

Since it's takeoff in the late 19th century, feminism has remained relevant to this day, not only to women, but to our society as a whole. It has come a long way from its origins of picket-sign protesting to deal with current issues in today's society.

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External Review Summaries

J.D Dunn

On 441mania.com J.D. Dunn writes that Buffy "outshines anything the WB had done to that point (and arguably since)". His review of the show is written in a highly positive light.

Dunn explains how Buffy managed to combine a mix of self-referential humor with horror without diluting either one. Dunn writes "I still maintain that this is one of the best written series of the past 25 years."

He analyses the first series of the show in immense detail, describing each episode individually. He states that the first episodes aren't representative of what Buffy would become later in terms of mythology and that we get episodes of a lighter and more innocent tone than what the series would become, explaining this is because Buffy was a mid-season replacement and therefore unlikely to get picked up. He claims it was "a solid opening to what would become a far greater show".

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Gary Mairs

On culturevulture.net Gary Mairs writes a positive review of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and describes it as "the best, and most underrated show on television since it's debut in 1997."

He describes the show as a "twisted hybrid of 'Dark Shadows' and 'Beverly Hills 90210' and explains it is unfailingly intelligent and never condescends to it's teenage audience. He describes the show as "hilarious" and also "resonant and consistent in entertainment."

Mairs also goes into detail that the Buffy isn't only a show about facing of against evil and claims Buffy takes it a step further and uses the fantasy world of vampires and werewolves as a way to depict not only the fears but the full emotional range of teenage life.

He explains that even in it's later years when Buffy is expected to decline in quality, the show still manages to improve and outshines expectations.

It is a well written review that casts a very positive light on the program.

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Billie Doux

On douxreviews.com Billie Doux begins by telling the readers Buffy is "her favourite television show, ever", setting the tone of the review.

She describes the series as starting quite slowly and claims the first season and first half of the second season wasn't "stellar" but that the program matured into something much more "brilliant as well as unique."

The explains the series has an ultimate mix of genres, "Buffy successfully combined horror, comedy, satire, romance, and melodrama." She claims it has the "wittiest dialogue ever" and calls Buffy "a classic."

Overall, Doux, writes a brief, yet somewhat informing, positive review of the series.

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In this video Whedon explains that there are many factors as to why he writes so many strong female characters and lists a number of influential people who inspired his writing of said characters.

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Joss Whedon

Joseph Hill "Joss" Whedon is an American screenwriter, producer, director, comic book author and actor.

Born on the 23rd of June 1964, he is best known as the creator and show runner of the series 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' (1997) 'Angel' (1999) 'Firefly' (2002) 'Dollhouse' (2009) and 'Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog' (2008). He is also the creator and writer of the comic series 'Fray' and is notable for his work on the comics books "Astonishing X-men", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, "Runaways" and "Angel: After the Fall".

He grew up in New York and attended to an all-boys high school in England. After studying at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, he was hired as a writer for the sitcom 'Roseanne' and later he worked on 'Parenthood'. 

Joss sold his script for the original film 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' which was released in 1992, then went on to work on various films such as 'Toy Story' (1995) for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He also wrote and directed Firefly's follow up film, 'Serenity' (2005), which won the Nebula Award for Best Script, Hugo Award for Best Dramatic presentation - Long Form and the Prometheus Special Award.

In 2008 he created 'Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog' which won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation - Short form, the Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class - Short-format Live-action Entertainment Program, the Streamy Award for Best Directing in a Comedy Series and the Streamy award for Best Writing in a Comedy Series. 

Most recently he has co-wrote and produced horror film 'The Cabin in the Woods' (2012), wrote, directed and produced 'Much Ado About Nothing' (2012) a film based on the Shakespeare play of the same name and wrote and directed the movie adaption of Marvel's 'The Avengers' (2012) which became the third highest grossing film of all time.

Joss is a feminist, which creates a major influence on his work. He credits his mum to the strong feminist elements in his work, explaining "If you met my mum, you wouldn't ask." When asked in an interview why he writes such strong female characters, he famously responded "Because you're still asking me that question."