Why is Buffy such a bitch?
I started my venture into the Whedonverse a while ago by watching re-runs of Angel on TNT. They had just started showing the series, and I managed to jump in from the start, which pleased my little OCD riddled brain. I really enjoyed the show as a stand alone, and had never had the urge to watch the then already cancelled Buffy. It seemed too angsty for me, and the spinoff Angel was far darker, and more along my line of interests. It is the story of the vampires told from the vampires.
But there were chunks of the story that didn’t fit, and while I enjoyed the show on its own I eventually borrowed and began watching the DVDs of Buffy. My friends who would watch Angel w/ me wouldn’t watch Buffy w/ the same enthusiasm. Why?
B/c Buffy is such a bitch!
It is something that has always bothered me for as long as I had learned to enjoy the series. Yes, I always enjoyed Angel far more, again b/c the story was more in line w/ my interests, and at times I did find Buffy a little too “it’s all about ME!!!1!” for my taste, but this accusation of being a bitch (as if this is somehow supposed to be a bad thing, b/c IME, bitches get shit done) seemed a tad exaggerated and unfair.
So, why? Why is Buffy so harshly criticized? Why is she the way she is? Finally, why is it such a bad thing to be “bitchy”, if you are in fact saving the world a lot?
I’m Buffy. I’m new. ~Buffy, “Welcome to the Hellmouth”
Buffy did what no pop culture phenomenon had done before. She set the modern day standard for what we expect to see when we discuss what is the “strong female protagonist”. The SFP hadn’t yet become a highly demanded staple in modern media, and we certainly didn’t see her in the face of a 16 year-old girl. She was tiny, she was mouthy, and not only didn’t sit around waiting for a knight to rescue her, but she did the aforementioned rescuing. She wasn’t the obvious Wonder Woman superhero. She kicked ass and we liked to watch it.
But we weren’t used to it. It was unconventional to watch a girl get grubby killing bad guys. She was supposed to be meek and smile until kidnapped and then scream her head off until Dudley Doright could come along and scoop her off of the tracks. Buffy didn’t do that. She rendered the brave hero obsolete, and even turned the tables, often being the rescuer of not only herself, the the many male characters around her, including her enamored best friend (much to his dismay). She was a team player, and gave the smart girls air time and a spot light for their skills, and was an equal opportunity player. If you had a skill to be used, you were useful.
I should also add that Buffy make librarians sexy again, IMHO.
For as long as there has been vampires, there has been the Slayer. One girl in all the world, a Chosen One… ~ Giles, “The Harvest”
Buffy was this tiny girl who carried the weight and burden of the safety of the world on her perfectly accessorized shoulders. That is enough to drive any grown adult to the edge of goodmoodlandia, but pile this on at the age of 16, in high school, when being different can be deadly, and toss in a dash of “I didn’t ask for this” a la divine and pre-ordained destiny blah blah blah…and you have some pretty serious issues of Messiah complex size. I don’t believe anyone in all of pop culture has felt this emo since Anakin Skywalker.
As I understand teenage girls, having been one not all that long ago, they get pretty worked up over things from time to time, when things just equal homework and who will I sit next to in homeroom. Everything in the world can feel like A Huge Deal. Now, let’s take away the free agency of young life w/ tremendous destiny. Being a latch key kid who has to go straight home to help w/ home work and make dinner for a sibling or four can add up to a lot of stress, and I know it made me unpleasant at best, I would imagine that having to balance the life of an average teenager w/ late nights of stopping this week’s apocalypse can provide some extreme cranky making.
Because this is all I do. This is what my life is. You couldn’t understand. I just thought … Homecoming Queen. I could pick up a yearbook someday and say, I was there. I went to high school, I had friends, and, for one moment, I got to live in the world. And there’d be proof, proof that I was chosen for something other than this. Besides, [pumps the rifle] I look cute in a tiara. ~ Buffy, “Homecoming”
All of that said, I am willing to give Buffy a pass on the attitude problem as a courtesy for saving the world a lot. Tremendous responsibility doesn’t always wear well on the young. I would expect a teenage girl to handle the whole thing w/ a tiny bit of disdain, right up until she got kicked out of her high school for saving it, then I would expect her to get righteously pissed off.
Also worth mentioning, Buffy is only 16 when she dies, the first time. And dying pisses her off. Royally. I think dying also adds to that whole bit about the pressures of weight of the world and such. Let alone dying twice, and having it not ever stick.
Buffy: Hey, Ken! Want to see my impression of Gandhi? [she smashes his head]
Lily: Gandhi?
Buffy: Well, if he was really pissed off. ~ “Anne”
Whatever pisses Buffy off, it is effective. She really does save the world a lot. She holds it together, barely, w/ the help of a support team who don’t always get it. They, like the friends I have who are eager to label Buffy a World Class Bitch, don’t always fully grasp the gravity of the decision making process that goes into being She Who is Chosen. She has gaping emotional holes on the inside, but doesn’t have the time to sit crying in the girl’s bathroom over being dumped at the Prom b/c she has to keep the kids from becoming Happy Meals on legs. She is the Class Protector, and if a little Bitch gets the job done, then I say more power to her. She has been bestowed a gift that she can not return and that she never asked for. She not only fails at relationships, but she literally sends her boyfriend to Hell to save the rest of the world, twice. She has her memories messed w/ in order to protect ancient treasures in human form, and she is manipulated and abused by a bunch of stuffy white guys who couldn’t anymore slay a vampire than The Kid could (although, I may be underestimating The Kid…). When a friend, student, teacher, or anyone she knows dies, it is usually directly b/c of something she could not/did not manage to prevent.
It’s a lot.
And it would make me bitchy too.
I never did get the bitch vibe from Buffy but I did often get the “I have to do this all alone.” vibe. Almost as if she didn’t want even her closest friends around her…until they could do something for her. But all in all given the burden she (and her friends) carried I suppose I could let it slide.
Something I think I edited out that I meant to make as a point when I wrote this was that seeing as “bitch” is used as a term to put women back in their place I always thought it showed a lot more about the person saying it rather than about the character of Buffy herself.
As far as “I have to do this all alone”, I think that after watching enough people die around you, being that you are only one person, one teenager who is still feeling her way through life and hormones let alone learning about her supernatural powers and responsibilities, I can fully understand the resistance to allow more people that you care about to get anywhere near the Big Bad. Not that she needed our permission to do any of that…
What are your feelings on the way I am going to do this now, since you were a regular WW reader, Danny?
I most certainly understand that having constantly see those around you in danger and dying. But at the same time I kinda see where Xander, Willow, and the others were coming from. Would you be able to let your best friend live a life of constant danger without having a desire to help her?
“I don’t want to see my loved ones in pain.” vs. “I don’t want her to have to shoulder that burden all alone.” A Tug of War…
By all means keep going with the WW series. As soon as I can clear my head I intend to start a weekly series of my own.
Well I’m about to go “out of the office” for a few days. Take it easy.
But at the same time I kinda see where Xander, Willow, and the others were coming from. Would you be able to let your best friend live a life of constant danger without having a desire to help her?
True.
Somewhere along the lines, though, I would have to realize my limitations in relation to the strength and imbued gifts bestowed the Slayer. It is probably a delicate dance, and if it was the All Buffy All the Time act it would make for bad storytelling…so there we have it.
Have a nice relaxing break!
I think the biggest problem was that the show definitely gets darker as the show goes on. Buffy see more people die, dies herself, gets her life manipulated and is just completely worn down. I think many people wanted the show to stay all happy and funny and got pissed when there were strains in Xander and Willow and her relationships. I think that she was a strong female protaganist but she wasn’t perfect, she got beat down, she got depressed.
The last season really hit home the fact that The Slayer is supposed to be solitary and that in many ways, her friends, that were such an asset in the beginning started to feel like undue pressure the further along she got. That was the big part of the finale. She was no longer alone, the pressure was off and she could live in the world again like she always wanted too.
I think that she was a strong female protaganist but she wasn’t perfect, she got beat down, she got depressed.
I think that is exactly what makes a SFP worth knowing. If they were all perfect all the time that would be boring. It makes them more human and more relatable. It also helps to make her a tragic hero of sorts.
And you are absolutely right, she does get beat down. And Buffy hates dying. It takes things out of her control, and then when she gets that moment of peace the second time, her friends suck her back into the hostile world that killed her.
I liked Angel better b/c it was darker, but I am a little off. I enjoy Buffy on its own merits, and try not to compare.
I like both of them but probably Buffy more just due to it being the first show I found. I do appreciate how Angel did go darker than Buffy. I felt like the last two season of Buffy were supposed to be darker but I dont know if the fans appreciated it or if they did it exactly right as well. I think they messed with the Willow and magic addiction storyline so much that it became ridiculous instead of the darker side of power montage that it could have been.
Yeah, I found Angel first.
I agree about Willow and the magic addiction. It was too much. Much too much.
Buffy is kind of self-righteous. I think it really works in the story, because it helps us understand the gravitas of her situation. If she weren’t a “bitch,” ie, very focused on her job as a slayer, we (as viewers) would have a harder time believing that the world really does hang in the balance.
Color me weird because I kinda liked where Willow’s magic addiction went. I also like how her relationship with Tara seems to go hand in hand with her progression in magic. In season 4 she started using magic and she started her relationship with Tara. In season 5 her magic got stronger as did her relationship with Tara. In season 6 when she lost Tara and she went off the deep end with her magic. In season 7 she was hesitant to use magic as well as being not quite ready to start a new relationship with someone. Near the end of the series she decides to open heart to someone new as well as trusting herself to use magic again.
But hey maybe I’m stretching…
And ditto on preferring Angel over Buffy.
Meh, I think it’s just b/c I am Pagan and found it a bit much…but I never looked at that parallel b/f.
I think it’s perfectly understandable how she behaves. She’s in a very difficult situation, on top of being a teenager and finding a place in the world, and it would be far more unrealistic if she was all sweetness and light. It’s not bad character design to have a complicated, conflicted character be irritable or stressed because of the weight on their shoulders. Spiderman was hailed as being believable because he had ‘normal guy’ angst. Male heros of all genres are allowed to be brooding or pissed off or antisocial, and considered cool and righteous and all that, because they’re men. But women? Nah, they must be whiny bitches who complain too much.
I find it hard to separate people’s dismissals of her behaviour from messages people get about real women, because people interpret fictional characters rather like they do real people,in many ways. It’s SO much easier for people to dismiss female characters as ‘annoying’ or ‘bitchy’ or ‘whiny’ or ‘useless’ without really exmaining whether they are, and if they are portrayed that way, or what the creator might intend to show.
I had never compared her to Spiderman before. Thanks, Anne. That is a great point. I think you are dead on there.
Just sharing my ‘but why are female characters not allowed to be assholes?!?!’ angst.
Your Buffy post made me think about Buffy in a new way. I have to admit I didn’t follow the TV series that closely, just now and then, and whilst I know that a lot of feminists LOVE Buffy, I hadn’t really thought about the series much. I liked it at the time, but this has really helped me think about why some things chimed with me, and why, if I would have written a character, she’d be more like Buffy than most female characters we see. Maybe one day I’ll find the time to marathon the whole series…
I had to watch it b/c when I saw her on Angel she was like a petulant child, w/ Angel always reminding her that it wasn’t always about her.
I liked her better when I saw more of her.
She was flawed, and that endeared her to me. Why she was flawed and acting that way endeared her to me.