Essay – And We Kind Of Won: Victory, Competence, and Patriarchy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

03 August 2017

And We Kind Of Won: Victory, Competence, and

Patriarchy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The eponymous hero of Buffy the Vampire Slayer has fought a wide range of bad guys despite the rather narrow scope her title might suggest. She has fought werewolves, vengeance demons, mantis women, hellhounds, and town mayors, just to name a few. Each of them posed a slightly different challenge for Buffy to overcome, while representing the wide range of conflicts and issues one may face while growing up. But overcome she did, and there was much celebration on both sides of the screen. In the world of the show, the characters are happy the world didn’t end, while outside the show the satisfaction comes from seeing someone triumph over adversity by using friendship, teamwork, sarcasm, and so on. It is said that a hero is only as good as their villains, and Buffy on the whole has had some great villains who posed a dramatically appropriate level of challenge until they were defeated by an equal level of cleverness by the Scooby Gang. However, a number of the season spanning Big Bads who were meant to be menacing had their menace undercut by surprising incompetence which, in turn undercut the satisfaction when they are defeated by Buffy. As a result, this deflation of the villains also had the effect of minimizing the key issue the villain was meant to represent. The biggest perpetrators of this are the militaristic Initiative in season four and the stereotypical basement dwelling nerd Trio of season six. The poor handling of these villains is made more apparent when considering villains with more successful and intentional depictions such as Mayor Wilkins and The Master.

The most dramatic example of this deflation and poor handling is the clandestine Initiative featured in the fourth season. This is largely because of how capable the organization was presented to be and how much of that capability was immediately dismantled upon actual exploration. What is revealed about the Initiative during their gradual introduction is that the organization is funded by the government, it has been around for some time, and it has the resources to staff scores of researchers and military/security officers as well as a vast underground facility to secretly house them beneath Sunnydale’s university. This all suggests a certain level of competence and ability. The government connection, secret base, and amount of staff suggests they’re far reaching, as well as being indicative of a level of teamwork or professionalism to set everything up and for all the moving pieces to mesh together properly. However, in nearly any scene that shows the Initiative doing anything, it becomes rather evident that none of their resources were apparently spent on any proper training or preventative oversight. For example, when Spike first escapes the facility in “The Initiative” (S04E07), he does so with only minor additional effort. The scientists who arrive to collect him from his cell appear to be without combat training and the armed guards only arrive after he has broken containment. A similar incident happens in a later episode when a monster being escorted through the Initiative overpowers the single scientist holding him and is only saved because Riley happened to be nearby. These examples pale in comparison, however, to their monster in the basement. The patchwork monstrosity of Adam is arguably their greatest achievement as well as being emblematic of the carelessness they seem to exhibit while performing the dangerous endeavour of running a secret monster research facility. In Adam, the Initiative is shown to be capable and competent enough to assemble a chimerical abomination out of human, robot, and monster parts and have him become a living thing. At the same time, however, he manages to easily escape from the secure heart of the facility and wander into the woods without being noticed, despite his large and largely distinct appearance, all while he is effectively still a new born. As another oversight, his creators also neglect to install a kill switch or a tracking device during his assembly. Furthermore, had they installed an anti-violence chip as they did with Spike during his brief stay, or perhaps one that could be tuned to only target enemy combatants, many lives would have likely been saved. It is also later revealed that Adam partially operated from an additional secret laboratory in which he hid the reanimated corpses of Professor Walsh and the other doctor. This raises questions of why a secret government laboratory has within itself another secret government laboratory that is unlisted within its own construction plans (S04E21, “Primeval”). If the Initiative is meant to represent patriarchy in how it is connected to the idea of traditional gender roles and how the military is thought to be primarily a male endeavour, and if Buffy’s victory over them is done with the goal of having a woman overcome the beliefs and tactics of the patriarchal military industrial complex with help from her physically weak but emotionally strong friends, then hobbling the Initiative with plot conveniences that manifest as incompetence equally hobbles the value of Buffy’s success, and reduces the sense of empowerment it might have created. That is to say, if the symbol for the patriarchal war machine is shown to be so ready to collapse on its own, then having Buffy bring it down becomes much less of an accomplishment.

An equally deflating treatment is done with the members of the Trio. In this case, however, the show seems to be fully aware of the villains being incompetent, yet makes no action towards increasing their ability. Whereas the Initiative was undercut unintentionally by plot holes and the like, the Trio is intentionally undercut multiple times at almost every opportunity. For example, they are repeatedly infantilized due to how preciously they care for their action figures (S06E09, “Smashed”) and how particular they are about the lore of a given science fiction franchise. These examples frequently come at the tail end of a dramatic scene of villainy, so any gravity they may have held in that scene is immediately deflated and destroyed. In fact, the two crimes they commit that actually impact the Scooby Gang, the murders of Katrina and Tara, were both accidental. Overall, the Trio is presented as being capable enough to be annoying but not capable enough to be dangerous on purpose. The show even explicitly acknowledges this in “Normal Again” (S06E17) when the asylum doctor of the other reality describes the Trio as a notable step down from what Buffy had faced in the past due to them being “Not gods or monsters. Just three pathetic little men who like to play with toys,” contrasting the Trio to villains of the past who were more capable, menacing, and mature. While the Initiative was meant to represent fascism, the Trio instead represents the harmful misogyny that appears in a lot of male oriented media, as well as in the real world with the so-called “Meninist” movement. With the Trio, everything from their ultimate goal of “chicks, chicks, chicks” to the creepy mind-control-rape plot that results in Katrina’s death is dripping with a sense of self superiority and imposing control on others. That is, they believe they are so above everyone else that they can and will reshape the world to their desires. And they are successful to some degree. But while the fact that they can build a freeze ray, or summon demons on command, or successfully cast a time-loop spell should cause a deal of actual concern, every time they do, they are again deflated by jokes about magic bones and the like. Considering what they are able to do with the resources they have, the Trio could be a legitimate threat at nearly the same scale as previous Big Bads if they had the been given the opportunity by the writers to live up to that role. They repeatedly refer to themselves in comparison to Bond Villains, but are never able to tonally reach that bar. By having one of the show’s purest and most direct depictions of misogyny be so uncoordinated, ineffectual, and repeatedly deflated, the show does the same to the issue of misogyny itself and sends a mixed message about how harmful the issue is.

One villain whose defeat was a notable accomplishment for Buffy and created a great deal satisfaction for the audience was her victory over Mayor Wilkins. The Mayor was both competent and prepared, and Buffy was the only one in any position to oppose him. He did oscillate between sinister demon worshiper and affably folksy backyard barbecue dad, but unlike the Trio’s repeated shifts between Bond Villain and basement dweller, the jarring contrast between the two normally unconnected personality types within the Mayor added to the his depth of character. This juxtaposition made him a deeper and more unique presence during his time on the show. Furthermore, it is made very clear that Buffy (with the help of her friends and classmates) was the only who could defeat him, and if she was not successful during their rather brief window of opportunity, that he would have succeeded in his evil plan and many lives would have been lost. That is to say, The Mayor was a worthy opponent and his defeat created a satisfying conclusion. If Mayor Wilkins is to represent The Man, and how even men who put forward a kind and affable exterior can hold sinister motives within, then Buffy’s victory is a satisfying toppling of that. He is a threat, therefore what he represents is a threat, and therefore Buffy’s victory is meaningful and empowering.

A similar case is seen with the Master. It is shown in the alternate reality that appears in “The Wish” (S03E09) that the Master would have succeeded in ruling Sunnydale, and reduced its citizens to living in fear, if Buffy and the Scoobies were not there to prevent it. In the primary reality of the show, the Master is shown to have on his side an ancient prophecy that dictates that he and Buffy will fight, that he will win, and that she will die. What the Master did not account for, and what allows Buffy the opportunity to defeat him, is that the prophecy was less complete than he thought, and did not include Buffy being revived through CPR. The Master, in this way, represents whatever destiny one may find imposed upon them, and Buffy’s victory argues that destinies can be expanded and changed.

While it is a given that all characters (villains included) ought to have flaws, and characters without flaws would result in a boring story, there must be some reasoning behind the flaws for them to maintain the suspension of disbelief in the eyes of the viewer. The flaws in the plans of the Mayor and the Master make sense within the laws and logic of the world. The Mayor briefly losing his invulnerability shortly after his transformation makes sense as a kind of side effect of the magical process. Admittedly it does not make sense in the strict, absolute sense of the phrase, but it is no more or less arbitrary than any of the other weird magical aspects depicted on the show. So it gets a pass. Similarly, it is believable that the Master, being old and supernatural and therefore more traditional compared to the modern sensibilities of the Scooby Gang, is not self aware enough to consider the possibility that the prophecy could be wrong or incomplete. Conversely, the flaws displayed by the Initiative run in stark contrast to the success they are implied to have had before they first show up on screen, and gives them the appearance of being destined for collapse. Finally, while the Trio has the potential to be a threat, they are arbitrarily deflated and undercut by nearly every character on the show. From a Doylist or non-diegetic perspective, if the show underscores the Trio as a joke, then the audience will similarly view them as a joke. While it is understandable that the writers may want to show their disapproval of topics like fascism and misogyny by having the villains who represent these concepts be shown in a bad light and therefore less deserving of victory, an excess of this reduces not only the villains themselves, but also what issues or problems they represent, causing any victory over them to ring a bit more hollow. For a show that is so often rather empowering, having these seasons end on such a hollow victory is considerably disappointing.

Essay – Modern Mellow Yellow: Unfortunate Implications in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

15 June 2017

Modern Mellow Yellow: Unfortunate Implications in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

One aspect of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that has perhaps become more clear in the passing of time is the rather monochromatic depth of its racial diversity. While there have been a handful of appearances of non-white actors in the first few seasons, these were primarily minor characters and often stereotyped. Absolom, Mr Trick, and Kendra, to name a few, are each depicted in a way that underscores their otherness, with the latter being given an infamous accent that Buffy herself mocks (S02E10 “What’s My Line Part 2”, 27:19). While the depiction of black characters is arguably evened out with the non-stereotypical – though brief – appearances of Mr Platt the guidance counselor (S03E04 “Beauty and the Beasts”), Olivia Williams (S04E01 “The Freshman”), and Forrest Gates (S04E07 “The Initiative”), the same cannot be said for the depiction of Asian characters. This essay will talk about each of the Asian characters who appear in the first half of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and their problematic representation. All are stereotypical, or otherwise disposable, in ways that reinforce a number of expected and assumed traits in Asian characters. As there are apparently only four Asian characters in all of Sunnydale so far, it is a short list.

The first character and the character who is technically the closest to being fully developed is Holly Charleston, the Asian homecoming candidate competing against Cordelia and Buffy in their senior year (S03E05 “Homecoming”). A significant amount of Holly’s character is gleaned from the whiteboard assembled by Buffy when measuring her competition. Buffy, on her whiteboard, lists Holly’s strengths as “Debate skills, straight A’s, drill team, good in sports, always studies, nice, sweet” and her weaknesses as “Few friends, new student, no boyfriend, introvert, always studying” (18:11). A number of the listed attributes fall into the stereotypical Overachieving Asian and Shy Asian clichés, and Holly with her brief screen time is not shown in any way to disprove these traits. However, Holly is particularly interesting as there is just enough doubt in her characterization that the blame could be shifted to be “in-universe” rather than existing in the production of the show. This is because, contrary to Buffy’s interpretation of Holly as being an overachiever, Cordelia dismissively describes her as braindead (8:49). Furthermore, while Holly does not do anything to disprove the traits attributed to her on the whiteboard, she does not do anything to confirm them either. If the viewer is to follow this line of thought, by believing Cordelia over the character whose name is in the title, then rather than the show being vaguely racist, it is Buffy herself. That is to say, this allows the possibility that Holly is a much more diverse, independent, and dynamic character than Buffy assumes her to be, and not a rather shallow Asian stereotype like the show initially suggests. However, I don’t imagine having the show’s eponymous character and literal saviour be sort of understatedly racist, rather than the show itself, is much of an improvement.

The next example is the unnamed Asian member of Cordelia’s former clique who appears in “The Wish” (S03E09). While she, unlike Holly, is not given a name nor a distinct personality, she does receive a small number of speaking lines. This is, arguably, good; the show is not othering her or playing into any particular stereotypes. However, the problem arises in the alternate Wish Universe, where she is singled out to be the first and only, with regard to the confines of the episode, person to have her blood gruesomely harvested from her still-living body by The Master’s “killing machine.” The implications of this are many and unfortunate. While the script lists the victim in the scene generically as “Screaming Girl,” a character implicitly separate from the girl in the clique, the choice to have the roles combined into one results in the victimization of one of the few non-stereotypical minority characters of the show. Perhaps this was done with an eye toward the budget. Or perhaps this was done because the girl, being one of the few Asian characters on the show, would stand out to audiences because of her exoticism and allow them to recognize her as the same Asian girl from the clique and therefore illicit a stronger emotional connection to the scene. If the latter is the case, then the show would at best be using her race as a distinguishing feature, making it equivalent to giving someone an eye patch or funny hat, or at worst replicating the trope of the Disposable Token Minority so commonly seen in the horror media Buffy so often tries to subvert. While she is implied to be still alive in the primary reality, she is never seen again after the scene of her death, leaving her character on a rather sour note. Therefore, she is a character of colour who is implied to have existed in the somewhere in the background before as a member of Cordelia’s friends (and the actor previously appeared as effectively the same character in the unaired pilot episode), but in her first actual appearance is summarily executed in an abattoir. While the death does take place in an undone reality, and the character is likely alive again off screen, having a minority character suddenly materialize for a single episode as part of a group before being executed is extremely problematic.

The final two examples are the two unnamed Asian students who separately appear in “Earshot” (S03E18) and “The Harsh Light of Day” (S04E03). In “Earshot,” the student in question is the one who briefly passes Buffy in the halls, identified as a Nerd in the script, who aspires to be a “software jillionaire” and that those who bully him will be less successful in adulthood (12:27). While the episode does deal with the idea that everyone is burdened by their own troubles, and while Nerd himself is not necessarily problematic in isolation, the choice of casting an Asian performer for the role is problematic in that it underscores the cliché of the Studious Asian and that Asians are associated with computers, due to Nerd specifying that his interest is in software.

Similarly, in “The Harsh Light of Day” an Asian character appears on screen barely conscious and chained to a wall in Spike and Harmony’s excavation cave as their shared meal (11:50). He differs from many other nameless victims in Buffy in that he is inexplicably given some characterization. The audience is given three pieces of information about him by Harmony, each equally problematic: he was in Harmony’s math class, she remembers not liking him, and he “tastes funny.” By having Harmony associate him with a math class (or alternatively, casting an Asian performer as someone who would believably be in a math class) again reinforces the Asians Are Good at Math stereotype previously suggested with the “always studying” Holly Charleston. This association could have been avoided by declaring nearly any course other than Math. Similarly, having Harmony presenting her negative opinion of him as one of his three character traits is a bad foot on which to introduce a helpless character who is likely to be dead soon. By characterizing him negatively, rather than something more substantial like him having a family or even eating the same sandwich every lunch hour, Harmony and the show dismiss him as disposable. That is to say that since Harmony did not like him, he is therefore unlikeable, and therefore it is more okay that he is chained up instead of someone more sympathetic. The third piece of characterization, and in fact the first comment Harmony makes about the character, is that he tastes funny. As he is their meal it is hard to not see this as a joke about Chinese take-out and on Chinese food in general. This is underscored by Spike and Harmony arguing over him like a couple would argue about dinner plans. This is, perhaps, one of the more dehumanizing instances of stereotypes on Buffy in part because of how casually it is done. Furthermore, the victim is implied to taste so poorly that Harmony refuses to feed on him. Connecting this to other mentions and depictions in Buffy where a vampire finds a given human to be not worthy of feeding further lowers the victim character and helps categorize him as other. Whereas regular humans are Happy Meals with legs, this Asian victim is apparently a weird box of spoiled Chinese mystery meat.

For someone who would be watching the show during its original broadcast, the show as it stands in what would end up being the middle of its run does not have a very encouraging trajectory in its depiction of Asian characters, and this is not even considering the character Chao-Ahn who appears in the final season (and is therefore not covered in this essay) and in many ways comes from the Long Duk Dong school of comedic minorities. It’s not that the show needs more Asian characters per se, it is that there are so few of them that the ones who do show up inevitably become representations of the whole, and the representation so far seems to be that of a very narrow and stereotypical casting. The British characters, who are also othered to a degree, are depicted fully enough and diversely enough to show various levels of goodness, competency, and attitude so as to present a range of possibilities. For a show that is so often about empowerment it is disappointing that this first half of the Buffy seemingly does not extend that to its Asian characters. While this may be a relic of the time it was made, the other avenues of representation the show does choose to depict, like those characterized by Buffy and Willow, were very heartening to those who identified with them. Buffy showed that a blonde high school girl can not only be something other than a victim, but can be someone who fights back. Willow, too, showed that even a quiet and nerdy wallflower can become a powerful and relatively more assertive witch. Willow pushed representation even further in the fourth season when she begins a relationship with Tara. So with all this empowerment and representation, it is unfortunate the same could not be said of the apparently few Asian residents of Sunnydale. In the same way that Willow and Tara’s relationship was a beacon of representation for their LGBTQ+ viewers, every Asian character seemed to only remind Asian viewers that they’re good at math and and not much else; caricatures in a world of monsters.