Theory & Crit Project #6

Gender Role Analysis of the Buffyverse

The gender roles of most television shows are relatively straightforward. Often we see a wife, husband, and children all clamoring to live up to the mundane view of gender behavior. However, in the campy television show Buffy: The Vampire Slayer created by Academy Award winning writer Joss Whedon, these roles are often askew.

The first character to look at is Xander. Xander is considered the “heart” of the “Scoobies” (a term often used to describe this gang of vampire hunters). He, in fact, is the only one of the gang without a specific talent to lend to the hunt. Buffy has super-strength, Willow and Tara are powerful witches, Giles has years of vampire lore and knowledge at his disposal, Oz is a werewolf, Anya is an ex-demon, and Spike and Angel are “friendly” vampires with great combat skills. He is almost like the mother. He says the things that need to be said because he’s the only one with the guts to do so. He does it because he cares and because he realizes his niche is to be encouragement personified. He sees what no one else can see because he has more time to watch. He knows everyone better than they know themselves.

Willow and Tara, the witches of the “Scoobies”, bend gender expectations due to the relationship they develop during the fourth season. No one expected Willow to become gay, and the automatic acceptance of Tara into the group and outcry of viewer support for her character demonstrates the strength of this choice.

Giles is very much the father of the group. However, he isn’t the strongest, so we see him in many episodes being knocked unconscious by various blunt instruments. Of all the characters, Giles does the best at keeping to the expectations of his gender.

The character of Oz was once quoted by a producer as being, “…the most instantly loveable personality…” they’ve ever seen on television. In fact, Oz being a werewolf, sets off all sorts of images and expectations in the mind of viewers. However, Oz is singly the gentlest person on the show. His kindness and acceptance of all people clash completely with his rocker-boy wardrobe and the fact that his character plays in a band. You may expect him to be spontaneous and often the voice of dissent and villainy, but his quiet stoicism proves everybody wrong.

Emma Caulfield, the actress who portrays Anya, is breathtakingly gorgeous. Thin, statuesque, and all legs; it’s easy to see her as the damsel who someone needs to save every week. Oddly though, when Anya opens her mouth to speak, its easy for the audience to forget how pretty she is due to her candor, flippancy, bluntness, and absolute genuine misconstruction of English and modern human behavior. Her character is obsessed with capitalism and business, also not something expected from “the pretty one”. When her character loses her demon powers in season three she later reflects on her upset by saying, “For a thousand years I wielded the powers of The Wish. I brought ruin to the heads of unfaithful men. I brought forth destruction and chaos for the pleasure of the lower beings. I was feared and worshipped across the mortal globe. And now I'm stuck at Sunnydale High. Mortal. Child. And I'm flunking math.”

Angel is often seen as a bit of a ponce with entirely too much product in his hair and Spike spends exorbitant amounts of time watching reruns of the soap opera “Passions”. In fact, the only character doing the job of living up to as well as breaking down gender expectations is Buffy herself.

Her strength and willingness to sacrifice her youth make her an automatic hero. However, in love, she is constantly hurt, rejected, and not at all lucky. This is often due to poor immature choices, something very much expected from a twenty-something year old girl. I always found the clash between Buffy’s words and her actions to be highly interesting. She’s always using the hippest and most modern lingo, wearing flashy (somewhat slutty) clothing, and finishing every vampire kill with a witty quip such as, “I’m finished with this one, if the apocalypse comes, beep me.” However, Buffy stays a sensitive soul throughout the seven season run and the diversity in her character make BTVS a fantastic study on gender role perspectives.