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beccaelizabethI had a thought
and my thought is
Andrew asked an actually good question
why *aren't* there guy Slayers?
(Slayers who are male, not Slayers of males)
And, okay, the answer has something to do with 'girl power' or 'feminist message' or the fact that there's a whole ton of bloke superheros already.
But really...
Buffy shares her power with all the other girls like her, yaays! The End.
... seems a bit off.
I vaguely recall a quote or button or icon or something
Feminism is the radical notion that women are also human
or, to put it another way, feminism is about men and women being equals.
That Buffy ending? Does it put women as more powerful than men?
I mean, thinking about it, what role are men going to have in the new Watchers Council? Brains? That says a bad thing about the Slayers, if they need backup brains. No, seems more likely with the new numbers, they have time to study up and be brains themselves. Why have Watchers then? Who needs people around who are all squishy and lacking the power?
Women take over!
Which is freaky.
Because, that's the kind of thing that seems to come up in class when discussing feminism and the role of men. Not from the women, or the female teacher, but some of the men once coaxed into talking express the opinion that it is now a woman's world, that everything is set up for women now. They do better in school, get all the exam results, have all these legal protections and so on. Woman's world now.
Not that this lines up with observed empirical fact, what with the continuing lower pay etc etc etc, but that was the feeling expressed, if I was understanding it right.
So I look at that ending and kind of see it from a different angle.
Why is it all girls?
Why didn't Buffy say 'hey, lets invite boys in the club! they can do the dying parts too!' and empower all *people* everywhere.
Everyone who can stand up, will stand up
but they'll only stand up with superpowers if they have the matching genitals
freaky.
Of course there's also the thing where physical power is not the particularly important kind of power. And that bit at the end where new Slayer girl stands up to domestic violence - I think that's what is meant to be read as - why is Slayer power relevant to that? Is physical strength the determining factor there? The whole history of human achievement has been taking muscles out of the equation. If violence versus violence is the key, then the invention of guns should have eliminated domestic violence, for any woman threatened could pick up the gun and threaten right back. Yet this is not so. So really, Slayer 'strength' is just not the relevant sort there.
So the other way up of looking at the Buffy ending is, actually, in a world where muscle is increasingly less relevant, sharing the Slayer power isn't the useful kind of empowerment.
I know, all through the series, they've had that 'these things, never helpful' thing, to keep Slayer power key. But, face it, *stupid*.
The standing up together thing, that is power. Collective action, like the end of season 3. Kick demon ass as a class.
Getting extra strength, yeah, helpful. And the extra healing, very nifty.
But all along that 'one girl in all the world' thing has been a load of rubbish anyway. Wesley, Gunn, the Initiative, the Slayerettes, they all prove that ordinary individuals can make a difference too. Superpowers are just really really helpful.
So maybe the important part of the end of season 7 wasn't that Buffy hands out the shiny superpower. Its that they all stand up *before they have it*. They open the hellmouth and jump in together. They're going to fight this together however the spell does or doesn't work out.
And logically they're all going to die, and Buffy's plan wasn't actually the one that saved the world, and... that makes it rather lame and stupid.
So what would be the non stupid ending?
Maybe:
Knowledge is power.
Show the world how to fight for themselves.
Secret societies survive times when the bad guys have overwhelming power. But they don't make a hell of a lot of difference that way. Turn it into politics, large scale action, then things start moving.
I actually don't have much answer to this stuff.
Or much coherence. It probably all sounds a bit stupid.
I was just thinking.
Girl power, yaay
but people power more yaay.
and my thought is
Andrew asked an actually good question
why *aren't* there guy Slayers?
(Slayers who are male, not Slayers of males)
And, okay, the answer has something to do with 'girl power' or 'feminist message' or the fact that there's a whole ton of bloke superheros already.
But really...
Buffy shares her power with all the other girls like her, yaays! The End.
... seems a bit off.
I vaguely recall a quote or button or icon or something
Feminism is the radical notion that women are also human
or, to put it another way, feminism is about men and women being equals.
That Buffy ending? Does it put women as more powerful than men?
I mean, thinking about it, what role are men going to have in the new Watchers Council? Brains? That says a bad thing about the Slayers, if they need backup brains. No, seems more likely with the new numbers, they have time to study up and be brains themselves. Why have Watchers then? Who needs people around who are all squishy and lacking the power?
Women take over!
Which is freaky.
Because, that's the kind of thing that seems to come up in class when discussing feminism and the role of men. Not from the women, or the female teacher, but some of the men once coaxed into talking express the opinion that it is now a woman's world, that everything is set up for women now. They do better in school, get all the exam results, have all these legal protections and so on. Woman's world now.
Not that this lines up with observed empirical fact, what with the continuing lower pay etc etc etc, but that was the feeling expressed, if I was understanding it right.
So I look at that ending and kind of see it from a different angle.
Why is it all girls?
Why didn't Buffy say 'hey, lets invite boys in the club! they can do the dying parts too!' and empower all *people* everywhere.
Everyone who can stand up, will stand up
but they'll only stand up with superpowers if they have the matching genitals
freaky.
Of course there's also the thing where physical power is not the particularly important kind of power. And that bit at the end where new Slayer girl stands up to domestic violence - I think that's what is meant to be read as - why is Slayer power relevant to that? Is physical strength the determining factor there? The whole history of human achievement has been taking muscles out of the equation. If violence versus violence is the key, then the invention of guns should have eliminated domestic violence, for any woman threatened could pick up the gun and threaten right back. Yet this is not so. So really, Slayer 'strength' is just not the relevant sort there.
So the other way up of looking at the Buffy ending is, actually, in a world where muscle is increasingly less relevant, sharing the Slayer power isn't the useful kind of empowerment.
I know, all through the series, they've had that 'these things, never helpful' thing, to keep Slayer power key. But, face it, *stupid*.
The standing up together thing, that is power. Collective action, like the end of season 3. Kick demon ass as a class.
Getting extra strength, yeah, helpful. And the extra healing, very nifty.
But all along that 'one girl in all the world' thing has been a load of rubbish anyway. Wesley, Gunn, the Initiative, the Slayerettes, they all prove that ordinary individuals can make a difference too. Superpowers are just really really helpful.
So maybe the important part of the end of season 7 wasn't that Buffy hands out the shiny superpower. Its that they all stand up *before they have it*. They open the hellmouth and jump in together. They're going to fight this together however the spell does or doesn't work out.
And logically they're all going to die, and Buffy's plan wasn't actually the one that saved the world, and... that makes it rather lame and stupid.
So what would be the non stupid ending?
Maybe:
Knowledge is power.
Show the world how to fight for themselves.
Secret societies survive times when the bad guys have overwhelming power. But they don't make a hell of a lot of difference that way. Turn it into politics, large scale action, then things start moving.
I actually don't have much answer to this stuff.
Or much coherence. It probably all sounds a bit stupid.
I was just thinking.
Girl power, yaay
but people power more yaay.
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-11 07:33 am (UTC)Feminism is the radical notion that women are also human
or, to put it another way, feminism is about men and women being equals.
That Buffy ending? Does it put women as more powerful than men?
I originally must have misinterpreted the numbers, but I imagined a fair percentage of all women suddenly gaining superpowers, and I thought uh-oh. If as slight a strength difference as men naturally have over women has made such an impact on history, then what happens when it's slayer strength versus a normal human? If it's received as a gender-wide thing, then an oppressed subset of the species isn't likely to use its new powers to be sweet and gentle with its former oppressors. If, on the other hand, "yay woman solidarity" isn't the result, then we'll have further division of the species into type A women and type B women: the superior type and the inferior type. That can only turn out badly.
Maybe I've thought too much about it, but my conclusion is that Joss Whedon shouldn't be trying to make Big Feminist Statements. The show does so well on its own.