A Feminist Reading of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Essay

A Feminist Reading of Buffy the Vampire Slayer In numerous interviews, creator Joss Whedon has explained that the inspiration for Buffy the Vampire Slayer struck while he was watching horror films and TV shows in which pretty women run away from or get killed by monsters in alleyways. Whedon claims he wanted to give this paradigmatic girl-victim a new role: that of the monster-killing hero. Whedons explanation of his own artistic inspiration reveals at least two things about him as a film-viewer and maker: first, his description suggests his awareness of the pervasive, archetypal quality of the traditional, mainstream horror film. Second, his description rather coyly fails to account for the more marginal genre of†¦show more content†¦In the introduction to her book, Men, Women, and Chain Saws (1993), Clover delimits her inquiry to [those subgenres] of [1970s and 80s] American cinematic horror . . . in which female figures and/or gender issues loom especially large: slasher films, occult or possession films, and rape-revenge films (5). More specifically, Clover argues convincingly that these subgenres (especially the slasher film) make possible certain quasi-transgressive viewer identifications: she proves that the mostly male audience of the slasher film identifies less with the sadistic monster than with the monsters female victim-heroes. Clover ends her book by imagining a different kind of audience, this one for her own work: at least some horror filmmakers read Freud . . . and film criticism (232), she notes. Ultimately, she challenges these hypothetical, literate filmmakers: though the slasher film proper has died down. . . . There may . . . be life in the amazingly durable and adaptable vampire movie she claims. And, she adds, contemporary horror films do not take the kind of brazen tack into the psychosexual wilderness that made horror in the seventies and eighties such a marvelously transparent object of study. Unless and until the direction changes again, I suspe ct we will soon be back to the dominant fiction in its dominant forms, out of which we must dig meanings rather than have them displayed so obviously and soShow MoreRelatedWhat Does The Word Feminism?856 Words   |  4 Pagesupon reading the word? Whom did you visualize? Feminism is defined as â€Å"the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men† (). I personally identify as a feminist, for women can do anything as well as a man and should be granted the same rights as men. Both the feminism of the 1970s and the feminist extremists of today are responsible for the stereotypical view of a feminist; the majority of the population has associated the appearance of a feminist to thatRead More The Feminist Perspective of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Essay5032 Words   |  21 PagesThe Feminist Perspective of Buffy the Vampire Slayer In her feminist critique of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Anne Millard Daughtey described Buffy as a show which obviously promotes female strength and power (159). Buffy herself is a symbol of female empowerment (149); as feminists we can all take comfort in the fact that Buffy kicks butt and so can we all (164). Sherryl Vint agrees that Buffy is a positive role model for young women, one which feminism should celebrate (para. 3). I findRead MoreWilliam Douglas s Enlightened Sexism : The Seductive Message That Feminism s Work Is Done By Susan Douglas1656 Words   |  7 Pagesshe has gone through the experience that many women have to go through. Because she, herself, is a woman, she is able to speak upon the subject with experience. She knows what she is talking about when it comes to women stereotypes. She is also a feminist academic, columnist, and focuses her writing on gender issues, media criticism and American politics. Since she is knowledgeable on the subject, she is able to cha llenge other’s thinking and opinions on the subject. III. Primary Issue Explored (about