As season 3 ends and season 4 starts off, there is no shortage of sexual encounters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. At least not for those around our super woman; Buffy herself seems to be continually stuck with the short of the umm... well, she never makes it past that first night in bed. All her men just seem to change after their first sexual encounter with her. "Is this the way it's always going to be?” Buffy gloomily asks Willow in “The Harsh Light of Day,” “I sleep with a man; he turns evil?" So what is it about Buffy that makes all her men go running the other way?
Is it the fact that she carries a “security” stake named “Mr. Pointy” with her everywhere she goes so she can slay the random vamp wandering around the town? Could it possibly be her inhuman strength that drives away all masculinity, or is it maybe her take-charge attitude? The point is that Buffy is intimidating, and her girly wants and clothes do nothing to lessen the bruising blow. I mean really, she stomped the terrible demon of fear into the dust, crushed him with her shoe. The demon barely came up to her ankle; what man can stand before that kind of woman and survive? They’d always be behind her, defended by her. It’s not exactly a traditional man’s role.
In truth, Buffy’s invincibility actually causes her to be more vulnerable. She’s raw from the fight. She doesn’t know who she can trust, if any man, and her position as slayer prevents her from really becoming close to anyone. Angel was pretty much her one shot at maintaining an intimate relationship with at least somewhat traditional gender roles, but eventually it would have grown old (or rather she would have). Face it, Buffy needs a man with superhuman strength, knowledge of the “other world,” plus the ability to age. Where’s she going to find all that in one person?
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Dr. Rose says:
ReplyDeleteAnd this does speak to the difficulties that surround questioning traditional roles, gender or not. Remember that Buffy is constantly questioning and challenging conventional parent/child roles and the viability of authority figures in her world. I think that this is probably the first time she has come up against a powerful female authority figure (Maggie Walsh) who is not a little cartoony -- like Gwen Post or even Joyce.