Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of those decidedly rare television series where not only is the ratio of male to female characters almost equal but women are portrayed as being able to have meaningful and significant relationships with other women. Furthermore, such relationships and interactions often take center stage on the show, serving to advance plots, develop characterization, and anchor the series in reality, while appreciably contributing towards its emotional heart. As such, it is no surprise that Buffy consistently passes the Bechdel Test with flying colors; nor is it remarkable that Buffy is widely lauded as a landmark feminist show given its reliance on interesting, multi-dimensional female characters who are in constant communication with one another, and whose female-female relationships are integral to the series’ narrative.

Buffy is often acclaimed as a feminist TV series on another count too: the frequency with which the show subverts and reverses traditional gender roles. Such reversals are commonplace on Buffy with women possessing an equal – and sometimes greater – degree of both mental and physical strength than men, and inhabiting positions of power traditionally held by men in society. Creator Joss Whedon explicitly explains this gender role reversal in Buffy:

“The first thing I ever thought of when I thought of Buffy: The Movie was the little…blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed, in every horror movie. The idea of Buffy was to subvert that idea, that image, and create someone who was a hero where she had always been a victim. That element of surprise…[and] genre-busting is very much at the heart of both the movie and the series.”

The shift in the male-female power dynamic on the show is also reflected by the male characters who tend to assume conventionally feminine traits such as physical weakness, irrationality, tenderness, and passivity.

However, perhaps regarding Buffy as presenting us with such a straightforward feminist paradigm is too simplistic an interpretation of what the female-female relationships on the show actually promote, especially when on closer inspection it becomes apparent that there is a notable lack of enduring female friendships on the show. Rather, relationships between women on the show are repeatedly characterized by rivalry and competition, even when both parties work together to defeat common enemies. These relationships generally possess a “bitchy” undertone, with barbs about clothing, appearance, and physical attractiveness being commonplace. A similar pattern can be seen in the relationships between the female protagonists on the show, and their female antagonists, whether these are “monster of the week” villains such as Sunday in “The Freshman” or recurring characters such as Glory.

This essay will dissect and analyse the different types of female-female relationships presented on the show – with a focus on female competition through a discussion of the female characters’ sexuality and their relationships with men – in order to come to a conclusion about whether the portrayal of female relationships complicates the idea of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a feminist work, or whether it can be considered one aspect of Whedon’s attempting to subvert traditional gender roles.

Enduring Female Relationships/Friendships on Buffy The best example of an enduring female friendship on Buffy is the relationship between Buffy and Willow, which is set up in the first episode of the series (“Welcome to the Hellmouth”). Although their friendship is certainly stronger in the earlier seasons, it still functions as one of the fundamental and enduring stable relationships of the show. Moreover, Willow best exemplifies the role of “sidekick” in relation to the “hero”, Buffy, even when Xander and Giles (the two other core members of the Scooby Gang) are taken into account. It is Willow who provides Buffy with support, not only through her witchcraft and ever-growing knowledge of the supernatural but also emotionally, often acting as a soundboard for Buffy’s emotions and inner turmoil.

As Sharon Ross points out in her essay “Female Friendship and Heroism in Xena and Buffy, Buffy and Willow rely on each other in order to navigate through life’s challenges and make difficult decisions; they do this through discussion, through the “expression of their emotional knowledge”, and through the validation of the other’s feelings and thoughts (248). In this way they are better able to deal with the adversity and suffering they encounter during the progression of the series: their emotional openness and ability to communicate makes them, as women, better equipped to confront the problems women face in our patriarchal society. Through the Buffy-Willow friendship Whedon is showing us that not only do women need to communicate and form positive, supportive relationships with other women in order to advance in society and break down the existing patriarchal framework but also that this can actually be achieved through interdependence, through the sharing of power between women in preference to “relying on a patriarchal model that organizes power and leadership linearly and hierarchically” (Ross 241). Willow transcends her status as sidekick through her friendship with Buffy, helping Buffy to realize that the conventional “lone hero” model is archaic and that “the toughest hero is a flexible one who relies on others” (Ross 233).

The Buffy-Willow relationship is also progressive in that their friendship is never centered on their romantic relationships, although said relationships do frequently enter into their discourse. Additionally, when their friendship is at risk of being marginalized by their romantic relationships, this is shown to be a negative development. In the Season One episode “I Robot, You Jane”, for instance, Willow neglects her blossoming friendship with Buffy in order to spend time with her boyfriend “Malcolm”, who is later revealed to be the villain of the episode. Willow’s behavior throughout the episode is critiqued as she isolates herself from the rest of her friends and begins to spend all of her time communicating with Malcolm. Buffy in particular does not accept this marginalization of their friendship, and after growing increasingly concerned takes action; by the end of the episode all friendships are reestablished. The weakening of the Buffy-Willow friendship is also an integral part of the main arc of Season Four as both gradually drift apart, due in part to their preoccupation with their new romantic relationships. This is again shown to be a negative development, and is something which Spike recognizes, and takes full advantage of in the episode “The Yoko Factor”. Only when Buffy and Willow reconcile and the Scooby Gang joins together both literally and figuratively, are they able to defeat the season’s Big Bad, Adam.

But why then are there so few examples of these types of relationships on Buffy; why is the Buffy-Willow relationship such an anomaly? The answer becomes more apparent when examining the characters’ sexuality. During the early seasons of the show Willow is the archetypal high school geek: she’s bookish, lacks confidence, and by her own admission is dressed by her mother. Contrast this with Buffy, who is assertive, fashionable, athletic, and aware that she’s a sexually attractive female. Both are aware, at least subconsciously, that this distinction exists and as a result, Buffy does not perceive Willow as a sexual threat. Willow recognizes that she is deemed by society in general as being less sexually desirable than Buffy, and does not challenge this perception despite being involved in a love triangle of sorts between Xander and Buffy during the early episodes of the series. This love triangle ends when Buffy begins dating Angel, and Willow begins dating Oz; again, at this point Willow poses no threat sexually to Buffy as both are in stable relationships with devoted partners.

In Season Four Buffy and Willow find themselves in a situation where they are both single again. Willow is now much more assertive and sexually confident, to the point where she might potentially be perceived as a sexual threat by Buffy, and thus a strain be placed on their friendship. It is at this point, however, that Willow discovers her lesbian identity, and enters into a relationship with Tara, allowing her once again to no longer be a feasible sexual competitor to Buffy.

Interestingly Tara is the only character on Buffy able to have numerous amiable and positive relationships with other women. For instance, during the Season Five episode ‘The Body’ and throughout Season Six she provides emotional support for Buffy, and although Buffy and Tara are never as close as Buffy and Willow, there is never any animosity, only mutual trust and respect. The Tara-Dawn relationship is also notably close with Tara often filling the role of older sister to Dawn; this closeness means that Tara still looks after Dawn and remains in frequent contact with her, even after she breaks up with Willow and moves out of the Summers’ house. Tara is even able to maintain a steady friendship with Anya. Once again, this ability to maintain friendships with the other women on the show can be attributed to her sexuality; as a lesbian she poses no sexual threat to the heterosexual female characters and therefore presents no competition when it comes to dating and attracting male attention. Female-Female Antagonism Between Allies on Buffy

With the exception of the Buffy-Willow relationship, much of the interaction between female allies throughout the series is characterized as antagonistic. This can be seen particularly when looking at the character of Cordelia. From Season Two until her departure at the end of Season Three, Cordelia consistently aids the Scooby Gang in defeating supernatural foes, but in spite of this she never forms any significant ties with any one of them, excepting her romantic relationship with Xander. Her relationships with Willow and Buffy range from grudging acceptance to coldness, indifference, and disdain. Catty gibes about appearance and status often accompany exchanges between Buffy and Cordelia, and sometimes these taunts have sexual connotations, such as in the Season Three episode “Homecoming”:

CORDELIA: (to Buffy) You crazy freak!

BUFFY: Vapid whore!

The nature of Cordelia’s relationship with Willow, although possessing a similar dynamic to that between Buffy and Cordelia, is subtly different. Throughout the first season all of the insults come directly from Cordelia, and are directed at Willow primarily because she is an easy target. As Cordelia gradually becomes integrated into the group, she stops directing insults towards Willow, although there is still the odd insensitive remark directed at both Buffy and Willow, as in the Season Two episode “Passion”:

BUFFY: You know, Cordelia, we’ve already done your car. Call it a night if you want.

CORDELIA: Right. Thanks. And you know I’d do the same for you if you had a social life.

As Cordelia’s relationship with Xander is discovered, however, most of the antagonism is now on Willow’s side as she makes snide comments about Cordelia behind her back. Eventually, the antagonism on both sides subsides only to return after Xander and Willow’s illicit relationship is exposed.

It might be easy to dismiss this bitchy behavior as being solely due to Cordelia and her conduct throughout Season One were it not for the existence of similar figures such as Anya later in the series, the various love triangles influencing these relationships, and the fact that Willow and Buffy do occasionally instigate and retaliate. It is important to note that both Willow and Buffy, at one time or another, have been in romantic competition with Cordelia. In the episodes “Some Assembly Required”, “Reptile Boy”, and “Halloween” it is apparent that Cordelia has a romantic interest in Angel, something which she openly acknowledges to Buffy (“You know what I think? I just think you’re trying to scare me off ‘cause you’re afraid of the competition. Look, Buffy, you may be hot stuff when it comes to demonology or whatever, but when it comes to dating, I’m the Slayer.”

At this point in the series Buffy and Angel’s relationship has not been established, although Buffy’s interest in pursuing a relationship with Angel is clear. This triangle serves to reinforce Angel’s heteromasculinity (in that both women covet him) and Buffy’s heterosexual desirability (in that Angel chooses Buffy over Cordelia), while also functioning as an example of the conventional “two women fighting over a man” scenario. Although a staple in pop culture, such a scenario acts to maintain and perpetuate the myths of women as being “more interested in men than in preserving female friendships and thus promoting heteronormativity” (Buckman 55), and while Cordelia fits this paradigm perfectly, as Buckman observes, the show regularly critiques her behaviour as “superficial and emotionally immature” (55).

After Cordelia’s departure from the show, Anya steps neatly into Cordelia’s position in this paradigm, although, as with Cordelia, Anya’s behavior is often critiqued as shallow and emotionally immature while also being played for laughs. Anya is never especially close to any of her female allies either; instead she tends to form much closer bonds with male characters such as Xander, Giles, Spike, and later Andrew. This dichotomy is probably best exemplified by the Anya-Willow relationship – or lack thereof – something which is dealt with directly in the Season Five episode ‘Triangle’:

WILLOW: Xander’s my best friend!

ANYA: Oh, and you don’t want anyone else to have him. I know what broke up him and Cordelia, you know. It was you! And your lips!

WILLOW: No it was not! Well, yes it was so, but ... That was a long time ago. Do you think I’d do that again?

ANYA: Why not?

WILLOW: Well, hello, gay now.

ANYA: But you’re always doing everything you can to, to point out how much I’m an outsider. You’ve known him since you were squalling infants together. You’ll always know him better than I do. You could sweep in and, and poison his mind against me.

WILLOW: You’re insane! I am not gonna take him away and I am not gonna hurt him.

ANYA: Well, I’m not either!

As this scene illustrates, Anya perceives Willow as a sexual threat due to Willow’s history with Xander, and in particular his dalliance with Willow while he was still dating Cordelia. The fact that Anya still harbors these feelings of unease and animosity towards Willow, despite Willow’s sexuality, suggests that her anxiety is at least in part due to Willow’s status as Xander’s best friend. Willow’s perception of Anya is no kinder; throughout the show we see that Willow feels Anya is not good enough for Xander, and is concerned that Anya may even end up harming Xander in some way. Essentially Willow perceives herself as Xander’s protector – a role generally occupied by a male – leaving Xander to fill the traditional female role of requiring protection: another instance of Whedon’s gender role reversal. By the conclusion of the episode both characters learn that they must work together, and respect each other’s significance in Xander’s life in order to deal with the current threat. Despite this realization, Anya does not become closer to either Buffy or Willow, and in the Season Seven episode “Selfless”, neither Buffy nor Anya hesitate at the prospect of killing each other:

XANDER: You don’t understand. This isn’t an intervention. Buffy’s coming to kill you.

ANYA: She’s coming to try.

XANDER: Did everybody have their crazy flakes today? You guys are friends. How could you talk like this?

ANYA: I have a job to do. And so does Buffy. Xander, you’ve always seen what you wanted to. But you knew, sooner or later, it would come to this.

Female-Female Antagonism Between Enemies on Buffy The Buffy-Faith relationship is interesting to analyze in that it could also have come under the category of antagonism between allies, given their interactions during early Season Three and late Season Seven. In fact, the rivalry between Buffy and Faith is apparent before Faith actually does anything to warrant it, and can be seen from Faith’s first appearance in “Faith, Hope and Trick”. Buffy takes an immediate dislike to Faith as soon as she appears on the scene, and Buffy’s behaviour throughout the next few episodes (in particular ‘Revelations’) effectively destroys their relationship before it even begins. In ‘Faith, Hope and Trick’, Buffy is seen to be jealous of Willow and Xander’s fascination with Faith, Giles’s appreciation of her “zest”, and Joyce’s admiration of her attitude (“I like this girl, Buffy”). Buffy is self-aware enough to recognise her jealousy and petty behaviour, but this doesn’t change her attitude towards Faith:

BUFFY: She’s very personable. She gets along with my friends, my Watcher, my mom. Look, now she’s getting along with my fries. [From the next room they see Faith remove food from Buffy’s plate]

JOYCE: Now, Buffy…

BUFFY: Plus, at school today, she was making eyes at my not-boyfriend. This is creepy.

JOYCE: Does anybody else think Faith is creepy?

BUFFY: No, but I’m the one getting single-white-femaled here.

JOYCE: It’s probably good you were an only child.

BUFFY: Mom, I’m just getting my life back. I’m not looking to go halfsies on it.

Even in Season Seven, when a newly reformed Faith returns to Sunnydale to help Buffy train the new Potentials, Buffy falls back into familiar habits. In the episode “Dirty Girls”, Buffy interrupts a conversation between Faith and Spike:

FAITH: Wow. Everybody’s just full of surprises. Hey, B.

BUFFY: (tersely) Well, it’s nice to see you two getting along so well.

Suspicion and Unhappiness

The suspicion and unhappiness with which Buffy greets any personal interaction between Faith and Spike is similar to her responses in Season Three to Faith’s relationship with Angel. Indeed, it is worth noting that Buffy and Faith do not fully become enemies in Season Three until Faith makes a move on Angel, in the aptly titled “Enemies”. Additionally, it is during this episode that Faith’s jealously of Buffy, previously only implied, becomes explicit:

FAITH: You know, I come to Sunnydale. I’m the Slayer. I do my job kicking ass better than anyone. What do I hear about everywhere I go? Buffy. So I slay, I behave, I do the good little girl routine. And who’s everybody thank? Buffy.

BUFFY: It’s not my fault.

FAITH: Everybody always asks, why can’t you be more like Buffy? But did anyone ever ask if you could be more like me?

ANGEL: I know I didn’t.

FAITH: You get the Watcher. You get the mom. You get the little Scooby gang. What do I get? Jack squat. This is supposed to be my town!

BUFFY: Faith, listen to me!

FAITH: Why? So you can impart some special Buffy wisdom, that it? Do you think you’re better than me? Do you? Say it, you think you’re better than me.

BUFFY: I am. Always have been.

FAITH: Um, maybe you didn’t notice. Angel’s with me.

BUFFY: And how did you get him, Faith? Magic? Cast some sort of spell? Cause in the real world, Angel would never touch you and we both know it.

It is particularly striking that Faith draws on her apparent relationship with Angel to hurt Buffy, and more than this, seems to believe that this relationship secures her status as being better than Buffy, not just as a slayer, but as a woman. Once again, the male romantic interest has been utilized, both by the show and by Faith as a character, to make a female competitor jealous, and in this way develop the rivalry between the female characters. Later in Season Four Faith once again targets Buffy via her then boyfriend Riley, going so far as to actually sleep with Riley while inhabiting Buffy’s body.

Another noteworthy female antagonist to Buffy is Glory, the “Big Bad” of Season Five. Much has been written about Glory as an evil counterpart to Buffy, and for good reason; both share numerous traits commonly associated with the “blond bimbo” stereotype. Both can be flighty and use various “valley-girl” colloquialisms, both possess an interest in fashion, and both are attractive, petite blonds. However, as is customary in Whedon’s works, these tropes are subverted; Glory is a god, and physically the strongest villain Buffy ever faces. While many of Buffy’s battles include the trading of hostile remarks and quips, her exchanges with Glory in particular are characterized by stereotypical bitchiness and insults focusing on physical appearance. Even Dawn is perceptive enough to identify the bitchiness which underlies all of the Buffy-Glory interactions:

DAWN: I just think you’re freaking out ‘cause you have to fight someone prettier than you. That is the case, right?

BUFFY: Glory is evil. And powerful. And in no way prettier than me.”

Similarly, not even the more minor, episodic villains are exempt from this kind of stereotypical bitchiness, as seen in the Season One episode “Angel”:

DARLA: Do you know what the saddest thing in the world is?

BUFFY: Bad hair on top of that outfit?

DARLA: To love someone who used to love you.

BUFFY: Well, you been around since Columbus, you are bound to pile up a few ex’s. You’re older than him, right? Just between us girls, you are looking a little worn around the eyes.

From the Season Four episode “The Freshman”:

BUFFY: I thought people were supposed to get smarter in college?

SUNDAY: Yeah, I think you had a lot of misconceptions about college. Like that anyone would be caught dead wearing that.

Again, the interaction between female antagonists on the show frequently goes beyond simple “fight-talk”, with spiteful comments about appearance being the norm. Additionally, although all the above examples have all centered on Buffy, other major female characters do engage in this kind of behavior too. Willow refers to Faith as a “superbitch” (“This Year’s Girl”), calls Riley’s wife a “bitch” to appease Buffy after having spent an episode bonding with her (“As You Were”) and has the following to say about Veruca in “Beer Bad”: “Buff, have you heard of this Veruca chick? Dresses like Faith, voice like an albatross”.

Within the series, Whedon certainly attempts to address female competition, and the bitchiness that can arise from it, by presenting it in a negative light through characters such as Cordelia. There are even entire episodes of Buffy dedicated to showing the detrimental effects that competitive female relationships can have, not only on the women themselves, but the incidental individuals surrounding them. For instance, in the episodes “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”, and “Him”, large numbers of women are shown fighting over a man as the result of magic; chaos ensues, the bitchiness escalates (“slut-bag hussy”, “Anna Nicole Smith makes you look tacky”), and things quickly become violent. The Buffy-Dawn relationship is a particular focus of the episode “Him” with the long running sisterly tension between the two of them coming to the fore:

You’ve always been the special one. Hot little Buffy with her boyfriends. The Slayer. And now someone likes me, and you just can’t stand that I’m getting the attention.

What am I—gonna compete with you? You’re older and hotter and have sex that’s rough and kill people. I don’t have any of that stuff.

Only when Buffy expresses to Dawn that their relationship is more important than any romantic interest is the spell broken. Thus the damaging aspects of female competition are examined, and the importance of female relationships highlighted. Furthermore, Whedon reinforces the need for positive female–female relationships, most significantly through the Buffy and Willow friendship, which provides us with an example of two women consistently supporting each other and working together to overcome problems that range from the fantastic to the everyday.

However, although competition and antagonism in certain situations are critiqued, in others they go unmentioned. Buffy and Willow are both capable of bitchiness and competitiveness, and this is often left uncontested, especially when the object of their criticism is either evil, or portrayed as a sexual threat. There appears to be a pervading idea that some women are deserving of this harsh treatment; while it is made clear that competition between, for example, Buffy and Dawn is destructive, it is acceptable when it relates to characters such as Faith and Veruca. This is indicative of an implicit association between sexuality, or sexual promiscuity, and punishment; the female antagonists on the show are routinely presented as licentious or sexually deviant, thus any bitchy remarks directed towards them are deemed acceptable.

Of course, it could be argued that the female protagonists on the show exchange their fair share of cutting remarks with male antagonists (“You’re one creepy little dweeb, Warren” [“I Was Made To Love You”]) thus putting them on a level playing field with their female counterparts. However, upon closer examination it becomes apparent that such comments tend to differ in nature; Buffy’s taunts to male villains revolve around their impending defeat, inadequacies as villains and relative lack of strength (“The prom’s a go and you’re pathetic”, “Luckily for me, you’re an incompetent maladjust.” [“The Prom]) rather than personal observations about their attractiveness. At no point does Buffy mock Spike for his clothing choices, or tell Angelus that he looks a little “worn around the eyes”.

Additionally, Buffy presents us with a world where female friendship can only exist where women aren’t competing for men. While Whedon critiques the idea of competition for men in episodes such as “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” and “Him”, many more examples go unexamined. But can Whedon really be held to account for this? After all, Buffy is still a TV show and as such its writers still need to create a compelling drama by relying on TV conventions and tropes such as that of the love triangle, which inevitably causes competition and hostility between the characters involved. Moreover it could be reasoned that on Buffy Whedon is actually being rather progressive, in that the vast majority of the love triangles presented on Buffy involve two females and one male. In this way traditional gender roles are again being subverted; we are presented with dominant female characters aggressively fighting for the right to more passive, submissive men.

Ultimately, Whedon performs a difficult balancing act. On the one hand he is endeavoring to illustrate the positive relationships necessary between women and provide examples of such friendships; on the other he is bound by the dramatic needs of the show, and as a result must rely on certain storytelling conventions such as the love triangle. Although the presentation of female relationships on the show is perhaps not as progressive as one might hope, Whedon’s attempts to represent and encourage female solidarity are surely admirable. Certainly Buffy offers far more successful attempts to portray positive female relationships than can be found in most contemporary popular culture (or indeed some of Whedon’s other projects; Angel in particular offers very few examples of female-female interaction, let alone positive relationships). Perhaps, then, Buffy should be viewed not as an unproblematic feminist manifesto, but rather as a move in the right direction with respect to the representation of female relationships on TV, and therefore as a show which current series’ would do well to refer to when developing their own female relationships.