tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-11030/articles
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Conversation
2023-06-06T20:14:32Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/205943
2023-06-06T20:14:32Z
2023-06-06T20:14:32Z
Nature religions are growing in Australia – though witchcraft was illegal in some territories just 10 years ago
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528982/original/file-20230530-39165-6p9ey3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C14%2C4920%2C3238&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mallory Johndrow/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nature religions, commonly described as Paganism (or neo-Paganism), are growing in Australia. In <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/census/guide-census-data/census-dictionary/2021/variables-topic/cultural-diversity/religious-affiliation-relp">the last Census</a>, 33,148 people claimed affiliation with a nature religion: including <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/animism">Animism</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/britannia-druids-and-the-surprisingly-modern-origins-of-myths-89979">Druidism</a>, and the many traditions of <a href="https://theconversation.com/wiccan-celebration-of-summer-solstice-is-a-reminder-that-change-as-expressed-in-nature-is-inevitable-184814">Wicca</a>, the most practised Pagan pathway. </p>
<p>Thirty years <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neopaganism_in_Australia#:%7E:text=In%20the%201991%20census%20by,religion%20as%20Wicca%20or%20Witchcraft">earlier</a>, just 4,353 Australians put down Paganism as their religion. Affiliation with Christianity has <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/religious-affiliation-australia#:%7E:text=The%20number%20of%20people%20affiliated,(18%2D25%20years).">decreased</a> over that 30-year period.</p>
<p>Australian laws against practising witchcraft have only been repealed as recently as this century in some states and territories. In the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-17/northern-territory-to-ditch-their-witchcraft-law/4894086">Northern Territory</a>, it was just 10 years ago: 2013. The laws were repealed in 2005 in Victoria, 2000 in Queensland and 1991 in South Australia. New South Wales was the first state to repeal them, in 1969.</p>
<p>The British Witchcraft Act of 1735, which Australia’s laws stemmed from, was repealed in 1951; the <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Hellish_Nell/ehh-AAAAMAAJ?hl=en">last conviction</a> of a witch was in 1944. </p>
<p>There’s never been a recorded conviction for witchcraft in Australia. But many Pagans <a href="https://journal.equinoxpub.com/POM/article/view/3020">remain cautious</a> about practising their faith openly, due to perceptions of believers as Satan worshippers. So, Australia’s Pagan population may be much higher than the figures show: declaring a religion on the Census is optional. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Delinquent_Elementals/OB6vygEACAAJ?hl=en">Satanic panics</a> of the 1980s in the UK and America didn’t help. Nor does the appropriation of Pagan symbols by <a href="https://oxfordre.com/religion/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-681;jsessionid=D9B3C24DFE6CB5A3C53E18CA53905950?rskey=Fjmi7N&result=448">far-right movements</a>, which has a particularly dark history in Germanic and Scandinavian countries.</p>
<p>But Paganism grew rapidly during the 1990s, with the popularity of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40405642?seq=1">Pagan-friendly</a> movies and television like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115963/">The Craft</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/sabrina-the-teenage-witch-is-back-with-a-darker-look-for-our-times-103915">Sabrina The Teenage Witch</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-would-have-had-her-work-cut-out-in-2017-73311">Buffy the Vampire Slayer</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0158552/">Charmed</a>. And in the early 2000s, the wild success of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/rethinking-harry-potter-twenty-years-on-86761">Harry Potter</a> franchise normalised magic for an entire generation.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W8HMxRf6ng4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Buffy’s practising witch Willow helped popularise Paganism in the 1990s.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Paganism’s emphasis on nature worship resonates in our increasingly climate conscious society. It also offers an alternative to traditional patriarchal church hierarchies, with its predominately female support base: 66% of Pagans in the 2021 Census identified as women. Significantly, Paganism is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/27/dawn-of-the-new-pagans-everybodys-welcome-as-long-as-you-keep-your-clothes-on">inclusive</a> of people from any background or sexual orientation.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hello-magic-and-witchcraft-goodbye-enlightenment-105720">Hello magic and witchcraft, goodbye Enlightenment</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is Paganism?</h2>
<p>Paganism is an umbrella term for people who follow any number of nature-based spiritual pathways. Pagans share a reverence for, and spiritual connection with, the natural world. But they don’t share one single set of beliefs, practices or sacred texts. </p>
<p>The Latin root word “paganus” <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Paganism_A_Very_Short_Introduction/pjP8Cr28GCIC?hl=en">was used by the Romans</a> to denote civilians (non-soldiers), outsiders and country-dwellers. Later, the term was applied to any non-Christian and inferred the worship of false gods.</p>
<p>But Christian civilisation has continually been fascinated by the art and literature of the ancient Pagan world, especially Greece and Rome. This kept the old deities imaginatively alive, preserving a different set of attitudes to the natural world and the divine.</p>
<p>Paganism draws its traditions <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/_/mi6zzQEACAAJ?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiy5_z0t_P-AhUCcmwGHeiyDu0Qre8FegQIAxAZ">from</a> the ceremonial magic of the ancient world, the group organisation of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Freemasonry">Freemasonry</a> and earlier Pagan cultures. Many Pagans believe individuals persecuted for witchcraft throughout European history were adherents of a surviving Pagan religion.</p>
<p>The modern Pagan movement began in Britain during the 1940s. Influenced by <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-romanticism-rebelled-against-cold-hearted-rationality-100242">Romanticism</a> and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/31/why-did-so-many-victorians-try-to-speak-with-the-dead">Victorian-era spiritualism</a>, these early practitioners perceived contemporary society as a corrupting influence and recognised nature as a repository of ancient wisdom.</p>
<p>They found receptive audiences in the US and Scandinavia – which, in turn, introduced the faith to other countries.</p>
<h2>What do Pagans do and believe?</h2>
<p>The type of Paganism practised today is a <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Handbook_of_Contemporary_Paganism/rwzttsI9-NwC?hl=en">revival or reformation</a> of European and northern African traditions. </p>
<p>Some Australian Pagans also incorporate the practices of First Nations peoples. Each culture has its own conception of Paganism. Northern Europe’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Heathenry">Heathenry</a> is inspired by the pre-Christian religions of Germanic language nations. <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Profane_Egyptologists/M6NMtAEACAAJ?hl=en">Kemetism</a> is a revival of ancient Egyptian religion.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529047/original/file-20230530-15-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529047/original/file-20230530-15-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529047/original/file-20230530-15-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529047/original/file-20230530-15-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529047/original/file-20230530-15-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529047/original/file-20230530-15-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529047/original/file-20230530-15-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529047/original/file-20230530-15-opja7d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Kemetic private altar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:RileyXeon">Riley Williams/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many Pagans are <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Solitary_Pagans/7uujDwAAQBAJ?hl=en">solitary practitioners</a>, though others join covens or similar groupings. Female Pagans tend to gravitate more towards <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Practising_the_Witch_s_Craft/Uc8WwwMFGq8C?hl=en&gbpv=1">group worship</a> than men.</p>
<p>There’s also a thriving online community of Pagans: the hashtag <a href="https://theconversation.com/witchtok-the-rise-of-the-occult-on-social-media-has-eerie-parallels-with-the-16th-century-168322">#WitchTok</a> has exploded in popularity over the last few years. The top <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-63403467">Witch TikTokkers</a> stream rituals and spell tutorials to an audience of millions.</p>
<p>Pagans generally worship multiple gods, or identify god with the universe. Ritual magic is central. Celestial events like <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-moon-bright-is-easter-a-full-moon-how-long-does-a-full-moon-last-your-moon-questions-answered-by-an-astronomer-158061">full moons</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-winter-solstice-matters-around-the-world-4-essential-reads-196344">solstices</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-makes-the-spring-equinox-31962">equinoxes</a> are times of celebration.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529039/original/file-20230530-21-gc3few.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529039/original/file-20230530-21-gc3few.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529039/original/file-20230530-21-gc3few.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529039/original/file-20230530-21-gc3few.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529039/original/file-20230530-21-gc3few.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529039/original/file-20230530-21-gc3few.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529039/original/file-20230530-21-gc3few.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529039/original/file-20230530-21-gc3few.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Francisco de Goya’s 1798 painting, Witches Sabbath.</span>
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<p>A horned nature god, such as Pan, is central across Pagan traditions. “With his goat legs, pointed ears, and lascivious face, Pan most likely inspired early Christian images of Satan,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-why-rosaleen-norton-the-witch-of-kings-cross-was-a-groundbreaking-bohemian-154184">observes classics professor Marguerite Johnson</a>, noting the resemblance.</p>
<p>Diana, a Roman goddess of the hunt, fertility, chastity and the moon, is another primary figure of worship. So is Hecate: a Greek goddess of sorcery now associated with witchcraft and Wicca.</p>
<p>Most Wiccan pathways place equal reverence on a goddess and god pairing, though some place particular emphasis on the former. Some Wiccans exclusively follow the feminine divine.</p>
<p>Shamanism, a religious phenomenon centred on <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/shamanism">the shaman</a>, “a person believed to achieve various powers through trance or ecstatic religious experience”, is also undergoing a revival. <a href="https://theconversation.com/shamanism-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-fastest-growing-religion-in-england-and-wales-196438">Shamanism</a> is not yet listed as a separate category in the Census.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-modern-witches-are-enchanting-tiktok-174576">How modern witches are enchanting TikTok</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Australian pagans</h2>
<p>Queensland recorded the largest number of Pagans in the last two Census, followed by New South Wales and Victoria. But the biggest population of Pagans <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-30/tasmania-has-one-of-the-biggest-pagan-populations/11224838">per capita</a> is in Tasmania.</p>
<p>Paganism in Australia was preceded by a significant <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Witchcraft_and_Paganism_in_Australia/-OrWAAAAMAAJ?hl=en">occult and esoteric subculture</a>, the first of which – the Freemasons – <a href="https://www.freemasonsvic.net.au/history-and-heritage/">arrived with</a> colonisation. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Ancient_Order_of_Druids#Australia_and_New_Zealand">United Ancient Order of the Druids</a> established its first lodge in 1851, and the first Australian branch of the <a href="https://theosophicalsociety.org.au/">Theosophical Society</a> opened in 1895. </p>
<p>In the 20th century, the mystical <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rosicrucians">Rosicrucians</a> established their first study group in Australia (1930). They were followed by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordo_Templi_Orientis">Ordo Templi Orientis</a>, originally modelled on Freemasonry, then made infamous through <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley">Aleister Crowley</a>. Under Crowley’s leadership, initiates were no longer Masons, but Magicians.</p>
<p>And then there were the Pagans.</p>
<p>Early adopters like <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-why-rosaleen-norton-the-witch-of-kings-cross-was-a-groundbreaking-bohemian-154184">Rosaleen Norton</a>, known as the “Witch of Kings Cross” or “Thorn”, were influential in introducing Pagan beliefs to a wider audience. </p>
<p>Norton, a self-proclaimed witch, practised trance magic and, later, sex magic in various flats and squats across inner-city Sydney. She was often accused of being a Satanist: she wasn’t, but was famously photographed with an altar beneath a portrait of Pan resembling Satan.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dWwN9PGGqMo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Rosaleen Norton, worshipping Pan.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since 1997, Australia’s <a href="https://www.paganawareness.net.au/">Pagan Awareness Network</a> has worked to correct misinformation and educate others about the faith. They have lobbied government to grant religious exemptions, such as the use of ceremonial knives in rituals.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-why-rosaleen-norton-the-witch-of-kings-cross-was-a-groundbreaking-bohemian-154184">Friday essay: why Rosaleen Norton, 'the witch of Kings Cross', was a groundbreaking bohemian</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The <a href="https://www.pagandash.org.au/">PAGANdash campaign</a> was started in 2006, to identify fellow Pagan practitioners. It ran in the lead-ups to the 2011 and 2016 Census. The campaign encouraged believers to write Pagan as their prefix on their Census forms, followed by their individual belief (for example, Pagan-Druid). An immediate success, it was soon adopted by UK groups.</p>
<p>The first Census conducted <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/d3310114.nsf/Home/Assuring+Census+Data+Quality">primarily online</a>, in 2016, recorded a substantial decrease in Pagans: 27,194, down from 32,083 in 2011. This may have been due to privacy concerns – though of course, numbers were up again, to 33,148, in 2021.</p>
<p>As recognition of Paganism as a genuine faith continues to grow, more practitioners are expected to begin worshipping openly. In this era of rapid technological advancement, increasingly urbanisation, and declining social cohesion, many people are returning to the “old ways”.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>NOTE: The data in this article has been compiled using the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data">Census data tools</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205943/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan C. Walsh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In the last Census, 33,148 Australians identified with a nature religion, or Paganism. Who are the Pagans – and what do they do and believe?
Brendan C. Walsh, Sessional Academic, The University of Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/110764
2019-02-21T00:12:29Z
2019-02-21T00:12:29Z
How an X-Men writer inspired binge-worthy, character-driven TV from Buffy to Game of Thrones
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259779/original/file-20190219-43261-x7anjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An early comics book writer inspired today's TV writing. The Umbrella Academy (Netflix), based on the comic book by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, tops binge-worthy TV lists this month. Mary J. Blige plays Cha-Cha, an assassin that can travel through time.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christos Kalohoridis / Netflix</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A quiet revolution has occurred within all of our homes, one that has fundamentally altered the way we watch television. </p>
<p>Given the North American love of television, it is not hyperbole to say this revolution has had a notable effect on our lives, our culture and our identities. It is strange to consider that we might owe a great deal of these cultural changes to the work of a single X-Men comics writer. </p>
<p>This writer played a significant role in developing the long-form storytelling techniques that have since found their way into everything from <em>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</em> to <em>Game of Thrones</em> to <em>Stranger Things</em>.</p>
<p>In the 1960s, X-Men comics were a failure for Marvel, despite boasting the creative pairing of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. After 63 issues, the series was effectively cancelled and left in limbo for five years. Then in 1975, a 24 year old editorial assistant named <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/the-true-origins-of-x-men-77108/">Chris Claremont took over as the new writer of X-men.</a> </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257635/original/file-20190207-174867-1qkeqys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257635/original/file-20190207-174867-1qkeqys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257635/original/file-20190207-174867-1qkeqys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257635/original/file-20190207-174867-1qkeqys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257635/original/file-20190207-174867-1qkeqys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257635/original/file-20190207-174867-1qkeqys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257635/original/file-20190207-174867-1qkeqys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The First Issue of X-Men.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Claremont expected the job to last six issues, but he instead wound up writing the series for 16 consecutive years. </p>
<p>In that time, X-Men went from a B-list title to the best-selling comic book in the world, and <a href="https://ca.news.yahoo.com/top-10-best-selling-comic-books-time-164243267.html">Claremont holds the Guinness World Record to this day for the bestselling single issue comic of all-time: <em>X-Men (vol 2) #1</em></a>. </p>
<p>All of this is established comics history. What does it have to do with television?</p>
<h2>A seismic shift: Casual to dedicated audiences</h2>
<p>By the late 1990s, television had begun a transition. According to <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Deny_All_Knowledge.html?id=5H2jXzw_AL8C&redir_esc=y">culuralist Jimmie Reeves and his colleagues, TV started “programming forms that inspire devoted rather than casual engagement.” </a> Prior to this, TV was dependant on broadcast scheduling and had to be designed to be accessible to casual viewers. This was simply because there was no way to guarantee audiences would be in front of their television the next week at the exact same time to see the next episode. </p>
<p>With the rise of VHS or DVD boxed sets, personal video recorders and later, streaming services, television was set free to use long-form continuity-based storytelling. Those stories featured more complex character dynamics within more continuous, open-ended plots and structures. </p>
<p>As a result of this transition, the way most of the globe consumed television changed within a very short period of time. This shift led us from self-contained, non-continuous stories to the very concept of being “binge-worthy.” </p>
<p>This same type of transition is exactly what Claremont contributed to comics, decades prior. </p>
<p>When Claremont started on X-Men in 1975, comics were also written for a casual audience. Stan Lee is famously quoted as saying: “Every comic book is someone’s first.” Casual engagement needed to be woven into the books. That was the status quo and creators were not allowed to drift too far from it. </p>
<p>But Claremont was not interested in telling the same stories over and over, and because he wrote X-Men for 16 years, he covered a lot of stories. This necessitated a new approach to writing, one that allowed for change: new characters and new directions. In light of this, Claremont’s X-Men were constantly changing and growing in a way that did not conform to Stan Lee’s mandate. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257640/original/file-20190207-174861-alg9vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257640/original/file-20190207-174861-alg9vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257640/original/file-20190207-174861-alg9vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257640/original/file-20190207-174861-alg9vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257640/original/file-20190207-174861-alg9vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257640/original/file-20190207-174861-alg9vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257640/original/file-20190207-174861-alg9vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">X-Men #136.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Claremont’s growth of writing style was rooted in an interest in character over plot. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13623814-marvel-comics">Comics historian Sean Howe noted: “All Claremont cared about were the emotional relationships of his characters.”</a> As a result, X-Men became, as Howe put it, “the soapiest soap saga ever put forth by the House of Ideas, filled with agonized romances, self-confidence crises, lectures on morality, psychic scars, and worrying.” </p>
<p>If these elements sound familiar, they should. Most of our current television programs use the same components to build their devoted followings. </p>
<h2>From Kitty to Buffy</h2>
<p>The most direct successor of Claremont’s work is Joss Whedon’s <em>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</em>. According to <a href="http://sequart.org/">cultural critic Geoff Klock</a>, Claremont’s influence “looms too large for many to see. A lot of folks don’t know that Joss Whedon would not have created Buffy or Angel were it not for Claremont’s X-men.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257638/original/file-20190207-174861-4vpumz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257638/original/file-20190207-174861-4vpumz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257638/original/file-20190207-174861-4vpumz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257638/original/file-20190207-174861-4vpumz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257638/original/file-20190207-174861-4vpumz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257638/original/file-20190207-174861-4vpumz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257638/original/file-20190207-174861-4vpumz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Buffy the Vampire Slayer.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, comics historian Jason Powell believes Whedon’s <em>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</em> is “an avowed Kitty Pryde [a character Claremont created for X-men] analogue, and an entire season of Buffy riffed on Claremont’s ‘Dark Phoenix Saga’.” </p>
<p>The same can be said for an entire season of Whedon’s <em>Angel</em>, which used Claremont’s Illyana Rasputin character as the basis for a long arc about Angel’s son, Connor. Whedon is quite open about how Claremont inspired him, and Buffy is frequently cited as a touchstone moment in the development of long-form storytelling in television.</p>
<h2>A broader absorption</h2>
<p>Beyond this direct influence, Claremont’s techniques are widely visible among the best-loved television series within this current golden age: nested story structures, drawn-out mysteries, character melodrama and dysfunctional collectives that have to put aside their differences to defeat a common foe. </p>
<p>The only thing missing is the yellow tights. Perceived as a whole, Claremont’s work constructed a sort of long-form storytelling toolbox, one that our TV creators have been dipping into ever since. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257641/original/file-20190207-174883-jvpj1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257641/original/file-20190207-174883-jvpj1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257641/original/file-20190207-174883-jvpj1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257641/original/file-20190207-174883-jvpj1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257641/original/file-20190207-174883-jvpj1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257641/original/file-20190207-174883-jvpj1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257641/original/file-20190207-174883-jvpj1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Claremont’s X-Women.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Additionally, <a href="http://comicsalliance.com/chris-claremont-x-men-strong-female-characters-storm-rogue-jean-grey/">Claremont’s use of women</a> in his stories was, according to Powell, “ahead of its time 30 years ago, and modern comics are still catching up.” His <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gZsJQfIY1E">cultivation of strong female characters</a> like Storm, Carol Danvers, Rogue, Colleen Wing, Misty Knight, Phoenix and Psylocke set a new standard for action heroines in popular culture as a whole, one that manifests readily in some of the great, badass heroines populating our screens today.</p>
<h2>In the end</h2>
<p>When Claremont was finally pushed out of X-Men comics, he was the No. 1 comics writer in the world. </p>
<p>He wasn’t pushed out because he was failing at his job, but because he refused to comply with an editorial mandate that requested a return to status quo, to casual engagement all over again. </p>
<p>His greatest accomplishment — developing ways by which a character-based story could unfold slowly over time — was, ironically, what cost him his job. But if our current television landscape is any indication, our culture has profited greatly from the choices Claremont made, and from the ingenuity that followed those choices.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110764/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>J. Andrew Deman currently holds a SSHRC Insight Development Grant to study the X-men comics of Chris Claremont. </span></em></p>
Our current golden age of TV storytelling is influenced by comic books, in particular, one writer: Chris Claremont pushed boundaries and gave audiences strong female leads and deeply involved dramas.
J. Andrew Deman, Professor, University of Waterloo
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/100599
2018-08-02T04:47:18Z
2018-08-02T04:47:18Z
A revamped Buffy could rectify the original Slayer’s problem with race
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229947/original/file-20180731-176714-nalci2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Although the show was rightly criticised for its lack of diversity, the First Slayer - she who begat all future slayers, including Buffy - was black.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118276/mediaviewer/rm590694656">20th Century Fox/IMDB</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>News of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot has made headlines, but perhaps not the kind its makers might have hoped for. The idea of remaking the hit series - 21 years after it first aired - sparked a <a href="https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-reboot-twitter/">flurry of debate on social media </a>. The <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/buffy-vampire-slayer-reboot-inclusive-take-joss-whedon-works-1128888">initial report</a> that Buffy would feature an as yet unnamed black actor in the title role met with a mixed reception. </p>
<p>While some <a href="http://gomag.com/article/this-is-not-a-drill-we-are-getting-a-buffy-reboot/">were jubilant</a> that the show, which ran for seven seasons, would return, others were seriously annoyed. <a href="https://www.slashfilm.com/buffy-reboot-problems/#more-497693">As one commentator put it</a>, talented people of colour “do not need white TV show and film hand-me-downs.” Indeed, one could criticise the reboot - racial debates aside - as an act of blood-sucking greed on the part of producers, eerily similar to the activities of the demons Buffy slayed. </p>
<p>Not to be deterred, however, producers of the show have responded by implying that the new season <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/26/17619650/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-monica-owusu-breen-reboot-sequel-series-new-slayer-fray-comics">will not be a reboot</a> with a Buffy who happens to be black, but rather a sequel to the old one, featuring a different slayer altogether. A sequel featuring a different slayer, with her own identity, would be a firm step towards a more radically inclusive and irrevocably transformed storytelling venture. For in the original Buffy, characters of colour were few and far between. Those that did appear tended to be heavily stereotyped.</p>
<p>Buffy the Vampire Slayer screened from 1997 to 2003, an era in TV not well known for diversity - think <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/friends-netflix-sexist-racist-transphobic-problematic-millenials-watch-a8154626.html">Friends</a> and <a href="https://studentedge.org/article/charmed-reboot-will-have-a-diverse-cast-but-not-everyones-convinced">Charmed</a>. Buffy followed the adventures of the eponymous hero and her close (white) friends - the “Scooby gang” - as they battled all manner of demons, while traversing the metaphorical hell that is adolescence and young adulthood. Alongside a plethora of supernatural monsters, Buffy and Co. battled everyday high school horrors: boyfriends turned bad, parents who just don’t understand, a part-time job that may literally kill you. But the most protracted death in the series was perhaps that of hope for a diverse cast. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1fsWZYeyz2Q?wmode=transparent&start=13" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired in 1997.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A legacy of racial insensitivity</h2>
<p><a href="http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Kendra_Young">Kendra</a>, a black slayer from Jamaica, was a second slayer activated after Buffy’s temporary death. Before being killed off after a mere three episodes, we see Kendra’s accent cruelly mocked by Buffy. And indeed, Bianca Lawson, who played Kendra, has been <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/cast-buffy-vampire-slayer-now-pictures/bianca-lawson/">criticised </a> for her poor rendition of a Jamaican accent. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mad-men-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-and-the-golden-age-of-television-48660">Mad Men, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the 'Golden Age' of television</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The original setting was the overwhelmingly white, middle class, southern Californian town of Sunnydale. While some might argue the show implicitly explored and satirised white identity - most obviously through the protagonist’s exaggerated blondness and ditsy name - it has a poor record of exploring race and diversity more broadly. </p>
<p>The lack of diversity in the show was acknowledged – albeit fleetingly – by one of the few recurring African American characters, Mr Trick, in season three: “Sunnydale”, he observed, was “admittedly not a haven for the brothers – strictly the Caucasian persuasion in the ‘Dale’.”</p>
<p>Other characters of colour who made it onto our screens didn’t last long. <a href="http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Nikki_Wood">Nikki Wood</a> - mother to season seven’s potential love interest Principal Wood - met her death at vampire Spike’s hands, and appears only sporadically throughout the series. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Sineya">First Slayer</a> - she who begat all future slayers, including Buffy herself - was in fact, black. But while she belatedly gave a woman of colour a central role in the mythology underpinning the series, her portrayal was deeply primitivist. Depicted as a noble savage, she also lacked any autonomy, being enslaved by the (all white) Watchers Council, who formed the governing body for slayers.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229946/original/file-20180731-176701-ir3o2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229946/original/file-20180731-176701-ir3o2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229946/original/file-20180731-176701-ir3o2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229946/original/file-20180731-176701-ir3o2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229946/original/file-20180731-176701-ir3o2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=787&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229946/original/file-20180731-176701-ir3o2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=787&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229946/original/file-20180731-176701-ir3o2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=787&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bianca Lawson played Kendra Young (right) in three episodes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118276/mediaviewer/rm2365999360">20th Century Fox/IMDB</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lives that matter</h2>
<p>Simply slipping a black Buffy into Sunnydale without making any other changes to the context in which she lives would do little to remedy the series’ dubious record on race. </p>
<p>Racial difference needs to be represented in more meaningful ways - as embodied, as having material effects and consequences, as showing lives that matter. The value of African American voices would be well expressed by welcoming a unique, coincidentally black slayer with her own narrative, aspirations, and attributes.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229948/original/file-20180731-176708-vmav5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229948/original/file-20180731-176708-vmav5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=892&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229948/original/file-20180731-176708-vmav5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=892&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229948/original/file-20180731-176708-vmav5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=892&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229948/original/file-20180731-176708-vmav5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229948/original/file-20180731-176708-vmav5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229948/original/file-20180731-176708-vmav5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Will a reboot be able to live up to the frightening times we live in?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118276/mediaviewer/rm1745111296">20th Century Fox/IMDB</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://deadline.com/2018/07/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-series-reboot-in-works-black-lead-monica-owusu-breen-joss-whedon-1202430592/">initial announcement</a> about the series remake read, vaguely and hopefully, that, “Like our world, it will be richly diverse, and like the original, some aspects of the series could be seen as metaphors for issues facing us all today”. </p>
<p>The new series’ writer and showrunner, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/midnight-texas-show-about-outsiders-tv-insider-monica-owusu-breen-n786176">half-Spanish, half-Ghanaian writer Monica Osuwu Breen</a>, has <a href="https://twitter.com/monicabreen?lang=en">responded</a> to fan fallout over the idea of a reboot by enlarging on this sentiment, saying that the world is a scarier place than it was 20 years ago, and maybe “it could be time to meet a new slayer”. </p>
<p>Trump’s America is an undeniably frightening place, especially for minorities, and it remains to be seen how a new Buffy will tackle this.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100599/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patricia Pender does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a cult classic, was a series with a diversity problem. News of a new season provides an opportunity for a different kind of storytelling.
Patricia Pender, Associate Professor of English and Writing, University of Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/73311
2017-03-10T11:40:59Z
2017-03-10T11:40:59Z
Buffy the Vampire Slayer would have had her work cut out in 2017
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160294/original/image-20170310-3669-4jgx8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) arrived in Sunnydale – and on our screens – 20 years ago. She was a teenage girl with supernatural gifts unwillingly “chosen” to slay vampires, demons and monsters in all guises. Sunnydale had all the outward appearance of a typical southern Californian town of the American Dream. But in fact, it was Hellmouth, a crack between earth and the dimensions of hell, and thus a source of power for all evil and a lure for ambitious monsters propelled by a desire for unbridled power.</p>
<p>Hellmouth itself is a metaphor for absolute power – or at least the will to wield it. In the world of Joss Whedon’s brilliant Buffy the Vampire Slayer, monsters are metaphors for the continuation of human injustice and the hidden injuries of oppression.</p>
<p>But, above all, these monsters are metaphors for the will to power. Often disguised in human form, the monstrous quest for power in the “Buffyverse” often takes the shape of figures of authority – high school principles, local mayors (seasons one and two) and even national authority in the shape of the government “initiative” (seasons three and four). Authority figures are depicted as either corrupt from the outset or corrupted by the seduction of power – and there are many hints throughout the seven series that human authority is in collusion with the forces of darkness.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160295/original/image-20170310-3703-1pt5qc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160295/original/image-20170310-3703-1pt5qc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160295/original/image-20170310-3703-1pt5qc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160295/original/image-20170310-3703-1pt5qc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160295/original/image-20170310-3703-1pt5qc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160295/original/image-20170310-3703-1pt5qc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160295/original/image-20170310-3703-1pt5qc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some vampires showing their true colours.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Buffy vs absolute power</h2>
<p>The question of power is a central theme in Buffy, and it is explored in a variety of manifestations – including that of those who are on the “right side”. When Buffy first encounters her “watcher” Giles, a member of an ancient Watcher’s Council who sent him to Sunnydale to guide Buffy in her role as the “chosen” vampire slayer, she immediately challenges his authority. </p>
<p>It is only his openness to this challenge and his ability to enter into a relationship of dialogue with Buffy, rather than dispensing ancient rules, that redeems him. When Giles first explains that he is her watcher and his job is to “prepare” her, Buffy puts him firmly in his place:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Prepare me for what? For getting kicked out of school? For losing all of my friends? For spending my time fighting for my life and never getting to tell anyone because I might endanger them? Go ahead. Prepare me. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Throughout the series, the Watcher’s Council is depicted as overbearing, patriarchal, and interfering. And Buffy defies them more than once. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160296/original/image-20170310-3703-1920jpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160296/original/image-20170310-3703-1920jpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160296/original/image-20170310-3703-1920jpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160296/original/image-20170310-3703-1920jpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160296/original/image-20170310-3703-1920jpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160296/original/image-20170310-3703-1920jpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160296/original/image-20170310-3703-1920jpm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Buffy’s watcher.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The show’s exploration of power is also conducted through the character of Buffy herself. Her ambivalence about her own power is what keeps her grounded – she would really like to be a normal teenager, and so feels her power as a burden. This picture is complicated as the fictional universe develops. Buffy builds up a group of friends and helpers (the Scooby gang), but there are times when she decides to act alone. In these cases she is either prevented by the Scooby gang, or else suffers immeasurably – when Buffy tries to wield power alone she comes unstuck.</p>
<p>A further examination of power occurs in the possibility of ambiguity in the monstrous. There are vampires and monsters who are tortured souls or are trying to redeem themselves – but, in each case, that ambivalence is predicated on those characters’ decisions to relinquish their own power, as the story arcs of the vampires Angel and Spike demonstrate. Spike in particular, not only lets go of power, but in the end sacrifices himself for the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160298/original/image-20170310-3696-12lktfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160298/original/image-20170310-3696-12lktfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160298/original/image-20170310-3696-12lktfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160298/original/image-20170310-3696-12lktfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160298/original/image-20170310-3696-12lktfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160298/original/image-20170310-3696-12lktfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160298/original/image-20170310-3696-12lktfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Angel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Buffy on the White House</h2>
<p>So at the heart of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a critique of the quest for absolute power. What, then, would Buffy and the Scooby gang make of the figure currently installed in the White House? Is the White House the new Hellmouth?</p>
<p>Trump is of course not supernatural evil incarnate (although I’m sure many have said as much). But Trump’s own drive for power, and the way in which it is wielded, is fundamentally at odds with the ethical world of Buffy. Dialogue and negotiating are central values in the Buffyverse – Buffy builds bridges with her friends, her family and even other slayers. In contrast, Trump builds walls (or threatens to) and excludes those he disagrees with (even the media – including the BBC – from his press conferences).</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160300/original/image-20170310-3703-vluhzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160300/original/image-20170310-3703-vluhzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160300/original/image-20170310-3703-vluhzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160300/original/image-20170310-3703-vluhzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160300/original/image-20170310-3703-vluhzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160300/original/image-20170310-3703-vluhzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160300/original/image-20170310-3703-vluhzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demons: watch out.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If there ever was to be an episode of Buffy vs Trump, Buffy, as his central foe, would not just represent “woman” but would be a metaphor for all the outcast, the foreign or the “other” who Trump wishes to expel or discipline. In the Buffyverse, such a human figure would be revealed as monstrous (and probably green and scaly underneath) and Buffy and the rest of the Scooby gang would either dispatch it or drive it away. </p>
<p>Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s conclusion is entirely apt for our own struggles against growing despotism today. Buffy and the Scooby gang decide to overturn the Council rule that insists there is only one slayer – they defy the law that only an individual can hold power. </p>
<p>The final message is to embrace an alternate form of power, one that is collective, embracing and inclusive – a power that connects all of us to each other in our miseries, in our struggles and in our differences. In our own fight against demagoguery, we would do well to keep in mind the inspiring collectivity embodied in Buffy’s final speech when she tells the crowd: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I say we change the rule. From now on any girl who might be a slayer will be a slayer. Every girl who could have the power will have the power, can stand up, will stand up. Slayers everyone of us. Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73311/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Milly Williamson is affiliated with the British Labour Party. </span></em></p>
At the heart of this 20-year-old show is a critique of the quest for absolute power.
Milly Williamson, Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies, Brunel University London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/60650
2016-06-10T09:28:09Z
2016-06-10T09:28:09Z
The name’s Bond, James Bond … or should it be Jane?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126124/original/image-20160610-29203-1rgqml1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gillian Anderson as Jane Bond.</span> </figcaption></figure><p><em>Amid reports that Daniel Craig has <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/daniel-craig-quits-james-bond-purity-tv-series-idris-elba-henry-cavil-a6874646.html">hung up his Bond boots</a> once and for all, speculation about who will take his place is rife. Will it be Idris Elba? Henry Cavill? Tom Hiddleston? While Hiddleston <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jun/07/tom-hiddleston-james-bond-007-daniel-craig">dismissed his chances</a>, X-Files star Gillian Anderson <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/may/24/jane-bond-gillian-anderson-next-007-twitter">threw her hat into the ring</a>. It was liked almost 30,000 times – many people evidently think it’s time for James to become Jane. Two academics with opposing views make their cases.</em></p>
<h2>No: James is forever</h2>
<p><strong>James Chapman, professor of film studies, University of Leicester</strong></p>
<p>You know the silly “news” season is upon us when the internet starts buzzing with speculation that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/may/24/jane-bond-gillian-anderson-next-007-twitter">Gillian Anderson</a> is to be the next James Bond. My own view is that this just ain’t gonna happen.</p>
<p>On the one hand the idea of casting a woman as James Bond offends the Ian Fleming purists, who see it as political correctness gone mad. Bond, they say, was always conceived as a British white male and to make him anything else would be tantamount to sacrilege. Bond is an icon of popular culture and shouldn’t be messed with. You wouldn’t turn Indiana Jones or Luke Skywalker into a woman, any more than you’d want a male Bridget Jones.</p>
<p>On the other hand there are those who argue that James Bond is an ideological and cultural product of a bygone world and that societal attitudes towards gender have changed so profoundly since the 1950s that it shouldn’t matter if he becomes a woman. Two women, Stella Rimington and Elizabeth Manningham-Buller, have both been heads of MI5, and the Bond films saw Judi Dench as “M”, head of the British Secret Service, in place of the elderly Victorian patriarch of Fleming’s novels.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qLlk5I6QvbU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The real issue at stake here is the under-representation of women in strong roles in popular culture. It has to be acknowledged that the Bond films have been complicit in this process: too many “Bond girls” over the years have been feather-brained bimbos cast more for their sexual attractiveness than intelligence. Honor Blackman, in Goldfinger (1964), and Diana Rigg, in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), were honourable exceptions, but the popular “eye candy” image of the “Bond girl” remains. Were we really supposed to accept Denise Richards as a nuclear scientist wearing hotpants in The World is Not Enough (1999)?</p>
<p>But the idea of a cinema action heroine is nothing very new. Pearl White was the original “Serial Queen” in <a href="http://www.filmsite.org/peri.html">The Perils of Pauline</a> in the silent era and might be regarded as the forerunner of contemporary adventure heroines such as Lara Croft and Sarah Connor. And television has brought us Emma Peel, Buffy, Sydney Bristow and Nikita, all of whom could take care of themselves in a fight and weren’t reliant on a man to come to the rescue.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"733461959442456580"}"></div></p>
<p>We don’t need to turn James Bond into a woman. Instead, we just need similar films with female leads. Sara Paretsky’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/07/sara-paretsky-interview-i-start-each-vi-warshawski-book-convinced-i-cant-do-it">V I Warshawski books</a> have never had a fair crack in the movies, while Anderson would in my view be ideal casting as <a href="http://www.patriciacornwell.com/books/catalog/scarpetta-series/">Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta</a>. There’s a <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/wonder-woman-budget-first-female-directed-live-action-100-million-patty-jenkins-a7049456.html">Wonder Woman movie</a> in the pipeline, and I’m sure she’ll be no helpless damsel in distress. And Lara Croft is surely due a return to the big screen. I doubt there’ll be anyone clamouring to cast a man in these roles.</p>
<h2>Yes: Jane for Bond</h2>
<p><strong>Shelley Cobb, associate professor in film and english, University of Southampton</strong></p>
<p>In the wake of Anderson’s “Jane Bond” tweet, more women have <a href="http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/after-priyanka-chopra-emilia-clarke-wants-to-be-the-first-female-james-bond/1/681486.html">declared their interest</a> in being the next Bond. Some in the media have expressed dismay at the prospect, but most of the reasons floated for not having a Jane Bond don’t really stand up.</p>
<p>Many believe Fleming’s vision of Bond was a man who is “<a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/why-bond-shouldnt-get-a-sex-change-jane-bond/18428#.V1amI1cay-8">suave and womanising but utterly dedicated to queen and country</a>” and that, therefore, he should never change. But Fleming thought of his creation as a parody of imperial spy fiction, <a href="http://bookriot.com/2016/06/02/why-nextbond-really-could-be-anyone/">saying</a>: “If one has a grain of intelligence it is difficult to go on being serious about a character like James Bond.”</p>
<p>Some argue that Bond is a cinematic icon and has reflected the changing state of masculinity for more than 50 years. Again, Fleming thought his readers would recognise the sexism and racism of Bond as a joke. Having a woman (and a woman of colour especially) take on the role might give the franchise a chance to expose the silliness of thinking that Bond represents the zeitgeist of “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2016/05/25/no-a-woman-shouldnt-play-james-bond/">what’s considered desirable and admirable in a man at any given moment</a>”.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"734145694055976960"}"></div></p>
<p>There is also <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/25/jane-bond-james-heroine-gillian-anderson">the argument</a> that Jane Bond can’t be a victory for women because Bond represents the patriarchy. Worrying whether or not she would “sit oddly with the vision of a world in which women leaders effect progress” caricatures feminism as a political project that depends on women at the top to succeed. That said, feminist criticism of the media has long pointed out the symbolic annihilation of women on screen and how their absence contributes to their marginalisation in politics. Jane would at least be a savvy retort; though much like Judi Dench’s M, we should probably expect her to be a temporary one.</p>
<p>Claiming Jane Bond <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/5985/11-reasons-its-idiotic-have-female-james-bond-amanda-prestigiacomo">won’t do well at the box-office</a> and therefore will be used as an excuse by studios not to make blockbusters starring women is painfully circular reasoning. The many films starring women that do make good money (such as Thelma and Louise, Charlie’s Angels, The Hunger Games) don’t often convince the studios to make more like them, so if the studios can ignore those films, Jane Bond can ignore them.</p>
<p>It is also true that the gender switch <a href="http://www.ntnews.com.au/rendezview/bond-jane-bond-um-no-thanks/news-story/b1ac7ff1613806c5369f595266d0ffc6">won’t fix the wider problem of gender inequality</a> in the film industry – nor did Kathryn Bigelow’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/mar/08/kathryn-bigelow-oscars-best-director">Oscar</a> win or Jane Campion’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/may/12/jane-campion-interview-cannes-the-piano">Palm d’Or</a>. Inequality in the industry <a href="http://time.com/4326519/aclu-government-sexism-female-directors-hollywood/">is structural</a> and needs systematic change – onscreen representation alone isn’t going to do that. </p>
<p>So then, why shouldn’t there be a Jane Bond? She might reinvigorate the franchise. Or, she might kill the Bond icon. Either way, it’s better to be fearless, like Judi Dench’s M: “If you think for one moment I don’t have the balls to send a man out to die, your instincts are dead wrong.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60650/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shelley Cobb receives funding from Arts and Humanities Research Council of the UK.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Chapman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
It’s time for a new Bond – what about a woman? Two academics debate the cultural implications of changing the spy’s gender.
James Chapman, Professor of Film Studies, University of Leicester
Shelley Cobb, Associate professor, University of Southampton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/48660
2015-10-06T19:27:31Z
2015-10-06T19:27:31Z
Mad Men, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the ‘Golden Age’ of television
<p>An enormous amount of digital column inches are dedicated to discussing American television. This week one of the more prominent articles is about television and academia. </p>
<p>The Atlantic’s <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/10/the-rise-of-buffy-studies/407020/">“The Rise of Buffy Studies”</a> by Katharine Schwab has been popping up all over the place on Facebook, Twitter and has even been republished by <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/10/04/why-academics-love-buffy-vampire-slayer">SBS</a>. </p>
<p>Schwab’s article contends that Joss Whedon’s genre bending cult-show <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118276/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Buffy the Vampire Slayer</a> (1997-2003) paved “the way for scholars to treat television shows like The Wire, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad as sprawling works of art to be dissected and analysed alongside the greatest works of literature.”</p>
<p>But this isn’t entirely true - television has been the subject of serious academic inquiry for decades - long before Buffy, let alone <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0306414/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Wire</a> (2002-2008), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804503/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Mad Men</a> (2007-2015) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903747/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Breaking Bad</a> (2008-2013).</p>
<p>This is not to challenge the phenomenon of Buffy; I have published on Buffy myself and it is by far the <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/06/11/pop_culture_studies_why_do_academics_study_buffy_the_vampire_slayer_more_than_the_wire_the_matrix_alien_and_the_simpsons_.html">most written about television series in academia</a>. However it is not the beginning of academic television studies and it is misleading to think about it in those terms. </p>
<p>Buffy has the distinction of capturing the imagination of many English literature and cultural studies academics who had previously not examined television. The show’s use of metaphor, allegory and literary allusion makes it particularly appealing for longform analysis.</p>
<p>As Schwab outlines, academic examinations of Buffy range from the philosophical to the peculiar. Philosophical approaches to the series are aplenty, including James B. South’s <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31912.Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer_and_Philosophy">Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy</a> (2003) and Dean Kowalksi and S. Evan Kreider’s <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11248506-the-philosophy-of-joss-whedon">The Philosophy of Joss Whedon</a> (2011). </p>
<p>At times Buffy scholarship gets very niche. Personal favourites of mine include Stevie Simkins’ <a href="http://slayageonline.com/essays/slayage11_12/Simkin_Gun.htm">“You Hold Your Gun Like A Sissy Girl”: Firearms And Anxious Masculinity In Buffy The Vampire Slayer</a> (2004), Patricia Pender’s <a href="http://slayageonline.com/PDF/pender.pdf">“Kicking Ass is Comfort Food”: Buffy as Third Wave Feminist Icon</a> (2004) and Leigh Clemons’ <a href="http://www.whedonstudies.tv/uploads/2/6/2/8/26288593/clemons.pdf">Real Vampires Don’t Wear Shorts: The Aesthetics of Fashion in Buffy the Vampire Slayer</a> (2006).</p>
<p>There is even academic writing on the academic writing on Buffy, thanks to David Lavery’s <a href="http://www.slayageonline.com/PDF/lavery4.pdf">“I wrote my thesis on you!”: Buffy Studies as an
Academic Cult</a> (2004).</p>
<h2>Before Buffy</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97337/original/image-20151006-29257-1extfbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97337/original/image-20151006-29257-1extfbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97337/original/image-20151006-29257-1extfbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97337/original/image-20151006-29257-1extfbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97337/original/image-20151006-29257-1extfbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97337/original/image-20151006-29257-1extfbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97337/original/image-20151006-29257-1extfbk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lucille Ball and Tennessee Ernie Ford in a 1956 episode of I Love Lucy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tennessee_Ernie_Ford_Lucille_Ball_I_Love_Lucy.jpg">Bureau of Industrial Service/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Television studies has existed as a coherent area of academic study since the 1970s, often a sub-discipline of film studies, media studies and/or cultural studies. </p>
<p>An enormous amount of academic scholarship has been written on the industry of American television and the cultural significance of series such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043208/">I Love Lucy</a> (1951-1957), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054533/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Dick Van Dyke Show</a> (1961-1966), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065314/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Mary Tyler Moore Show</a> (1970-1977) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083395/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Cagney & Lacey</a> (1981-1988) amongst others. </p>
<p>Feminist, industrial and thematic analysis dominates early television studies. </p>
<p>Entire monographs and anthologies are dedicated to individual series. One of my favourites is Julie D'Acci’s <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1515443.Defining_Women">Defining Women: The Case of Cagney & Lacey</a> (1994). D'Acci charts the different ways that Cagney & Lacey negotiated the women’s liberation movement, feminism and the changing television industry. </p>
<p>Before HBO, “quality television” was most closely associated with <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065314/">The Mary Tyler Moore Show</a> (1970–1977) and Moore’s production company MTM Enterprises, thanks in part to Jane Feuer, Paul Kerr and Tise Vahimagi’s book <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/811312.M_T_M_?from_search=true&search_version=service">MTM: Quality Television</a> (1984). </p>
<p>But The Atlantic article is representative of a broader trend in contemporary journalism and popular media to forget this history. And as the history is forgotten, so too is the valuable scholarship that goes with it. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97340/original/image-20151006-29243-hydki5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97340/original/image-20151006-29243-hydki5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97340/original/image-20151006-29243-hydki5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97340/original/image-20151006-29243-hydki5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97340/original/image-20151006-29243-hydki5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97340/original/image-20151006-29243-hydki5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97340/original/image-20151006-29243-hydki5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mary Tyler Moore, Dick Van Dyke and Larry Mathews in a 1963 episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dick_Van_Dyke_Petrie_family_1963.JPG">CBS Television/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One case in point is an article published in The Huffington Post in June 2015 by Zeba Blay, entitled <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2015/06/18/how-feminist-tv-became-the-new-normal_n_7567898.html?ir=Australia">“How Feminist TV became the New Normal.”</a> This article charted the rise of so-called “feminist TV” without any discussions of television series before <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159206/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Sex and the City</a> (1998-2004). </p>
<p>American television has a rich and complex history with feminism that extends back to its early years with <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043208/">I Love Lucy</a> (1951–1957) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0020555/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Gracie Allen and George Burns Show</a> (1950-1964). Seminal television scholar Patricia Mellencamp has written about these series and their importance at length. <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED293537">Mellencamp</a> provides a framework for reading these series as feminist, arguing that Gracie and Lucy operate as feminist figures who outsmart or outmanoeuvre their inevitable containment. </p>
<h2>The “Golden Age” of television?</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97343/original/image-20151006-29248-15x5o44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97343/original/image-20151006-29248-15x5o44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97343/original/image-20151006-29248-15x5o44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97343/original/image-20151006-29248-15x5o44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97343/original/image-20151006-29248-15x5o44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97343/original/image-20151006-29248-15x5o44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97343/original/image-20151006-29248-15x5o44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97343/original/image-20151006-29248-15x5o44.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1977 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show featuring Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman and Mary Tyler Moore.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scene_2_from_the_Mary_Tyler_Moore_Show_1977.jpg">CBS Television/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Why are we so reticent to remember this history and those who wrote it? </p>
<p>Why the reluctance to acknowledge that before Buffy or <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0141842/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Sopranos</a> (1999-2007) changed American television irrevocably, so too did I Love Lucy and The Mary Tyler Moore Show?</p>
<p>And what about <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066626/?ref_=nv_sr_1">All in the Family</a> (1971-1979), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068098/?ref_=nv_sr_1">M✵A✵S✵H</a> (1972-1983), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075572/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Roots</a> (1977), Cagney & Lacey, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096697/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Roseanne</a> (1988-1997), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096697/?ref_=nv_sr_1">The Simpsons</a> (1989-present), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106079/?ref_=nv_sr_1">NYPD Blue</a> (1993-2005) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108757/?ref_=nv_sr_3">ER</a> (1994-2009)? </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97353/original/image-20151006-29227-nkijz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97353/original/image-20151006-29227-nkijz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97353/original/image-20151006-29227-nkijz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=867&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97353/original/image-20151006-29227-nkijz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=867&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97353/original/image-20151006-29227-nkijz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=867&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97353/original/image-20151006-29227-nkijz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1090&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97353/original/image-20151006-29227-nkijz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1090&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97353/original/image-20151006-29227-nkijz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1090&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lynne Moody and Georg Stanford Brown in the 1977 television miniseries Roots.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Georg_Stanford_Brown_Lynne_Moody_1977.jpg">ABC Television/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In part, the forgetting of television history is fuelled by books that chart the rise of the so-called “Golden Age of Television” including <a href="http://brettmartin.org/difficultmen/">Brett Martin</a>’s <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16158518-difficult-men">Difficult Men</a> (2013) and <a href="http://www.alansepinwall.com/">Alan Sepinwall</a>’s <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16137527-the-revolution-was-televised">The Revolution was Televised</a> (2012).</p>
<p>But there are those who consider this “Golden Age” something of a myth. When Mad Men creator-showrunner Matthew Weiner visited Australia for the <a href="http://www.vividsydney.com/ideas">Vivid Ideas</a> festival in June, he said he didn’t believe American television was “better” now than it was when he was growing up. </p>
<p>I would argue the “Golden Age” idea is exclusionary; it not only encourages an elitist attitude towards contemporary television, but also fails to acknowledge the extraordinary work that informs television today. </p>
<p>It’s important to remember our history, because we don’t get Tony Soprano, Walter White and Don Draper without the crude, offensive and difficult Archie Bunker of All in the Family. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2372162/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Orange is the New Black</a> (2013-present) likewise owes as much to I Love Lucy and M✵A✵S✵H as it does to <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411008/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Lost</a> (2004-2010) and The Wire.</p>
<p>We don’t forget the great film and literature of the past, so why do we forget iconic television series and their history?</p>
<p>Perhaps it’s because television’s history is relatively short compared to other mediums. Or because we don’t think television’s history is worth remembering. Is it because television only became worthy of “serious” academic and historical examination when it became “cinematic”? Or perhaps when movie stars began to appear in it? </p>
<p>Maybe TV has just given us shorter memories and even shorter attention spans - an ailment perhaps best remedied by watching another episode of Buffy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48660/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Ford does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Before Buffy The Vampire Slayer intrigued academics, shows like I Love Lucy dominated the cultural conversation. This is worth remembering, because Mad Men and The Wire didn’t emerge from nowhere.
Jessica Ford, PhD Candiate in Gender and Television Studies and Postgraduate Teaching Fellow in Film and Media, UNSW Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/28142
2014-06-18T20:40:40Z
2014-06-18T20:40:40Z
Vampires beware: Buffy is the unslayable pop culture text
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51469/original/3vtsv3jr-1403061337.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For Buffy fans, Sarah Michelle Gellar will always be the Slayer.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Give them enough blood and vampires keep on feeding – but give academics <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118276/episodes">Buffy the Vampire Slayer</a> (1997-2003) and the same phenomenon occurs.</p>
<p>Much Ado About Whedon: The 6th Biennial Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses <a href="http://scw6.whedonstudies.tv/">takes place this week</a> in California State University-Sacramento, with up to three parallel panels per session, plus a smattering of special events, from eight in the morning until 11 at night. </p>
<p>That’s an astonishing scholarly commitment to a show that finished more than a decade ago, and it raises the question: what is all this “ado” about Buffy?</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51425/original/bwf7q7gp-1403055898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51425/original/bwf7q7gp-1403055898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51425/original/bwf7q7gp-1403055898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51425/original/bwf7q7gp-1403055898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51425/original/bwf7q7gp-1403055898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51425/original/bwf7q7gp-1403055898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51425/original/bwf7q7gp-1403055898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51425/original/bwf7q7gp-1403055898.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Meme Generator</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2004 the first and – it was then assumed – only Slayage Conference on Buffy the Vampire Slayer was held in Nashville, Tennessee, hosted by Middle Tennessee State University and organised by David Lavery and Rhonda V. Wilcox. Its overwhelming success meant the conference has since become a biennial event, gathering together hundreds of scholars and other enthusiasts from across the US, UK, Canada, Italy, Germany, Turkey, and, of course, Australia. </p>
<p>Combining elements of action, drama, comedy, romance, horror, and occasionally musical, Buffy sits uneasily within the taxonomies of television genre. Darker than <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118300/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Dawson</a> (1998-2003), and infinitely funnier than <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0134247/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Felicity</a> (1998-2002) (two primetime teen dramas that aired alongside Buffy’s first seasons), the series <a href="http://bitchmagazine.org/article/buffy-effect">was explicitly conceived</a> as a feminist reworking of horror films in which “bubbleheaded blondes wandered into dark alleys and got murdered by some creature”.</p>
<p>From its mid-season US premiere in 1997 to its primetime series finale in 2003, the chronicles of the Chosen One (Sarah Michelle Gellar) have generated, in <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=IPNSR9PQ76gC&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=rabid,+almost+insane+fan+base+whedon&source=bl&ots=J0z2mf1iCf&sig=Uqb6UMO8IFzn5aefVFxdCaqJc58&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Z-mgU6WgIdG48gW7z4DwBA&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=rabid%2C%20almost%20insane%20fan%20base%20whedon&f=false">the affectionate words</a> of its creator and director <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/joss-whedon-17181746#awesm=%7EoHuNAtE6in0pHI">Joss Whedon</a>, a “rabid, almost insane fan base”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51445/original/ff3xm35t-1403057527.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51445/original/ff3xm35t-1403057527.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51445/original/ff3xm35t-1403057527.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51445/original/ff3xm35t-1403057527.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51445/original/ff3xm35t-1403057527.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51445/original/ff3xm35t-1403057527.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51445/original/ff3xm35t-1403057527.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51445/original/ff3xm35t-1403057527.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Joss Whedon in 2005.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tracey Nearmy/AAP Image</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Subverting the conventional gender dynamics of horror, action and sci-fi serials, as well as the best expectations of its producers, the series followed the fortunes of the Slayer as she struggled through the “hell” that is high school, a freshman year at U.C. Sunnydale, and the ongoing challenge of balancing the demands of family, friends, relationships and work with her inescapable duty to fight all manner of evil. </p>
<p>As the voiceover to the show’s opening credits relates: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In every generation there is a Chosen One. She and she alone will fight the demons, the vampires and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iGCElYZj_tI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The end of the series in 2003 did not herald, as many must have expected, the passing of a fleeting academic fancy, but has instead ushered in an unprecedented number of monographs, edited collections, conferences, book chapters, journal articles, and even <a href="http://www.willamettelive.com/2010/arts-entertainment/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-heads-to-portland-state-university/">university courses</a> that grapple with the Buffy phenomenon in one way or another.</p>
<p>In June 2012 Slate magazine <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/06/11/pop_culture_studies_why_do_academics_study_buffy_the_vampire_slayer_more_than_the_wire_the_matrix_alien_and_the_simpsons_.html">ran an article</a> naming Buffy the most written about popular culture text of all time. In an online search for scholarly articles on popular media texts, Slate noted that Buffy criticism far outweighed any other potential contenders: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[M]ore than twice as many papers, essays, and books have been devoted to the vampire drama than any of our other choices – so many that we stopped counting when we hit 200.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51441/original/z2n5d8pt-1403057007.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51441/original/z2n5d8pt-1403057007.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51441/original/z2n5d8pt-1403057007.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51441/original/z2n5d8pt-1403057007.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51441/original/z2n5d8pt-1403057007.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51441/original/z2n5d8pt-1403057007.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51441/original/z2n5d8pt-1403057007.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/Travis Falligant </span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Thoroughly multi-disciplinary in scope, the field of <a href="http://slayageonline.com/EBS/buffy_studies/buffy_studies_by_discipline.htm">Buffy Studies</a> brings together academics and independent scholars working not only in literary, film and television studies, but also in sociology, psychology, religious studies, media studies, American studies, mathematics, philosophy, law, music, art, performance studies, women’s and gender studies, queer studies, linguistics, bibliography, rhetoric and pedagogy. </p>
<p>Gender analysis has been a driving force in the field since its inception, and debates about Buffy’s suitability as a feminist role model, and her perceived connections to second-wave, third-wave and post-feminism, continue to be contested. </p>
<p>Scholars of fandom have also found Buffy and its active fan communities fertile sites for analysis, as have teachers who study Buffy’s pedagogical potential in the classroom. </p>
<p>A relatively recent development has been the rise of auteur scholarship that positions Buffy in the context of Joss Whedon’s wider and expanding oeuvre. </p>
<p>Buffy’s ongoing popularity is tied to its specific contexts of production in ways that shed new light on popular culture consumption. Its unique location in media history – in the infancy of internet fandom and during the rise of commercial marketing of series TV, makes Buffy an obvious site for studies of contemporary convergence culture in all of its many manifestations. </p>
<p>In this context, the internet has provided a powerful platform for Buffy fans, whose own creative outputs – in the form of art and video – are themselves attracting the attention of Buffy scholars. Jonathan McIntonsh’s Buffy VS Edward (see video below) is just one of many interventions that pit the feminist smarts of the Slayer against the sullenness of Twilight’s sparkly vampire:</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RZwM3GvaTRM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Buffy’s centrality to the field of popular culture studies is partly a matter of serendipitous timing. </p>
<p>According to Whedon, the series was deliberately designed to be a cult television classic. But it was also one of the first to engage directly with fans through the medium of the internet via message boards and websites, and it benefited enormously from the exponential growth of series TV on DVD, making Buffy today – as much as in the last two decades – a movable feast, to be consumed on demand, available for multiple repeat performances, rather than an ephemeral text that, enjoyed once, disappears after first viewing.</p>
<p>To the understandable question “Is there really anything new to say about Buffy?”, the 6th biennial Slayage conference provides a resounding “Duh!” </p>
<p>To sceptics questioning the show’s relevance today, the conference offers ample evidence of the ongoing importance of Whedon’s texts to a wide international audience.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28142/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patricia Pender does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Give them enough blood and vampires keep on feeding – but give academics Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) and the same phenomenon occurs. Much Ado About Whedon: The 6th Biennial Slayage Conference…
Patricia Pender, Lecturer in English, University of Newcastle
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