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I don't approach BtVS from a "gender studies" perspective, but rather from a "Public Policy" perspective. Looking at "Chosen" in terms of Democratic Governance theories, it reads far more like a bureaucratic realignment rather than a metaphor for empowerment. Certainly, it's dramatic and empowering for the Potential, but offers little for the community as a whole.
It ties back to “Why we Fight”. The Mission. Everything flows from the mission.
And the mission of the Slayer, of the Watchers Council, of the Shadowmen, of the Guardian is, at heart, fairly simple: fight supernatural threats. Presumably, to defend and protect the community against those threats…
How each Institution fulfills that mission, is very different. I’d know that rather well. I am, after all, a defense contractor. I’ve interned in the Senate and worked on a congressional campaign. Congress. I’ve worked for an International Security Think Tank And I have one of them fancy degrees in Public Policy with a focus on Management and National Security.
The Shadowmen sought to create a slayer. But in order to preserve their bureaucratic preeminence atop the security pyramid, the Council maintained control over the slayer. There would be one girl, and the council, not the slayer, would retain institutional memory. The potentials were of the same class of the slayer, but merely less affected because they lacked her physical might.
Buffy, on occasion, used the uniqueness of the slayer as a source of power (“I quit”) in her bureaucratic struggles against the Council, in order to propound her organizing vision rather than the council’s own. And she cultivated her own loyal support team, thus reducing her dependence on council. Still, for the most part, Buffy shared the same guiding council vision – that the community she sought to defend had no real role in that defense. While community was not inherently discouraged to participate, neither was community sought out.
“Graduation” marked a contrast. Buffy embarked on a Public Involvement campaign. She enlisted members of the graduating class in a battle for their own defense. For the most part, those not already part of her politburo had no actual input, but she did encourage participation.
Season 7 disappointed me for many reasons. Among others, I found it artless, dull, and frequently so void of internal logic as to be nonsensical. These are issues of execution, not intent. (Though muddled intent leads to poor execution.) But these issues aside, “Chosen” disappoints me at its very core. Even if I grant that empowering tons of slayers with minimal aforethought is inherently good, even if I grant that they had any choice or say at all, even if I grant Buffy engaged the potentials in a democratic manner even if I grant the soundness of Buffy’s battle tactics…
It disappoints, because it doesn't address Public Service as a core value of the Slayer Enterprise mission. It’s the celebration of internal reform for it's own sake (even though it's such a great reform) beyond its significance. It’s spoken repeatedly of how Buffy empowers those potentials, but there is no tie-in to how this particular empowerment empowers anybody else.
When the town is beset by many foes, Buffy does nothing to raise community awareness. She does nothing to further community empowerment. This doesn’t mean they had to have civilians fighting with them – but there would have been other ways for the community to participate in its defense – perhaps in non-combat support or planning roles. In LA, Charles Gunn built a neighborhood defense organization. Anne by organizing an open shelter, has made her community safer. Even after Gunn leaves his boys behind, the community is better prepared to defend itself.
Buffy and the scoobies, on the other hand do no such thing. That the town is safer with Buffy gone over the summer than it was before she came, is because she expanded a bureaucracy such that she left a presence (in the form of Willow and Xander) when not there personally. The townsfolk, themselves, were no safer on their own.
The potentials can be seen as metaphorical representations of society-at-large. But this is a world where they are already marked and identifiable as special, and then sequestered from mainstream society because they are special, and empowered again because they are chosen. This undermines that metaphor.
I celebrate that Buffy would be about empowering these potentials, but it bothers me that it's not also about empowering anybody else. There needed to be a tie back to how empowerment of society as a whole - how Buffy as CEO of Slayer Enterprise serves her customer (the citizens) through this reform.
In essence, she’s done two things. First, she placed more cops on the streets. Secondly, she’s given those cops a much better say inside the division. That’s about it. She hasn’t done due diligence to make sure those cops are good cops. She hasn’t done anything about the Thin Blue Line that separates most cops from the rest of society. She hasn’t done anything on the topic of public involvement. She doesn’t prioritize her community, and though Buffy emerges victorious over the Shadowmen in her internecine struggle, the community is destroyed in the process.
This, by the way, is a major reason why the police forces are subject to oversight, and why police are generally charged to participate in the community to serve the community. The citizens of a community are important stakeholders, and in public service, stakeholder involvement (either directly, or though representatitves) is key part of performance. To reinforce the core value. Whether through stagnation, corruption, neglect, or abuse of power – when the Public Service organization loses sight of the mission, the public doesn’t get served. Faith’s murder spree. The Scoobies’ negligence of their own community, leading to it’s eventual downfall and destruction.
In the end, for all its themes of empowerment, “Chosen” is also a story about a group of bureaucrats who have lost touch with the fundamental organizational purpose which justifies the existence of that bureaucracy in the first place. Who fail to fulfill the mission to defend their community, in no small part, because they no longer see that as a core value. And amidst the hoopla and congratulations of Buffy’s “empowerment”, I’m not so certain that value hasn’t been lost on the new generation of slayers as well.
It ties back to “Why we Fight”. The Mission. Everything flows from the mission.
And the mission of the Slayer, of the Watchers Council, of the Shadowmen, of the Guardian is, at heart, fairly simple: fight supernatural threats. Presumably, to defend and protect the community against those threats…
How each Institution fulfills that mission, is very different. I’d know that rather well. I am, after all, a defense contractor. I’ve interned in the Senate and worked on a congressional campaign. Congress. I’ve worked for an International Security Think Tank And I have one of them fancy degrees in Public Policy with a focus on Management and National Security.
The Shadowmen sought to create a slayer. But in order to preserve their bureaucratic preeminence atop the security pyramid, the Council maintained control over the slayer. There would be one girl, and the council, not the slayer, would retain institutional memory. The potentials were of the same class of the slayer, but merely less affected because they lacked her physical might.
Buffy, on occasion, used the uniqueness of the slayer as a source of power (“I quit”) in her bureaucratic struggles against the Council, in order to propound her organizing vision rather than the council’s own. And she cultivated her own loyal support team, thus reducing her dependence on council. Still, for the most part, Buffy shared the same guiding council vision – that the community she sought to defend had no real role in that defense. While community was not inherently discouraged to participate, neither was community sought out.
“Graduation” marked a contrast. Buffy embarked on a Public Involvement campaign. She enlisted members of the graduating class in a battle for their own defense. For the most part, those not already part of her politburo had no actual input, but she did encourage participation.
Season 7 disappointed me for many reasons. Among others, I found it artless, dull, and frequently so void of internal logic as to be nonsensical. These are issues of execution, not intent. (Though muddled intent leads to poor execution.) But these issues aside, “Chosen” disappoints me at its very core. Even if I grant that empowering tons of slayers with minimal aforethought is inherently good, even if I grant that they had any choice or say at all, even if I grant Buffy engaged the potentials in a democratic manner even if I grant the soundness of Buffy’s battle tactics…
It disappoints, because it doesn't address Public Service as a core value of the Slayer Enterprise mission. It’s the celebration of internal reform for it's own sake (even though it's such a great reform) beyond its significance. It’s spoken repeatedly of how Buffy empowers those potentials, but there is no tie-in to how this particular empowerment empowers anybody else.
When the town is beset by many foes, Buffy does nothing to raise community awareness. She does nothing to further community empowerment. This doesn’t mean they had to have civilians fighting with them – but there would have been other ways for the community to participate in its defense – perhaps in non-combat support or planning roles. In LA, Charles Gunn built a neighborhood defense organization. Anne by organizing an open shelter, has made her community safer. Even after Gunn leaves his boys behind, the community is better prepared to defend itself.
Buffy and the scoobies, on the other hand do no such thing. That the town is safer with Buffy gone over the summer than it was before she came, is because she expanded a bureaucracy such that she left a presence (in the form of Willow and Xander) when not there personally. The townsfolk, themselves, were no safer on their own.
The potentials can be seen as metaphorical representations of society-at-large. But this is a world where they are already marked and identifiable as special, and then sequestered from mainstream society because they are special, and empowered again because they are chosen. This undermines that metaphor.
I celebrate that Buffy would be about empowering these potentials, but it bothers me that it's not also about empowering anybody else. There needed to be a tie back to how empowerment of society as a whole - how Buffy as CEO of Slayer Enterprise serves her customer (the citizens) through this reform.
In essence, she’s done two things. First, she placed more cops on the streets. Secondly, she’s given those cops a much better say inside the division. That’s about it. She hasn’t done due diligence to make sure those cops are good cops. She hasn’t done anything about the Thin Blue Line that separates most cops from the rest of society. She hasn’t done anything on the topic of public involvement. She doesn’t prioritize her community, and though Buffy emerges victorious over the Shadowmen in her internecine struggle, the community is destroyed in the process.
This, by the way, is a major reason why the police forces are subject to oversight, and why police are generally charged to participate in the community to serve the community. The citizens of a community are important stakeholders, and in public service, stakeholder involvement (either directly, or though representatitves) is key part of performance. To reinforce the core value. Whether through stagnation, corruption, neglect, or abuse of power – when the Public Service organization loses sight of the mission, the public doesn’t get served. Faith’s murder spree. The Scoobies’ negligence of their own community, leading to it’s eventual downfall and destruction.
In the end, for all its themes of empowerment, “Chosen” is also a story about a group of bureaucrats who have lost touch with the fundamental organizational purpose which justifies the existence of that bureaucracy in the first place. Who fail to fulfill the mission to defend their community, in no small part, because they no longer see that as a core value. And amidst the hoopla and congratulations of Buffy’s “empowerment”, I’m not so certain that value hasn’t been lost on the new generation of slayers as well.
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But the Shadowmen/Council arrangement works on two levels. On the internal - the oppression of the woman/slayer. On the external, a society that remains largely dependent upon an elite cadre of warriors - an elite that is unrepresentative, unresponsive, and so divorced as to be largely unconcerned with society as a whole.
Buffy's priority, in S7, is really open to question. Those class of people, who are not to be chosen, are they beyond her interest? I'm reminded of the turn of the century suffragettes who were all about extending the right to vote to women, but remained largely silent about the right to vote for women of color, or for women outside the propertied class.
S7 codified a two class system. Those who were born into the elite class - identified as potentials - were empowered by Buffy. Those women in Sunnydale who were not to be "Chosen" became refugees. Buffy empowered some women, but to what extent? Is Buffy really any more concerned about society as a whole, than the Council of Watchers was. Or is she just another elite, whose concerns are limited to her class?
Amidst all the hoopla, that's why I can't get too excited. Because it's female empowerment, but only for those who were already to be Chosen anyway? Did she overturn what the Shadowmen set up, or did she just finish their job and take it to the next level? For me, I really needed to see what Buffy felt about those people who were not Chosen - the society as a whole? Those women who don't have Potential - does she offer them anything to help them stand up too, or are they as dependent upon the watcher/slayer team as they ever have been?
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and
"Because it's female empowerment, but only for those who were already to be Chosen anyway? Did she overturn what the Shadowmen set up, or did she just finish their job and take it to the next level? For me, I really needed to see what Buffy felt about those people who were not Chosen - the society as a whole? Those women who don't have Potential - does she offer them anything to help them stand up too, or are they as dependent upon the watcher/slayer team as they ever have been?"
This really struck a chord.
And somehow, with the narrow viewpoint that Buffy has (sadly) shown over the years, I only see the concentration being on the Slayers and not the community in general.
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Well, had this happened in S3 or S4, I wouldn't have questioned her credentials. Had Buffy tied empowering slayers back toward empowering the people (as Glastnost and Perestroika - by empowering the political class - ultimately freed Russians) I wouldn't have felt so concerned. But I do think it's significant that Buffy was unelected in her position of authority.
Not just that she didn't really have a choice to run. But that we didn't get to choose to elect her.
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Not to forget that her "staff" as it were, did force her out of her role and 'elect' a stand-in - if only for a short time.
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It's not like I think Buffy doesn't care about people if confronted with their problems - but I think she winds off coming out like an overprivlidged individual without real social concern. But in the end, I don't think that's "Buffy" so much as it is Whedon and Mutant Enemy, because that assessment pretty much applies to every character they portray.
It's certainly not how I would have written Buffy post-S4. But then, I was going to make her take classes in the School of Social Work.
Poor Buffy
Re: Poor Buffy
Re: Poor Buffy
Re: Poor Buffy
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Wasn't Buffy accused in the first eppy of season 7 by ghosts saying that it was her fault that their bodies had died? That she wasn't doing her job well enough because she'd failed to protect them personally? Taking into account that she was one person - albeit, sometimes with back-up but the back-up usually only really hit with the Big Bad became BIG - did she actually do more good than harm? But looking from the other side of the picture - my side, if you'd like - who ever actually thanked Buffy for the things she did to keep people safe besides Chanterelle/Rose/Anne?
My webmistress, ChrisGD, wanted to get in on this as well but she couldn't post a reply for some reason, so I'm attaching her comments here.
Sharon, Could you forward this to dlgood for me? his comment posting section isn't working and I don't know otherwise how to contact him! Thanks!
Dear David,
Sharon Jane forwarded the thread in re. Buffy and politics to me. She knows I enjoy such things. I was impressed - not many people seem to catch the undercurrents/omissions that this popular show is awash in. Myself, I'm somewhat disturbed with the Nazi streak that runs through season 4s Initiative - they dance around the subject but it's there and unavoidable - Maggie Walsh is Dr. Mengle in a bra if you ask me. Forrest is a major hypocrite - a black man who is a few generations from slavery/legal non-person status referring to something that is clearly sentient and tool using as an "animal" - nobody has brought this up either (Don't get me started about Lilo and Stitch...). To a minor history buff, the whole set-up is rich with ugly implications - the demons as a metaphor for: Jews, Homosexuals, Handicapped, Gypsies, social non-conformists. Regardless,the whole idea of the Initiative makes my skin crawl. If you want, I've been exploring that idea - Reilly is also disturbing in that light, and here's what I did with that unease: http://www.geekgirlz-r.us/chris/danny.html
On closer examination, White Bread Boy/just one more cog in a big machine in his indifference to what he's doing is actually as big a monster in his own way as Spike.
Chris Geary-Durrill
If you wish to contact me, it's cdurrill@durrillgraphics.com
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Public Sector/Public Work can be really frustrating. But at the same time, you do work to make things better for other people, but you do it because you believe in what you're doing. Not for their thanks and such. Anne, for example, is a big hero to me.
It's pretty rare that Buffy got thanked. And my issue isn't really with "Buffy Summers" - it's with Joss Whedon. In S1-4, we had all these extraneous characters in Sunnydale that the gang interacted with, and it provided context and community. Even if she wasn't getting thanked, and even if Buffy felt like an outsider, she really was part of a community and she was making it a better place.
S5-7 is like a war movie, with the scoobies in a bunker or enemy territory. And it's okay for Whedon to destroy the town, because the main characters aren't on the side of the people who live there. But, it's hard to try and go for a humanist/feminist message while also saying that the people outside your house really don't matter. And that's what the latter episodes of S7 say.
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Which is why, ultimately, I consider it more of a failure on Whedon's part than I do on the character. But it's still hard for me to see this as a feminist/humanist piece when the "empowerment" message is accompanied by pretty consistent subtext telling me that the people who don't live in my house (and who aren't Chosen and special like me) don't really matter.
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I never felt that empowered by that, though. Just... meh. An army of little girls... *shudder*
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but wasn't that the whole point of the show? that tiny easily dismissed young women can have power, as much by their strength of heart & decisions as by the fantasy of the slayer?
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You can put that point forward in a few ways. One, is to say that the tiny girl matters because everybody matters, because everybody is special and valuable in their own way. I do think that's what the early seasons say.
I think S7, on the other hand, says that the tiny girl is powerful AND that the people who aren't blessed and chosen to be a part of this special club, are people who don't matter. That's not something I took from S3.
The people who live in Sunnydale, but who aren't a part of Buffy's circle, are afterthoughts and dismissed in ways they weren't in S1-4. I think the way Whedon dismisses those not Chosen, and those not part of the 1630 Revello clique, undermines the feminist/humanist message he's claimed to set forth.
I don't know that it was intentional, if it was an oversight, or if it was about Joss working out his personal issues with the networks et al. But, it's not a huge leap to see that negative view of humanity in his later story - and it is a negative view that undermines the positive message he wants to send.
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I don't know that it was intentional, if it was an oversight, or if it was about Joss working out his personal issues with the networks et al. But, it's not a huge leap to see that negative view of humanity in his later story - and it is a negative view that undermines the positive message he wants to send.
I can agree to that (at least to a certain extent *g*) - I suppose you could say I feel that what you took hold of, the elitist view of 7th season, was the result of poor writing and plotline being pushed to the side for the sake of completing his feminist arc - poor writing, not intentional.