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Date Posted: 09:35:02 09/10/07 Mon
Author: Age
Subject: Re: Another Look Spoilers Part 6
In reply to: Age 's message, "Re: Another Look Spoilers Part 5" on 09:32:39 09/10/07 Mon

Turning to the crater page, the man at the bottom in the yellow (sun male colour) protective suit looks as though he’s a deep sea diver. What’s he afraid of being contaminated by? If Joss Whedon is intending a symbolic representation of water, a traditional feminine symbol, through the sea diver image, then this is a metaphorical portrayal of the men’s desire not to be influenced by the feminine, i.e. not be turned into women. But the huge crater isn’t filled with water; it’s empty, devoid of the man made buildings/culture that used to (inadvertently) imprison women (to keep them safe); it is actually a huge metaphor for women (again read individuals) having done away with the male (might) dominated culture. That there’s no water in the huge ‘bowl’ is symbolic of women (individuals) having taken their power with them, suggesting that it’s no longer available for the consumption of men as it would be in a male (might) dominated society. Where has the water gone? Look at the panel in issue two where Dawn is bathing. She is using the water in that panel. Instead of a (top down) man using it, a woman (an individual) has ownership of her own power. The empowered woman is portrayed through Dawn’s size.

What relationship does the pond have to the cup of tea on the title page of issue two or to the circle of slayers on Andrew’s pages? They are all part of the symbolic representation of the Women’s (Individuals) Movement and its achievements. The panels at the top (their all being at the top and not the bottom is symbolically significant of getting up out from under authoritarian rule) of the first few pages of issue two are linked together as if one were at the side of the other creating a level path along which the Women moved from male (might) dominance through revolution, organization, egalitarian society to emotionally empowered masculine male, Xander and physically empowered feminine woman, Dawn. This is how the movement is created: the top panel showing the liquid-looking riot of slayers fighting the ninja clad slayers is borderless and thus butts up against the next page; the castle on Buffy’s slayer training top panel is one half while the Villa on Andrew’s top panel is the other half; and the tree on the right of his top panel is completed by the tree on the left of Xander’s and Dawn’s. In this way, it completes the story of the journey of the Women’s Movement in the direction of the way the comic is read from left to right to symbolize progress.

It begins with the metaphorical representation of the male (might) dominated society on the title page in which women’s (individual’s) power, as represented by the tea ‘jailed’ rigidly within the white cup owned by the man who, providing all the protection, reduces the woman to household object meant to service him, the provider of protection, and in which despite the throng of slayers down in the courtyard (a top down image with the male above the females) there are none seen in the title page because they would be in houses, unseen.

Then on the next page the slayers versus ninjas continue the liquid imagery with the women having grown plentiful and broken the confining cup of protection to become a great sea of feminine symbolized revolt against, not men, but the idea of their being totally protected by men and having their public identities and lives removed as the ninjas in head to toe costumes represent. The revolt also is against the confinement of the feminizing culture that involves risk, emotional openness, and a peaceful alternative to violence and control.

The Movement continues on the next page as a woman, Buffy, now leads them, confirming for them the value of their femininity, their right to be empowered and the emergence of the value of feminine culture where Buffy is its icon. Note that the slayers/women on the left of the top panel have symbolically turned their backs on Giles and his cityscape prison from the other page, turned their backs on what he represents. They have also left the safety of the castle, the safety of their protected position inside the man’s home which is symbolic also of the risk that accompanies emotional openness. And are together, not fighting one another, looking to the right, towards progress on a terrain full of natural grass for growth.

On the next page, the new more feminized society is created where discussion and validation take precedent over might and control and where all, males and females are together in a circle, the rim of the cup, taking personal ownership of their lives, but equal as they are all in a circle; able to take care of one another as facing each other they can see behind the back of the one in front of them; and never again to be unseen, a thing to be protected inside a man’s house. There’s a great deal of space for discussion, for validation of self and the other where there had been none in the panel of the slayers fighting the ninjas, where everyone was against one another, angry and aggressive because no one’s emotions were being validated and everyone looked like a threat or resource, not a fellow human individual. In relationship to the Women’s Movement or to an individual in a top down society, the women are fighting each other to prove which of them would be most valuable to the top man, which would be more likely to be an asset to him. (Again, every citizen under the top man is a woman.)

On the next page with Xander representing the emotionally empowered respectful (he’s looking away, giving her, her privacy and not being a male dominated watcher) male, (he wears a hip holstered phone for communication and uses the feminine approach to pain not a gun to prevent it in the first place or force dominance) and Dawn the empowered female (individual) who is making use of her own feminine liquid power and who is so empowered and BIG that her power will never fit back in a man’s teacup again. There are no houses here because the old relationship they symbolize is gone. In their place is the circular structure, the recreation of the ring of slayers from the previous page, made by the natural trees in the back and the panels, representing culture, in the front. See how the panels in front overlap the one at the back slightly to create the ring.)

Also, as father, mother and next generation parent, Giles, Buffy and Andrew are giving these young slayers the ground on which they can stand up as adults. In the riot panel of Giles’s pages, the inexperienced adolescents/ slayers are all at sea (the liquid image), but there’s a movement towards the ground, where the slayers are seated in a circle on Andrew’s pages. It’s after Andrew’s talk, after their ‘training’ is complete that they will stand up on their own two feet as adults. Andrew sets the example by standing up himself, but they are not shown doing this because it’s a choice they have to make in the future. Note that the pages of the Women’s Movement are all connected by imagery and by the trainers seeming to finish off each other’s sentences. This is the type of society created when everyone is level at the top, i.e. up from the parents’ basement just as the panels on the connected pages are level, creating one huge long panel over several pages to symbolize trusted space in which individuals can move. Movement doesn’t only signify a journey but movement of individuals in that society because they can be trusted. Note that while these open (society) panoramic panels are at the top all level and connected by imagery and the trainers seeming to finish off each other’s sentences, they are doing so in their own individual style.

In simpler terms the movement away from protection to emotional openness as depicted on these pages can only come when you can trust someone, as Dawn trusts Xander. But you have to be brave and allow the chance that you may be attacked, hence the slayers outside the castle in order to allow the space for the other as space gets bigger over these pages, with Dawn’s naked bathing a symbol of openness and vulnerability. If you keep putting up defences or attack to defend, no one can get to you or see you. Dawn’s nakedness and her size mean that she’d be very hard not to see; you’d have to even look away to give her privacy. It’s quite the opposite of being unseen within the castle.


Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself here. Back to issue one.

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