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Date Posted: 10:41:56 07/21/02 Sun
Author: Jody
Subject: Response to Buffy Critics...
In reply to: Paracelsus 's message, "That's "Marti NOXON," not that she's quoted in the article..." on 15:57:27 03/17/02 Sun

The following is a reaction to the Buffy article in SFX July:
Okay, so I just finished reading O'Brian's article on Buffy and I am livid!
The interview itself was great, and his coverage of all the many Buffy
factors was complete, but I found the "The Girlie Show" side paragraph
complete with darling little graphics nothing short of mysoginist. Before I
get written off as some bitchy kook please allow me to address why in the
number order fashion that O'Brian choose:
The Girlie Show???
1) The big bads of the season-The geeks, a bunch of girlie wusses? I think
that the geek characters brought the humor to this season's Buffy, which most
people have been complaining was lacking. Nixon brilliantly combines darkness
with humor in a way that some people just can't grasp. The geeks have really
done the most damage than any other villains by actually murdering a key
character, and causing Willow to turn to the dark side. They also sparked
Xander and Buffy's discovery of Anya and Spike which did severe emotional
damage to everyone. The geeks kicked every one of the Scoobies' asses. I
think this shows that threats that you don't take seriously can do the most
damage. Perhaps Warren, a male pig geek hits a little too close to home for
some.

2) Other big bad of the season Willow being the big bad is scary. There is
nothing scarier than the one you trusted the most totally losing it. And the
show didn't wuss out. They had her not only kill Warren, but torture him.
Maybe she wasn't scary enough for you because she is after all, just a girl

3) Spike-Spike's slow ascension into semi-redemption has taken two years, so
I don't get why people are so shocked by it. And he is amazingly far from
perfect. He keeps the affair a secret because he wants to keep shagging
Buffy! I think his love for her is very believable, being that we have seen
him be obsessive about love before. The raw tension between Buffy and Spike
has always been there. Nixon and Wheaton are my saving graces. Do you know
what it's like to grow up in a world where all media has the main heroine
stay a lily white virgin? Well, it's awful and it makes you feel like a
freak. Nixon has told the real story of a woman's sexuality; she has even
explored the S&M world of trust and love vs. lust. This is not the move of a
girlie show. Could you see that happening on "Charmed" where the goal of the
women is to marry their cute truly domesticated demon lovers and have babies?
And as far as seeing Spike naked, I have to look at you magazine cover that
displayed Gellar's ass! But, I am so used to that, normally it wouldn't even
occur to me to bitch. Let me also say a girlie show would never show the
graphic sex it does

.
6) The Wedding- This was not the old hacked "stand you up at the alter" bit
to me. OK, maybe it was a little, but it was done so well that it wasn't like
anything I'd seen before. It most certainly didn't have that feeling of a
girlie wedding where the groom chickens out because he was manipulated, or in
love with someone else. Again they put an original twist on it and made
Xander chicken out by his own choice alone. As far as the wardrobe, if Buffy
has taught me anything it is okay to be kick-ass and still into clothes.

5) Lack of Male Members Oh, God shut-up! You just didn't like the way the men
were shown, and Xander did not "spend the year under Anya's thumb." If
anything it was quite the reverse, but I didn't feel somehow threatened as a
female.The characters were so real and this was their story. It not about the
ego strength of my gender. As far as the show spendin too much time on
relationships, Buffy has always been about relationships, so has Star Trek,
and even X-files; there is no show without relationships. If you think the
relationships are too "girlie" I just don't get it. Buffy being tortured by
her S&M romps with Spike, and Willow, a lesbian, upset about her girlfriend
dying is a far cry from Joey being torn between Dawson and Pacey and the big
drama being she slept with one of them.

6) Buffy- One of the reasons I love Buffy is that people don't get over their
huge sufferings or triumphs by the end of the hour. Buffy has suffered great
losses and this season is about her coming of age and realizing that her
childhood is gone. On top of it she is almost suicidal due to how easy not
living was. I think taking a whole season to get over these huge losses shows
the writer's true courage and understanding.

The people that feel that the show has sold out in some way because it is
more about the emotional states of the characters and not about feeding some
manly need to watch girls fight can stop watching for all I care. But, if you
think the show is "girlie" you are totally missing the point. I think the
real reason people are upset is that the show, while always blurring lines
between good and bad, has become too gray for them. The show can still be
depressing and be funny. The villains can remind us of ourselves (sometimes
too much). The show is not suddenly "Sex in the City" if everyone is
suffering about a relationship, because the relationships stay real and
complex. Maybe people are upset because there is no Chiles or Angel to lead
the way anymore. I do have criticisms myself, most of which were eloquently
expressed by Paul Cornell in the waffling about demons and Spike always being
ultimately evil.

Also, if it makes you feel better, Nixon and Wheaton are the only writers who
could create a situation where I feel sympathy for an attempted rapist. If
you ever told me that I'd feel that sympathy before I would have laughed. The
show has been doing what it's always done- it is shaking us up, but in a more
grown-up way. So, maybe it is not that the show is too girlie for these
critics, but too mature.

Jody
Sollazzo
New
York, NY

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