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Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy: a feminist Trojan pony
Photo: imago images / United Archives
Buffy Summers rammed wooden stakes through the hearts of vampires on the TV screen in the 1990s.
As "Vampire Slayer" she defeated hell goddesses, pot-bellied demons and finally even the primordial evil in seven series seasons.
The fact that one of their most dangerous opponents in this ranks of alien-dimensional relay villains should be a very ordinary, thoroughly human and highly misogynous young man, who, assisted by two archetypal incel sidekicks, ultimately kills two women, has been seen as a knowing dramaturgical twist of a feminist series creator.
As a solidary commentary on the everyday, potentially life-threatening threats to which women are exposed even in a world in which there are no monsters, but men.
Now Warren, this serial villain figure, seems like a metaphorical anticipation: Because the fact that "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" - the series, not the character - may now be irreparably damaged for many of her fans, is also the work of a very common man: its inventor Joss Whedon.
Actress Charisma Carpenter, who played the refined nasty girl Cordelia in "Buffy", has accused him of behaving "repulsively, abusive, unprofessional and completely unacceptable" on the set of the series.
Buffy actress Sarah Michelle Gellar and other colleagues confirmed her statement.
As early as 2017, Whedon's ex-wife Kai Cole accused him in a blog guest post of using his ostentatiously marketed, supposedly feminist stance as a hypocritical cloak for his actually downright toxic behavior.
As a fan, you really didn't want to notice the rumors back then because they contradicted everything that "Buffy" stood for.
Buffy Summers was the most inspiring TV paradox of the late nineties and early noughties, which in the English original already irritated in the series title: The only person who could save the earth and its people from vampires, demons and all kinds of other evils,
"the chosen one" ,
as stated in the series opening credits really should be this petite, californiagirlige girl with sugary nonsense name?
"Buffy" broke with everything that girls were allowed to be and can be in TV series.
“She saved the world.
A lot, ”
said Buffy's tombstone when she was briefly indisposed because of her interim death.
But that was nothing that this girl couldn't survive - badly damaged, which only made her identification with the audience even greater, but on her feet.
However, betrayal feels more serious when it comes from an alleged ally.
For many girls and women, Buffy was a feminist-Trojan pony who nonchalantly conveyed its girl power message on the side.
The fact that all these stories were allegedly produced under conditions in which women were harassed and insulted undoubtedly destroys a great deal.
Of course, the behavior Whedon is accused of would have been just as despicable if it had happened on the set of a documentary about Mongolian marmots.
But betrayal feels more serious, and fraud hurts even more if it comes from an alleged ally.
For many fans, "Buffy" is more than a series, namely what the literary scholar Kenneth Burke calls "Equipment for Living": He was referring to literature, but TV productions can, in the best case, also provide tools for life.
From "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" one could learn attitudes and strategies for action, moves for the fight against new monsters, ideas like: Believe in yourself.
Stand by your friends.
Feel with
Dare to fight.
There is a whole book about what Buffy can learn for life from Buffy: “What would Buffy do?
The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual Guide ".
After the accusations against Whedon that had become known, ideas quickly spread on Twitter how one could save all these good Buffy feelings, even if their inventor presumably did not find them binding himself.
Whedon had basically invented "Buffy" and his other series, shaped them and really brought them to life, but others, the scriptwriters and actors.
The case would thus be different from, for example, JK Rowling, who had repeatedly expressed herself in a trans-hostile manner and, as the sole author, can be identified much more directly with her work (and vice versa) than Whedon, who let other people line his idea.
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Scene from "Buffy":
What would Buffy do?
Photo: imago images / United Archives
The flight into the question of how much Whedon really is in "Buffy", whether there might not be parts, episodes, seasons in which he had so little part that one could continue to enjoy them unencumbered, is tempting, but too short collected.
In principle - and even without the changed view of Whedon - it would be more painful for the Buffy fan to re-watch the series carefully, to take a closer look at how well their supposedly feminist messages have actually aged if they are seen more critically, because more knowingly, than with first surprised looks and the comfortably glorified repeat marathons since then.
You will probably wonder why you never noticed how obsessively Buffy often has to fight phallus-shaped snake monsters - just think of Glory's cobra demon, Machida, the girl-eating giant worm in the basement of the fraternity house of Delta Zeta Kappa and of course the mayor, who likes to transform Richard Wilkins III.
One may wonder why Angel (who sexistically humiliates Buffy in his Angelus version) and Spike (who tries to rape her) never have to justify themselves directly for their behavior, but are refined into honorable allies.
And you will have to decide for yourself whether Buffy's supposed rejection of traditional female roles is just a striking claim.
What would Buffy do?
You have a hunch.
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