Feminist SF Wiki - User contributions [en]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

2006-07-15T15:53:39Z

24.218.57.129: /* External Links */ added btvsfigs link

The television series '''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''' premiered as a mid-season replacement on the American television station The WB in 1997. The show's creator, [[Joss Whedon]], had previously scripted a [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (movie)|major studio movie]] with the same premise: a single teenage female is unwittingly chosen by supernatural forces to become "The Slayer" and battle vampires and other demonic creatures. She finds that she's become incredibly strong. She has a duty. But she doesn't have to like it.

Whedon described his original inspiration for ''Buffy'' in this way:

:''It was pretty much the blond girl in the alley in the horror movie who keeps getting killed ... I felt bad for her, but she was always much more interesting to me than the other women. She was fun, she had sex, she was vivacious. But then she would get punished for it. Literally, I just had that image, that scene, in my mind, like the trailer for a movie. What if the girl goes into that dark alley. And the monster follows her. And she destroys him.'' [http://www.slayage.tv/essays/slayage5/vint.htm]

Whedon's script for the original movie was altered against his wishes, and the movie did not do well financially. However, he was able to make a deal with 20th Century Fox to produce a television show, which premiered on March 10, 1997 and went on to become one of the signature shows of The WB. The show was a unique blend of horror, humor, contemporary high school drama, long-running complex story lines, and strong characterization. It also featured an unusual number of strong female roles, including [[Buffy Summers]] (the Slayer), [[Willow Rosenberg]] (her friend, a [[Witch|witch]]), [[Cordelia Chase]] (reluctant rich-girl ally), [[Jenny Calendar]] (technophile and gypsy with a revenge mission), [[Drusilla]] (insane lover of the vampire [[Spike]]), [[Faith]] (another Slayer, "activated" when the Slayer [[Kendra]] was killed), [[Anya]] (the Vengeance Demon-turned-human), [[Tara]] (Willow's Wiccan lover), and Buffy's magically created sister [[Dawn Summers|Dawn]].

== Related Works ==

*[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film)]]
*[[Angel (TV series)|Angel]]
*[[Fray]]

== External Links ==

*[http://daringivens.home.mindspring.com/btps.html Buffy the Patriarchy Slayer]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffy_the_vampire_slayer English Wikipedia entry for Buffy the Vampire Slayer]
*[http://www.slayage.tv Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies]
*[http://btvsfigs.proboards48.com/ Buffy the Vampire Slayer Action Figures Discussion Boards]

[[category:TV Series]] [[category:Buffy]]

Rainbow Man

2006-07-14T14:06:43Z

24.218.57.129:

[[category:1993 Publications|Rainbow Man, The]]

Feminist SF Wiki:Manual of style

2006-07-13T15:31:18Z

24.218.57.129: added notes & link

We are stylish in a geeky sort of way.

But we are also lazy and overcommitted, and so we currently link not to local styles but to information from Wikipedia about their styles. We will adopt & modify as we please, when we please.

* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:MOS Wikipedia Manual of Style]

[[category:About]]

List of stereotypes of female characters

2006-07-13T14:26:48Z

24.218.57.129: moved perky secretaries from annoying plot conventions

Common portrayals of women in SF/fantasy that rely on stereotypes of gender, ethnicity, age, sexuality.

* woman as nurturing partner / sex object ([[Deanna Troi]] in [[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]; Josella in John Wyndham's ''The Day of The Triffids'')
* woman as nurturing mother ([[Dr. Beverly Crusher]] in [[Star Trek: The Next Generation]])
* woman as encapsulating Otherness; often monstrous evil, but also sometimes just the feared or inferior Other ([[Borg Queen]] in [[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]; hive-like matriarchies a la [[Frank Herbert]]'s [[Hellstrom's Hive]]) <i>see also [[Matriarchal Hives]]</i>
* woman as cold, powerful, threatening, dangerous (the [[Ice Queen]] myth, [[C.S. Lewis]]' [[Queen of Narnia]])
* woman as pandora: curious, lacking self-control, leading to trouble ([[Eve]] in [[Genesis]], [[Pandora]] in [[:category:Greek mythology|Greek mythology]])
* woman as victim, needing rescue (the princess St. George rescues from the dragon)
* woman as controlling bitch
* woman as sex fantasy object
* woman as sex fantasy made real - [[Pygmalion]], My Fair Lady, and a hundred other similar adaptations
* wicked stepmother (stepmother in [[Snow White]] and [[Cinderella]])
* hapless ingenue, innocent but sexually available to the Right Man
* the [[Black Warrior Woman]] - too powerful to touch; must be feared; may be sexually unattainable
* the [[Asian Warrior Woman]] - "exotic", alluring, and dangerous Asian woman with martial arts skills, undercover jobs, and frequent large dragon tattoos on their bodies: deadly but beautiful, with mad sex skills, but not attainable; may be good or evil. (Miho in "Sin City")
* the fat, mothering cook - she's never a major character but is often a foil to the young protagonists, who are wealthy, in the military, or somehow in a castle or wealthy establishment. She might load you down with food or smack your hand if you get into the lord's banquet.
* professional old maid scientist (e.g., Asimov's [[Susan Calvin]])
* spunky teenage girl ([[Podkayne]])
* the mother of the Chosen Boy ([[Jessica Atreides]] from [[Dune]]; the [[Virgin Mary]]; [[Sarah Connor]] in [[The Terminator]])
* loyal female subordinate, such as a secretary (Duffy in [[Alfred Bester]]'s The Demolished Man; Tildy in Pohl and Kornbluth's The Space Merchants; Eunice Branca in [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s [[I Will Fear No Evil]])
* perky secretaries that are more competent than any of the male authority figures but who are happy to remain assistants, though it's the year 2500 and in space...
* bitter and/or suffocatingly small-minded, petty wife (see most wives as portrayed by [[Philip K. Dick]])
* wise grandmother or nanny; especially in people of color, see the Magical Negro (http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20041025/kinga.shtml)

''See also [[Annoying Plot Conventions, Devices, Contrivances]]''

[[category:Analysis of Works|Characters, Archetypal & Stereotypical Female Characters]]

Annoying Plot Conventions, Devices, Contrivances

2006-07-13T14:26:10Z

24.218.57.129: moved perky secretaries to cliche characters

Plot Devices that Make You Roll Your Eyes

* a woman character is raped or is in danger of being raped -- the eternal [[rapability]] of female characters

* a female character dies in childbirth

* "convenient" circumstances prevent a female character from going through with her decision to have an abortion (cf. Robin in ''[[V]]'', whose alien hybrid fetus's invasive vascularisation made it impossible to remove without killing her; spontaneous miscarriages and so forth) -- therefore rendering women's reproductive choices inconsequent when that oh-so-controversial subject is broached

* using female characters to voice misogynistic and/or patriarchal ideas because it would be "too obvious" to use male characters -- victim-blaming, in short

* using evolutionary biology or the selfish gene theory as the primary reason a male and female character are drawn together sexually (''Darwin's Radio'' by Bear), or why a female character cannot possibly resist the man's man that will make the best sire of her children (''Lucifer's Hammer'' by Niven)

* the competent female needs rescuing by the man

* innocent and universally loveable female characters that do not develop a sex drive or sex appeal until they turn evil (Doppleganger Willow from earlier in [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]], Fred from [[Angel]]) - correlated with the amount of cleavage/leg shown.

* alien women of ANY species will inevitably be irresistably attracted to the only mid-30s male on a particular starship ([[Star Trek]], I'm looking at YOU) - even if it causes an interstellar incident
** related: females of alien species always have extremely large breasts, located in the exact same location as those of human females (i.e. they look exactly like human women except for a charming set of pointy ears, forhead ridges or swirly haircut that serves only to make them more exotic to the male characters)

*

===Contiguous lists and related rants===

* "[[The Clichés from Outer Space]]" ([[1984]]), by Joanna Russ.

''See also [[Archetypal & Stereotypical Female Characters in SF]]''

[[category:Analysis of Works|Plot]]