I’m Buffy and You’re History: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Contemporary Feminism

Description

Buffy the Vampire Slayer gave contemporary TV viewers an exhilarating alternative to the tired cultural trope of a hapless, attractive blonde woman victimized by a murderous male villain. With its strong, capable heroine, witty dialogue, and a creator (Joss Whedon) who identifies himself as a feminist, the cult show became one of the most widely analysed texts in contemporary popular culture. The last episode, broadcast in 2002, did not herald the passing of a fleeting phenomenon: Buffy is a media presence still, active on DVD and the internet, alive in the career of Joss Whedon and studied internationally. I'm Buffy and You're History puts the entire series under the microscope, investigating its gender and feminist politics.In this book, Patricia Pender argues that Buffy includes diverse elements of feminism and reconfigures - and sometimes revises - the ideals of American second wave feminism for a wide third wave audience. She also explores the ways in which the final season's vision of collective feminist activism negotiates racial and class boundaries.Exploring the Slayer's postmodern politics, her position as a third wave feminist icon, her placing of masculinity in extremis, and her fandom and legacy in popular culture, this is a fresh and challenging contribution to the growing literature on the pitfalls and pleasures of a great cult TV show. Cover Author Bio Series information Title page Copyright information Dedication Epigraph Table of contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: 1 ‘I’m Buffy and You’re … History’: Buffy Baffles the Binaries Just a girl The lite ages 2 Buffy in History: Feminisms Pro and Faux, Post and Most All about the girl Placing Buffy in feminist film and television history Buffy at the brink of second-wave and third-wave feminism Problems with post-feminism 3 ‘Kicking Ass is Comfort Food’: Buffy as Third-Wave Feminist Icon Hot chicks, superpowers, and patriarchal nemesises (sic) Challenges for third-wave feminism: the exceptional white woman as exemplar Contradiction, paradox and third-wave politics 4 Whose Revolution Has Been Televised?: Race, Whiteness and ‘Transnational’ Slayer Suffrage Whose revolution has been televised? Buffy and benevolent world domination 5 Becoming Worthy of Buffy: Performing Masculinity in a Patriarchal World ‘Never Kill a Boy on the First Date’: romancing normality ‘I am what they made me to be’: Riley, hegemonic masculinity and relapse Not all done 6 ‘From Beneath You It Devours’: Andrew and the Homoerotics of Evil 7 ‘Why Can’t You Just Masturbate Like the Rest of Us?’: The Erotics and Politics of Buffy Fandom Master vs mushroom: Andrew and the erotics of fandom in ‘Storyteller’ Metalepsis in the mash-up: Parsing the sexual politics of Buffy vs Edward 8 ‘Where Do We Go From Here?’: Trajectories in Buffy Studies ‘Once more, with feeling’ ‘Going through the motions?’ ‘The same old trips – why should we care?’ ‘What can’t we face if we’re together?’ ‘Something to sing about’ ‘I’m just worried that this whole session’s going to turn into some training montage from an ’80s movie’ ‘It’s getting eerie. What’s this cheery singing all about?’ ‘I’ve got a theory’ ‘Where do we go from here?’ Notes Introduction: How to Do Things with Buffy Chapter 1: ‘I’m Buffy and You’re … History’: Buffy Baffles the Binaries Chapter 2: Buffy in History: Feminisms Pro and Faux, Post and Most Chapter 3: ‘Kicking Ass is Comfort Food’: Buffy as Third-Wave Feminist Icon Chapter 4: Whose Revolution Has Been Televised?: Race, Whiteness and ‘Transnational’ Slayer Suffrage Chapter 5: Becoming Worthy of Buffy: Performing Masculinity in a Patriarchal World Chapter 6: ‘From Beneath You It Devours’: Andrew and the Homoerotics of Evil Chapter 7: ‘Why Can’t You Just Masturbate Like the Rest of Us?’: The Erotics and Politics of Buffy Fandom Chapter 8: ‘Where Do We Go From Here?’: Trajectories in Buffy Studies Bibliography Index