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Jan. 27th, 2012 06:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatI can never decide if there is much point to doing cross posts from DW to LJ, because no one appears to be on DW most of the time and I get comments once in a blue moon. What do you think?
Bad week. Really bad week. Started out bad on Sunday and just dove downhill...you know it's going to be bad when a) Monday morning first thing you see upon entering your building is a sign that the bathrooms do not work any where in the building, b)it rains all week long, including that day, with only one day of sunshine. So really glad over. But brain is mush. I didn't sleep last night. And I feel like warmed over crap on a stick - yes, delightful image, I know, but there it is. Also..today was the day people kept asking me questions I hadn't a clue how to answer.
So..I found my mind retreating to comforting things.
And was thinking about Buffy the Vampire Slayer for some reason or other. I blame my infrequent skims of Mark Watches blog and my flist for this one. Well that and two recent posts on the topic of fandom, not the show.
1. Regarding fandom? The Mark Watches fandom is ironic. They have serious issues with S1-2 Xander and are obsessed with something called "slut-shaming" - yeah, I know it's new to me too..I never really heard this term until this year. These kids and their funky slang. I find this ironic (not the slut-shaming, the Xander-criticism), because...in 2002-2009...it was usually Spike was the misogynist/chauvinistic pig and Xander was the nice boyfriend everyone wanted to have for their very own. NOW? People are highly critical of Xander. And in S1-2 no less. I can't wait until they get to the latter seasons. (I honestly have no idea how they are going to relate to Spike in S4-7..) The men in this show aren't exactly nice, people, it is after-all a horror show.
Which brings me to ...
2. It has been written at length elsewhere, most notably by coffeeandink, that Whedon's Buffy was a critique of the slasher horror film genre that was incredibly popular between 1970-2002. It's sort of fallen out of favor of late, replaced briefly with torture porn, then Japanese psychological horror, and now...video camera psychological horror. But from the 1970s until roughly the beginning of the 21st Century, this was still a popular genre. And it always began with a blond, petite girl getting killed by the slasher. She'd usually just had sex with her boyfriend. The boyfriend was either killed, or he is the killer, or he finds her and gets killed.
And it's gory. Kevin Williamson's Scream flick - did a very good job of itemizing the rules -
Scream was released and a huge hit in 1996, the sequel was released in 1997. In 1996 - Drew Barrymore played the blond who gets killed before the opening credits roll. In 1997 - it was Sarah Michelle Gellar, who at that time had been cast as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Gellar goes on to die in another slasher horror film - I Know What You Did Last Summer - where she met hubby, Freddie Prinze Jr. (Those are the two notable things about the film.)
Slasher films had three things in common: 1) Last Survivor is a woman, usually brunette, and often kick-ass and momentarily defeats the villain, with some male lead sidekick who helps or older guy (although not always) 2) First victim is usually the blond girl in the alley. And 3) The hero of the film and the character who keeps returning is the slasher or the killer. It's really all about him. The victims aren't memorable. Outside of Jamie Lee Curtis in Carpenter's Halloween which premiered in the 1970s, few people remember the heroines of these films. In other films within this genre - the girl's death often will motivate a sort of reluctant hero type or male hero, a geeky nerd what-have-you into manning up and becoming the hero.
What does this have to do with Buffy? Well, the writer was a horror film fanatic and critic.
And stated that's how he got the idea. But...if you look back at the series...and I was thinking about the first and second seasons today, forget the latter ones, just think about the first two seasons and Angel's arc, along with the Masters.
In both S1 and S2 - the Prophecy says that Buffy will die. And Angel will save the day. She's not supposed to survive the Master. Nor is she supposed to stop Acathla by killing Angel. Angel's supposed to stop whomever opens Acathla. Buffy is Angel's way to "becoming". Or so Whistler tells us. And that's usually how these stories go. It's really not about her, it's about him.
She's the motivator for him. Buffy motivates Angel, not the other way around. Buffy is the damsel.
Angel saves her. She's the girl in the alley. And in Angel's series - that's the case. They go the traditional horror route.
But here, Whedon changes it. The story is not about Angel. Angel really is not that important at all. He motivates and changes her. But he's just one of many. He's not the lead. He's not Hamlet, Buffy is. He's Rosencrantz. Or a better way of putting it? He's Stu in Scream. Any more than the story really was about the Master. The Master is killed and leaves. Angel leaves too, although not completely...and he remains important, but always a supporting character. And he can't deal with it - this drives him insane. Which is interesting if you know the film trope that is being critiqued here. Where the villain is not the main attraction or lead. And the girl who he kills first, actually kills him.
Another interesting point? The slasher horror film did a lot of slut-shaming. It's known for that. As is torture porn horror films. In these films - the girl is often a sex object. She's pretty, scantily clad. Jamie Lee Curtis was an exception, but she survived. The girl who is killed is having sex with her boyfriend and is pretty and scantily clad. Women are viewed in these films as sluts. Often the man doing the slashing...is either intruding on "Prom Night", the Babysitter late at night - and he pretends to be her "boyfriend" on the phone, with heavy breathing. And there's often a geeky guy like Randy who plays the "Xander role". Actually the character of Xander sounds a lot like Randy in Scream.
Slut-shaming as it is currently called was part of these films, and part of the gothic genre, going back as far as Dracula. Lucy struggles against the seduction of Dracula - she is ruined by Dracula, as is Mina Harker, who equally struggles. And Dracula's daughters almost seduce Jonathan Harker and take him for their own. What Whedon does differently, is he sort of questions it and then twists it. Sure Angel loses his soul when he sleeps with Buffy, but if you watch the entire series including Angel, it becomes clear that Angel is not a good guy and would most likely cause these things to happen soul or no soul. The whole soul bit is a huge mislead, which is shown very clearly in the latter seasons of both series. Angel uses that as an excuse, which Spike points out on numerous occasions. The horror genre will often say - sex is the reason this happened. But no, it's not. If you look beneath the surface.
Anyhow nothing new, I know. Just popped into my head today and thought I'd share. Also since brain is mush...probably not all that coherent. I just got tired and lost my train of thought. Going to make dinner now. Make of this what you will..
Bad week. Really bad week. Started out bad on Sunday and just dove downhill...you know it's going to be bad when a) Monday morning first thing you see upon entering your building is a sign that the bathrooms do not work any where in the building, b)it rains all week long, including that day, with only one day of sunshine. So really glad over. But brain is mush. I didn't sleep last night. And I feel like warmed over crap on a stick - yes, delightful image, I know, but there it is. Also..today was the day people kept asking me questions I hadn't a clue how to answer.
So..I found my mind retreating to comforting things.
And was thinking about Buffy the Vampire Slayer for some reason or other. I blame my infrequent skims of Mark Watches blog and my flist for this one. Well that and two recent posts on the topic of fandom, not the show.
1. Regarding fandom? The Mark Watches fandom is ironic. They have serious issues with S1-2 Xander and are obsessed with something called "slut-shaming" - yeah, I know it's new to me too..I never really heard this term until this year. These kids and their funky slang. I find this ironic (not the slut-shaming, the Xander-criticism), because...in 2002-2009...it was usually Spike was the misogynist/chauvinistic pig and Xander was the nice boyfriend everyone wanted to have for their very own. NOW? People are highly critical of Xander. And in S1-2 no less. I can't wait until they get to the latter seasons. (I honestly have no idea how they are going to relate to Spike in S4-7..) The men in this show aren't exactly nice, people, it is after-all a horror show.
Which brings me to ...
2. It has been written at length elsewhere, most notably by coffeeandink, that Whedon's Buffy was a critique of the slasher horror film genre that was incredibly popular between 1970-2002. It's sort of fallen out of favor of late, replaced briefly with torture porn, then Japanese psychological horror, and now...video camera psychological horror. But from the 1970s until roughly the beginning of the 21st Century, this was still a popular genre. And it always began with a blond, petite girl getting killed by the slasher. She'd usually just had sex with her boyfriend. The boyfriend was either killed, or he is the killer, or he finds her and gets killed.
And it's gory. Kevin Williamson's Scream flick - did a very good job of itemizing the rules -
Scream was released and a huge hit in 1996, the sequel was released in 1997. In 1996 - Drew Barrymore played the blond who gets killed before the opening credits roll. In 1997 - it was Sarah Michelle Gellar, who at that time had been cast as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Gellar goes on to die in another slasher horror film - I Know What You Did Last Summer - where she met hubby, Freddie Prinze Jr. (Those are the two notable things about the film.)
Slasher films had three things in common: 1) Last Survivor is a woman, usually brunette, and often kick-ass and momentarily defeats the villain, with some male lead sidekick who helps or older guy (although not always) 2) First victim is usually the blond girl in the alley. And 3) The hero of the film and the character who keeps returning is the slasher or the killer. It's really all about him. The victims aren't memorable. Outside of Jamie Lee Curtis in Carpenter's Halloween which premiered in the 1970s, few people remember the heroines of these films. In other films within this genre - the girl's death often will motivate a sort of reluctant hero type or male hero, a geeky nerd what-have-you into manning up and becoming the hero.
What does this have to do with Buffy? Well, the writer was a horror film fanatic and critic.
And stated that's how he got the idea. But...if you look back at the series...and I was thinking about the first and second seasons today, forget the latter ones, just think about the first two seasons and Angel's arc, along with the Masters.
In both S1 and S2 - the Prophecy says that Buffy will die. And Angel will save the day. She's not supposed to survive the Master. Nor is she supposed to stop Acathla by killing Angel. Angel's supposed to stop whomever opens Acathla. Buffy is Angel's way to "becoming". Or so Whistler tells us. And that's usually how these stories go. It's really not about her, it's about him.
She's the motivator for him. Buffy motivates Angel, not the other way around. Buffy is the damsel.
Angel saves her. She's the girl in the alley. And in Angel's series - that's the case. They go the traditional horror route.
But here, Whedon changes it. The story is not about Angel. Angel really is not that important at all. He motivates and changes her. But he's just one of many. He's not the lead. He's not Hamlet, Buffy is. He's Rosencrantz. Or a better way of putting it? He's Stu in Scream. Any more than the story really was about the Master. The Master is killed and leaves. Angel leaves too, although not completely...and he remains important, but always a supporting character. And he can't deal with it - this drives him insane. Which is interesting if you know the film trope that is being critiqued here. Where the villain is not the main attraction or lead. And the girl who he kills first, actually kills him.
Another interesting point? The slasher horror film did a lot of slut-shaming. It's known for that. As is torture porn horror films. In these films - the girl is often a sex object. She's pretty, scantily clad. Jamie Lee Curtis was an exception, but she survived. The girl who is killed is having sex with her boyfriend and is pretty and scantily clad. Women are viewed in these films as sluts. Often the man doing the slashing...is either intruding on "Prom Night", the Babysitter late at night - and he pretends to be her "boyfriend" on the phone, with heavy breathing. And there's often a geeky guy like Randy who plays the "Xander role". Actually the character of Xander sounds a lot like Randy in Scream.
Slut-shaming as it is currently called was part of these films, and part of the gothic genre, going back as far as Dracula. Lucy struggles against the seduction of Dracula - she is ruined by Dracula, as is Mina Harker, who equally struggles. And Dracula's daughters almost seduce Jonathan Harker and take him for their own. What Whedon does differently, is he sort of questions it and then twists it. Sure Angel loses his soul when he sleeps with Buffy, but if you watch the entire series including Angel, it becomes clear that Angel is not a good guy and would most likely cause these things to happen soul or no soul. The whole soul bit is a huge mislead, which is shown very clearly in the latter seasons of both series. Angel uses that as an excuse, which Spike points out on numerous occasions. The horror genre will often say - sex is the reason this happened. But no, it's not. If you look beneath the surface.
Anyhow nothing new, I know. Just popped into my head today and thought I'd share. Also since brain is mush...probably not all that coherent. I just got tired and lost my train of thought. Going to make dinner now. Make of this what you will..
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Date: 2012-01-31 01:12 pm (UTC)And now, you understand the Warren Miers reference. ;-)
Whedon was also more than a bit of a bully to his actors. The other reason for the reference.