While Googling today for something I’m going to write about a bit later, I came across a link where Gwyn Symonds cited a piece I wrote in her study, “The Aesthetics of Violence in Contemporary Media.”
I’ve written so many thousands of stories that I can’t possibly remember them all — but I remember this one. First, here it is:
‘Buffy’ Relationship Tips Into Domestic Violence
Fri, Feb 8, 2002 05:35 PM PDTby Kate O’Hare
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) – In “Dead Things,” the Feb. 5 episode of UPN’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” the volatile and tortured relationship between slayer Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and vampire Spike (James Marsters) took some disturbing turns, as the series once again pushed the envelope of sexual content and violence.
In one scene, the two engaged in intercourse while on the catwalk at the Bronze, Sunnydale’s favorite night spot, while Buffy’s friends danced below, unaware. Then, near the end of the episode, an argument over whether Buffy should turn herself in for a murder she’d been tricked into thinking she committed turned brutally violent. A frustrated Buffy vented her anger on the unresisting Spike, punching him repeatedly until one eye was swollen shut and his face was bloody.
“I don’t think anything about that is OK,” says executive producer Marti Noxon. “I don’t think that we were trying to say that’s OK. That’s definitely not offered as a conflict-resolution technique. It’s part of the pathology of their relationship.”
Whatever Noxon and series creator Joss Whedon intended when they brought together Buffy and Spike — who cannot hurt humans because of a government-implanted microchip in his head (the exception being Buffy, because of a minor metaphysical loophole explained at the end of the episode) — the best theme song for the relationship would probably be “Sympathy for the Devil.”
“We’ve been getting so much feedback from fans,” says Noxon. “They see Spike as a hero now. I’ve said to you and other people that the relationship is basically something we thought would reflect the kinds of relationships you choose when you’re choosing the wrong person.”
“People have been very upset about that. They’re like, ‘He’s not the wrong person. He’s all redeemed.’ Part of what needs to happen at this point is to show that redemption is possible for Spike, but he’s not redeemed now, and their relationship is really based on things that are not healthy.”
“It doesn’t mean that things won’t get better for them, but what it’s based on right now isn’t healthy. It’s not showing Buffy in the greatest light, but our intention was to show that they need to change what it’s about, or it’s never going to last.”
Asked about showing Buffy — who is supposed to be the hero of the story, and a moral person — inflicting pain out of anger on someone who is not fighting back, Noxon says, “This will probably inflame fans of a different opinion, but my only answer to it is that this relationship isn’t bringing out the best in either of them. Maybe it’s bringing out the better in him in some ways, but it’s not bringing out the best in her.”
“This is bringing out a desperation in her, and she’s going to have to deal with that. Long-term, there are definitely repercussions to what’s happened.”
The viewership for “Buffy” covers a wide age range, from ‘tweens to older adults, but Noxon emphasizes that the show isn’t targeted at very young viewers.
“I don’t think kids should watch ‘Buffy’ alone,” says Noxon. “To me, the show is definitely aimed at older teens and young adults. It doesn’t mean that younger people can’t watch it and enjoy it a lot of the time, but I just think responsible parents would make sure that they’re watching it with them.”
What I remember most is talking to Noxon and getting absolutely no sense that she understood why this bothered me so much. Buffy was a HERO, and she beat the crap out of her lover — who didn’t raise a hand in self-defense — and showed no remorse for it. The fact that he was evil and soulless was immaterial. His soul wasn’t the one in question here, it was hers, for what she did. You’re not excused for doing evil if you do it to an evil person.
In 2002, I was barely a revert Catholic. I hadn’t even settled into going to Mass regularly. That wouldn’t happen for a couple more years. But it seemed obvious to me that we are all responsible for our own actions, and that this was less about Spike’s redemption than Buffy’s slide into damnation.
Noxon just didn’t get it — which shouldn’t have surprised me, since “Buffy’s” atheistic creator, Joss Whedon, built a world in which no one worried about getting to Heaven.
The link to this old story comes via a “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” fan board. A commenter named Chipper posted at the bottom:
I hope they realize that this show is losing a lot with this. Repercussions are exceeding the level. The show needs to get lighter.
The same story was also cited on a fan page — click here for a downloadable PDF — that features a detailed analysis of another piece on sex and violence in “Buffy,” and this comment — in the age of “Twilight” and “50 Shades” (which began as “Twilight” fan fiction) — struck me:
(13) As Tania Modleski explains, the plot of contemporary gothic romances is basically this: a young girl, isolated from friends and family, comes to a strange, threatening space full of ambiguous characters. Her survival is dependent upon her ability to interpret and define the emotions of a mysterious and dangerous male. Does he want to kill her or kiss her? The ambiguous nature of men is at the heart of these stories; their violence is ever present, but the heroine saves herself by learning to reinterpret his apparently violent actions as a sign act his love (168). The hero is effectively tamed by novel’s end.
Unfortunately, in the real world, people (not just men, I can’t emphasize that strongly enough) who commit apparently violent acts in the name of love usually wind up committing actually violent acts that have nothing to do with love.
This misguided and dangerous notion of love is nothing new, and, like vampires, it appears to be nearly immortal — but, just like vampires, it shrinks away and crumbles to dust when faced with the Cross and the Light.
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