Lesbianism in Buffy the Vampire Slayer :: TV Television Show Essays

Given that lesbian hope has often been associated with the monstrous in abhorrence and lamia genres, and that Buffy the lamia Slayer is seen as having reworked the conventions of these genres, it is worth reckoning how the narrative of lesbianism is dealt with in this series to chew over if and how this desire has been resignified. This paper is bear on with critically analysing the overt representations of lesbian desire and identity as they are manifested done the Willow (played by Alyson Hannigan) and Tara (Amber Benson) characters in Buffy the lamia Slayer, and the coming out narratives as they unfold in eon Four. It attempts to address several questions How has Buffy the Vampire Slayer reworked the representation of lesbians in the vampire genre? How are the themes of lesbian desire and coming out as lesbian dealt with in the series? Finally, has the show challenged stereotypical representations of lesbianism, or only when perpetuated them? I start this paper with a sense of ambivalence about(predicate) how the lesbian characters and lesbian desire are constructed in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because on the one hand I gain pleasure from watching these representations, but on the other hand I suspect that the series perpetuates approximately homophobic concepts about lesbianism. I am mindful that representations in horror and fantasy television programs and films are creative images and manifestations of ideas, mythologies and narratives. They are not stainless reflections of society, although the writers may attempt to deal with some social issues and identity political sympathies within generic frameworks. However, fictional representations are still important sites where viewers negotiate personal and cultural concepts of sexuality and subjectivity. This queer reading of Buffy the Vampire Slayer investigates the disguised homo-erotic tensions between the out lesbian characters in the series. It avoids an magnify search for homoerotic and non-normative sexual couplings between other characters in the series. If I were to do such a queer reading, I would probably boil down on the Willow and Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), or Faith (Eliza Dushku) and Buffy relationships as Farah Medlesohn has done in her essay, Surpassing the Love of Vampires(2002 45-60). Alternatively, I might focus on the sadomasochistic relationship between Spike (James Marsters) and Buffy, or the bizarre love trilateral between Andrew, Warren and Jonathan in Season Six. Instead, this paper is more concerned with analysing the blatant representations of lesbian desire and sexuality as they are constructed through characterisation, metaphors, narrative and stylistic devices in particular episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to consider how these themes have been integrated into a youth-orientated, television program.