Gender Roles In Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Gender is a topic that not many people are educated on. When people think of gender, they think of boy and girl, people usually think of a girl having a vagina, and a boy having a penis. Many people have their thoughts on how each sex should behave which would be giving people gender roles, girls should play with Barbie dolls, and boys should play with trucks. There is more to gender than just the vagina and penis, In “Understanding The Complexities of Gender”, Sam Killermann talks about the distinct pieces that also comes with gender, like gender identity, gender expression, and biological sex. When people think of gender, the only part people think of is the biological sex.

The gender of a person is the masculine or feminine attributes of that individual with respect to the psychological and biological role in society. (Magar, 2009) A gender role can be defined as the way that a person lives in society with respect to its lifestyle. It can be argued that over time the major differences between men and women’s gender roles have faded. In the past traditional roles have been based in their society by their biological orientation. (Magar, 2009) Gender roles can also be described as the behavior and attitudes that are expected of men and women in a society. (Faqs.org, 2011) Although different cultures impose different expectations, many cultures have the same basic gender roles.

Men and women have played gender specific roles, from the earliest sign of civilization to modern society. In the cult classic “Night of the Living Dead”, stereotypical gender role were on display. George A. Romero’s film hinted at subtle references to the responsibilities of men and women and depicted the stereotypes America held during the 1960s. Men played the protectors and enforcers, while the women represented the submissive homemakers and caretakers. Romero’s film portrays the sexes, men and women, in their respective stereotypical behaviors. Stereotypes that sets the undertone for the duration of the film.

Gender is defined as being a male or female and determines the personalities, genetics and body functions of an individual. Nowadays people have taken something so simple and have almost changed it completely. Men now want to be women, and women want to be men. We live in a world where many people feel as if they are born into the wrong body and need to change their physical appearance to Appeal to others and feel comfortable again. Gender identity is not the same as it used to be and has been taken to a level that is almost life changing.

What is gender? The answer to that is not so simple. “Gender is what culture makes out of the ‘raw material’ of biological sex,” (Unger and Crawford, 1995). Also, there is a difference between what is gender identity and what is a gender role; a difference which seems to be even more difficult to differentiate between than the words “gender” and “sex”. Media and other parts of our culture seem to believe they know the difference, yet up until a certain period in time, the same stereotypical characters were portrayed and used as role models for others in most media. Women characters being the helpless victims, while the strong men would come to save them (including television

Sinner or saint is a significant dichotomy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Several characters are able to bridge this: Spike and Buffy being two of the notable examples, playing both roles throughout the series. However, the female vampires of the series consistently fall into the latter category of sinner, and not only that, but a sexually deviant or hyper sexualized sinner. There are no recurring female vampires in the show that do not become categorized in this extreme way. Drusilla was once a nun, but once turned, all of that religious devotion disappears.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Horror Genre The horror genre has very set conventions and rules and horror films

Gender can also be seen as just being a male or a female. For instance, your role in society. In the book Wicked this can be displayed by the

In the first three series of the show taking place in Sunnydale High, Giles's lair is the library. After Buffy enrols in university, Giles's bachelor flat becomes the de-facto library of the Scooby Gang. His bookishness defines him and gives him his role among the cast of protagonists. In 'Primeval' (4.21), Giles's contribution to the group's attack against Adam is his intelligence, 'Sophus', his mind. Giles is the brain of the group, Buffy the hand that strikes. Similarly, Van Helsing in Dracula intervenes in the novel when the young characters need someone with access to occult lore to explain Lucy's ailment. His knowledge defines him too: Jack Seward refers to him for the first time as 'Professor Van Helsing, of Amsterdam, who knows as much about obscure diseases as anyone in the world' (Dracula, 111), and alter as 'Van Helsing, the great specialist' (Dracula, 117).

Willow Rosenberg is a character from the incredibly successful American TV show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” created by Joss Whedon. Buffy The Vampire Slayer ran for 7 Seasons and was centered around Buffy, who at the age of 15 arrives in Sunnydale with her mother following an incident involving a gang of vampires at her old high school in Los Angeles. She is the latest in a long line of women who are destined to be “Slayers” and defend the world from Vampires and various other evil forces. Around the age of 14 buffy began to gains “Slayer Powers” which include incredible strength, speed, and fighting ability. In the beginning of the series, Buffy resents her destiny and wishes to live the life of a regular teenaged girl. Willow Rosenberg is the first student Buffy meets at her new highschool in Sunnydale. Willow introduces Buffy to Xander who has been Willow’s best friend since they were very young. After Buffy saves Willow and Xander from some vampires, and explains who she is, the three of them become best friends. Buffy, Willow, Xander, and later some additional characters who join forces with them to fight the powers of evil are collectively referred to as the “Scooby Gang”.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer directed by Joss Whedon was an American television series which came to air on March the 10th, 1997 until the last season in May, 2003. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was based on a young woman named Buffy Summers, who battled against vampires and demons in her hometown Sunnydale. Buffy was depicted as a strong female role model who was extremely loyal to her sister Dawn and her best friend Willow. She also gained a lot of power through fighting the vampires and demons, again showing her strong female role modelling in the series. Buffy was also a good listener to Giles her watcher/mentor and surrogate father figure, many of the techniques he taught her helped with her strength when fighting against the demons. Some of the features and film devices used to describe Buffy as a character included the camera angles and shots as well as the lighting techniques. These film devices and techniques were used throughout the series to help present Buffy as a strong female character. Buffy can also be compared to other strong fictional female role models such as, Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games (22ndMarch 2012), and a slightly weaker character, Elle Woods from Legally Blonde (11thOctober 2001). Consequently, Katniss was presented as a great role model because her qualities were admired and she was hard to like by other characters in the story, she also comes across as tough and hostile, whereas Elle was able to face challenges of being labelled as ‘the dumb

Instead, Buffy used her brain power to outsmart her component by strategically planning for him to drink the holy water and he blows up in an instant. Buffy uses a great amount of passion and love for her mother Joyce. Family comes first no matter what the situation is, no evil can come against the ones you love most with or without any super power

In a society dominated by male superheroes, it is not that often that a female character is able to step forward and defend the world. There have been quite a few female superheroes throughout the ages of popular culture, including the Canadian Marvel super-heroine, Aurora ("Marvel"), and DC Comic's character, Black Canary (Kanigher, and Infantino). Yet for every one female superhero that is encountered, there are at least a dozen more male superheroes to stand around—and often in front of—her. Even more frustratingly, the female superheroes are often merely there to be the gendered counterpart to the much more powerful, dominant male superheroes. There have been few women who have stood out as being independent, admirable sources of

During class this week we talked about gender roles in media, featuring “Game of Thrones” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” two television shows almost 20 years apart. Oddly enough, the portrayal of women in these TV shows break almost the same amount of gender stereotypes despite being decades apart. While both of these shows are considered progressive in their respective realms, I believe that the creators could have done an even more impressive job with them. Both Television shows defy a set of gender roles in their respective environments; however, the female characters in “Game of Thrones” have a stronger code to breakout of as opposed to the high school setting the Buffy is present in. In Joss Whedon’s defense I have seen a significant amount more of HBO’s crowning achievement than of Buffy herself so my opinion is more biased in that regard, but I still believe people like Circe, Daenerys, and Brianne represent a further break in gender roles than Buffy.

The term ‘gender’ was coined by John Money in 1955: “Gender is used to signify all those things that a person says or does to disclose himself/herself as having the status of a boy or man, girl or woman, respectively” (Coleman and Money, 1991, 13). In