BU Intstudy 110 - Gender and Horror - Spring 2020

Season 7, Episode 12 - "Potential" Gender is a ubiquitous subject. Television shows (from any genre) contain countless images that discuss gender representation.  Buffy the Vampire Slayer  is a firm example that furthers gender  discussion; this television series endlessly discusses gender dynamics in every single episode and season. Specifically, "Potential" (S07E12) elevates the conversation of woman potential, a topic eloquently discussed. I am so excited to take y'all on this discussion with me. I hope y'all are prepared for a (literal) kicka$$ episode. Figure #1: Dawn and Amanda entering the classroom that Amanda trapped the vampire in. Aired on January 21st, 2003, "Potential" is rich in conversations about gender. To provide brief and concise summary: Buffy and the four Potential Slayers are fighting and training to elevate their abilities (as Potential Slayers). As the episode progresses, Dawn (Buffy's younger sister) is ac...

Love Willow and Oz            In the beginning of this episode, Buffy is having a meeting with her guidance counselor and he is giving her a talk about Love. In today's time, female's find it very shocking when a male is open about Love and how it impacts your life. Love is also brought up with the character Willow, you can tell that Willow is in love with Oz but Oz is afraid to show Willow his true self when he tells her to get away from him. When Buffy saw Angel in the woods with blood on his mouth, she was surprised which brings up a question of love again. I have not watched all of the episodes but on some that I have seen, it seems as if Buffy and Angel had a different type of connection. Buffy has another encounter with Angel in this episode, and Buffy seems scared of Angel at this point. Buffy has Angel in shackles and tries to touch him to see if he is still himself, Angel then jumps at Buffy and scares her away to the point where she leaves...

Episode three The Witch, we have a mother who steals her daughters youth, she believes she's wasting it, so she trades bodies with her, meanwhile Buffy try's to join the cheer team to continue on her journey for normalcy.        Buffy believes that if she joins the cheer team, she will begin to feel like a normal girl, but of course it doesn't take long for them to realize someone of the team, Amy, isn't just a normal girl either. Amy's mother took over her daughters body so that she could relive her glory days as a cheerleader, it seems to me that the mother doesn't like her daughter very much, and thinks she wasting her youth. This shows that the mother is selfish, she wants to stay young, and live out her younger years again, and take the chance from her daughter to live them even once.       Cheerleading has been  stereotyped as a lady's sport, that if you're a cheerleader you're labeled as snobby, mean and have a...

Season 2, Episode 11 "TED"🤖 Buffy the Vampire Slayer  discusses a great slew of real-life misfortunes that occur in regard to gender, sexuality, and so much more. In season two episode eleven, titled “Ted,” the main topic that is heavily depicted is that of domestic violence and toxic masculinity being the cause of said violence. To make a 40-minute episode short, Joyce, Buffy’s mother, has been pretty much single since her separation from Buffy’s father until she meets Ted. Ted seems to be the perfect man to everyone except Buffy. We ultimately find out that Ted is a robot that was created by a human Ted in the 1950’s and that he has been programmed with very toxic traits that lead him to his own destruction, alongside the programming that causes him to marry and kill women over and over.    1. Joyce, Buffy, and Ted having dinner. During Ted’s initial introduction to Buffy and her friends, there is sense of “too good to be true” that follows him. He has the p...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episode 2.6 By Paige Treibley In this episode, Buffy tries to impress Angel when her date is interrupted by Cordelia. After seeing how women looked when he was alive as a human, Buffy goes to a Halloween shop to get a costume to match the women's style of that time. Willow gets a ghost costume and Xander gets a US soldier costume. Halloween night, all the costumes bought from Ethan's Costume Shoppe give the person wearing it that persona.  Buffy, the main character is usually a brave and confident female character but once she sees Angel with Cordelia, she becomes self-conscious of her looks. This is a normal occurrence shown in the media done by females, where they feel self-conscious of other girls due to the attention of a boy. This episode takes it to as far as showing Buffy try to change her entire appearance to impress Angel. When Halloween night takes effect than Buffy becomes the stereotypical damsel in distress and looks for protect...

                              Buffy the Vampire Slayer.                                    Season 2 Episode 16 (Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered) Buffy the Vampire slayer   Episode Summary       The tittle for this episode ( bewitched, bothered and bewildered) explains a lot and gives an insight on the emotional roller coaster that will take place on this particular episode. At the begging of the episode they make clear that a Valentines day dance will take place in their high school. Xander is going to take Cordelia to the dance. Cordelia is faced with social pressure from her friends because they Xander is a dork; deep down Cordelia wants to be with Xander. Later on Cordelia ends up breaking up with Xander. which he takes at heart and decides to black mail Amy to make a love spell to t...

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Blog Teacher's Pet When you reminisce about the time one of your teachers in high school was absent, you expect a substitute teacher to take their place until they come back. Now what if, and bear with me, that substitute teacher was a human size prey mantis in a human disguise? In Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Teacher's Pet (1.4), the basic plot is a new substitute teacher (who is a prey mantis; also called a "She Mantis" on the show) comes to town to prey on teenage boys to eat, mate, and decapitate them to implant prey mantis eggs into the victims separate heads. Ms. French in her human form Monstrous Femininity Obviously, the She Mantis is the antagonist in the show, displaying monstrous femininity. And before I get into detail, let me tell you a quick fun fact! Fun Fact: when the female prey mantis selects a mate, the female prey mantis would eat their mate either after or even during the mating processes. And that...

Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, released in March 1997, has been acclaimed to be ahead of its time with topics of gender and putting a new twist on typical horror that we've come to love. Season 2 Episode 6, Halloween, is a perfect example. The episode takes place around Halloween, obviously, with several decorations around the school and the town of Sunnydale. Buffy's school is doing a volunteer opportunity to take little kids trick-or-treating. Well, mostly volunteer till Buffy's principal, Principal Snider, makes Buffy, Willow, and Xander sign up for the event. This is an example of a man abusing his power, but I'll discuss that later. All of the "volunteers" must wear a costume that night for the event. Xander gets his manhood crushed, again, and we see relationship drama with Buffy and Angel. After some costume shopping, it's time for the big show. The teens take the kids out on the town while a curse is put on them. Whatever costume people are wearing, ...

In the first season episode 3 of Buffy the vampire slayer, Amy's mom switches body with her daughter to relive her "glory days" as a cheerleader. Through this act she is showing that not only men are strong and powerful, women can be powerful and be independent while doing it. She casts spells on Cordelia and Buffy to keep them out of her way of getting what she wanted most becoming a cheerleader. Buffy, Xander, Willow and Giles try and figure out the problem of why in the beginning of the episode one of the cheerleaders hands caught on fire, leading from that incident they found out that Amy is a witch. Within this episode many gender roles are portrayed throughout the characters actions as well as stereotyping women. In this episode women dominated the show seen as evil and or good, we didn't see much action with men trying to safe the day or have men characters. The main concept of the episode witch was how cheerleaders are portrayed throughout the show and wo...

Anyone who's watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer may know that the hit show is primarily popular for its presentation of gender throughout the series. The show pulls in their audience by presenting a strong female lead that screams female empowerment. But while the writer's usually create episodes that display Buffy as one of the strongest characters, season two episode eleven entitled Ted, changes expectations up. By scripting the episode with more soft, child like dialogue, the writer's feminize Buffy a bit more in this episode than in others. As this episode begins, it feels like just another episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. With Buffy as sassy as usual and her friends by her side, it seems like just another day. Until, Buffy returns home and runs to the kitchen after hearing her mother scream only to see a strange man standing in her home. Right away her mother, Joyce, explains she screamed because she dropped the glass but by this time, Buffy is more concerned...

Buffy the vampire slayer: "The Witch" Ep. 1 By: Rachael Brown       The show Buffy the Vampire Slayer follows Buffy, a vampire slayer through her journey through high school trying to live a normal life but also fighting off vampires and other monstrous creatures along the way. In this specific episode "The Witch" Buffy along with several other girls are trying out for the school's cheerleading squad. This television show really puts a twist on gender stereotypes, this episode specifically has a ton of gender and stereotyping that could be discussed as far as all of the girls trying out for the cheerleading squad and how they are all portrayed as society's perfect cheerleaders.       Throughout this episode, you can really see how the girls trying out for cheerleading are both physically and behaviorally stereotyped. There are many points where the girls are very feminized and are shown as society's perfect expectations of how a ch...

Throughout the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer , the main character Buffy Summer's (played by actress Sarah Michelle Gellar) is always looked at as this young female who embodies the ideas of female empowerment. The show itself has the topic of gender flowing throughout it as well, leaving it to be one of the more popular shows of its time for young adults. But in season five, episode fifteen, all these thoughts are seemingly changed around. April the Robot About a female robot who comes to town looking for her "boyfriend" Warren, this episode gave a different outlook on Buffy and her strong female independence (for most of the episode that is). Showing Buffy's more sensitive side when it comes to having a man in her life, the episode follows April the robot (played by Shonda Farr) and how far she will go for the one she loves, while somehow giving Buffy the exact advice she needed.  The ideas of what a "perfect female" should be are brought up in ...

Buffy The Vampire Season 3, Episode 9 " Wish"                                                  How Cordelia faces getting hurt This episode started off with Willow and Xander explaining to Buffy about how guilty they feel when they got caught kissing each other.  They both are trying to explain why Cordelia and Oz shouldn't be upset and how they are going to try and talk to them. the episode was mainly focused on Cordelia and how she was hurt from that and how she wished Buffy never went to Sunnydale. The wish ended up becoming true and Sunnydale is completely different. This episode did show a lot about how society treats genders differently depending on the situation. The whole school ended up picking on Cordelia when she came back. they all started making jokes about her and having gotten cheated on demolished her title. Xander got nothing for...