As a toddler my daughter had a hard time falling asleep. She would frequently come out to our living room hours after we had put her to bed. At about the same time my husband and I were catching up on our Buffy DVDs. Thinking she was asleep on the sofa, we would continue to watch the shows. I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised when we witnessed her acting out the show with her stuffed animals. My daughter didn’t play house; she played Buffy. She starts preschool next week and she will be proudly carrying her lunch in a Buffy lunchbox. Buffy’s subject matter may not be ideal for a toddler, and in reality, she was just attracted to a pretty girl kicking butt, but I don’t know that I could ask for a better role model.
Buffy never seemed like a hero—she wasn’t supposed to, and that’s what makes her extraordinary. When Joss Whedon created Buffy, he wanted to throw our preconceived ideas of a hero out the window. Instead of giving us a buff dude in black leather fighting demons, he gave us a slight, blond teenage girl who started out caring more about her social life than the fate of the world.
By giving us this nonhero, Whedon (along with a talented stable of writers) was able to create something that could never be done with the typical vampire-staking hero—a real story with real character development. This wasn’t a single adventure played out over the course of two hours; watching Buffy grow into the woman she is has taken over fourteen years. Over that time we have witnessed that teenage girl bloom into a truly strong, well-fleshed-out female lead, something sorely lacking on the hero scene.
High school is hard for all of us, but for Buffy it is literally hell. We watch Buffy deal with being an outsider, and sympathize as she is picked on by the popular girl. In the early seasons Buffy struggles—as so many young women do—with who she really is. Does being the Slayer define her? As the story continues Buffy accepts her fate and even finds empowerment in being the Slayer. Like so many burgeoning adults she struggles with balancing her strong will with having to follow rules, eventually learning to reject both mindless obedience and empty rebellion. Buffy grows from a boy-crazy teenager into a woman with a complex romantic and sexual history. We see the girl who feared she could never be close to anyone become intensely loyal to her friends and family. She selflessly sacrifices a normal life to save the ones she loves. Throughout the series’ eight seasons she goes from a reluctant hero to a respected leader. I don’t know what changes Season Nine will bring for Buffy Summers, but I do know that she will continue to handle them with the grace that the character has exhibited so far.
-Sharon Feliciano
Parenting Geekly
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