Sexual Politics, Feminist Themes in the Buffydom

Okay, I'm thinking one of the benefits of having a blog (other than providing me with lots of time to procrastinate from the actual writing I'm supposed to be doing for money and fame and fortune, et al), and a blog that most likely nobody will read, is that I can rant all I want about totally useless geeky things that nobody in their right mind would publish elsewhere.

This will be one of those times, as my inner geek has been surfacing more than usual lately.

As you probably know, I'm working on a sci-fi script (or as none of you know, I am indeed working on a sci-fi screenplay and a graphic novel, based on my own story and "universe" -- let's call it the bluesyverse... and in doing such a thing, I am practicing the age old art of research (aka procrastination).

Research for me right now means watching lots of sci-fi stuff and lots of hero stuff and anything that could fit in the whole Joseph Campbell journey of myth milieu. I've gone through the whole Spiderman series (of which let's face it, Spiderman two is not only the best of the three movies, no doubt because Alvin Sargeant wrote it and he is a god of the screenplay as far as I'm concerned... and I know this because Lew Hunter, my mentor, former teacher at UCLA and the greatest screenwriting teacher ever told, er to tell... oh Lew's the best, we all know that... reaffirmed my love of Spidey 2... because in addition to structure, Spidey 2 has character.. it has heart... and I don't know about you but I LOVE a good superhero with heart.... noble and being a champion is good too... nice arm and shoulder muscles, even better... I'm not into skinny superheroes, which would probably be an oxymoron anyway... but I digress... a lot)

So in addition to all the Spidey, Superman, Batman and Matrix movies and the Star Wars Movies... I've been watching and rewatching the first 3 seasons of Buffy, and all the Angel tv dvd's... because in my opinion, it's a major shortcut to watching all these types of sci-fi hero movies/tv shows... it's like watching every star Trek and outer Limits episodes, some Hong Kong cinema (which I love), lots of John Woo and the aforementioned Matrix series... and then some, put together... you can see the homages and the subliminal plotlines and turns from all these things... some intentional, some not... I figure the writers and I were weaned on the same diet of TV and film growing up and it's gotta give you the same kind of warped mindset to really appreciate the in jokes...

More digressing... the point is, as I'm watching the "Becoming" episodes of Buffy, where Angel, or rather Angelus, the bad evil angel who used to be good until he slept with Buffy and now he's soulless has his soul reinstated only to be sent to hell by his former girlfriend. A great piece of storytelling if ever there was on so many levels... never mind that they kinda pillaged off of it in the Angel series when he once again became "bad" not because of sex, but because of trying to get info that only the soulless version would know about (a logic that's a bit too hokey for me, but I can appreciate that they had to get him bad again for SOME reason and sometimes, you gotta go for the stretch instead of say, some nice hypnosis and an alka selzer)... besides, watching David B. do his Anthony Hopkins imitation behind those prison bars is worth it enough to forgive them for how he got there.

What's bugging me though, and what's prompted me to write this rant... is that I've always thought of Joss Whedon's stuff as being rather feministic, not only because he's said so a million times, but because I do appreciate that he's got a super strong lead female character (characters) that are way stronger than all the guys and she knocks them flat on their butts many times over with some very cool Judo or Karate or whatever you call that stuff... and she does it without baring cleaveage and a lot of make-up... I mean, you gotta give the creator kudos for that... at least I gottta.

But, but... there's some things that just don't add up in terms of his message, his theme, his Lajos Egri inspired raison d'etre. Especially in this key episode, addition to the Buffyverse. How can you have a feministic and chauvinistic message at the same time????

Let's start with the framing device. Episode opens with Darla turning the naive "Liam" into a vampire. She tells him of the wonders of her world and tells him to close his eyes. Then she sends him to mortal hell, aka makes him a vampire.

And Episode 2 of the same Saga has Buffy doing what... telling him to close his eyes right before sending him to actual hell.

So thematically, what's the message? If you listen and trust women, they will trick you, tell you they love you, make you close your eyes and then send you to hell. Not exactly huge leaps of deduction going on, I realize.

But I gotta wonder, how does the guy who is giving us feminist heroes also telling us that women are a guy's damnation.

I'm confused... I'm disturbed... I'm wondering was it really worth sacrificing such a large thematic point to pull off a smarty, pithy setup. Say it ain't so Joss... women can be strong, smart and not the cause of man's eternal damnation.

Just because you're being an equal opportunity gender basher doesn't mean you totally should get off the hook (to clarify: having Buffy's first sexual experience make the guy turn into a monster and then taunt her with the old "He was so nice until I broke down and had SEX with him" message can be excused and even admired/laughed at BECAUSE you're at least making fun of the whole thing and not taking it seriously is why the whole series works, after all... and besides, it is good TV)...

But the whole Angel going to hell thing is really NOT played for laughs... both of these episodes play it way more straight than most of the episodes in the buffydom/ or angeldom or whatever you want to call it.

Not that I have an answer. I don't know how you can really get away with both being smart and not saying women are conduits to evil and man's downfall... but just personally, being a woman and all... I think in this case I would've had myself a private moment of "Gee, I could do that and wouldn't it be cool"... but not repeated the scene with the two women and frame it like this... it just adds way too much power to the theory. I wouldn't have opened with the voice-over at all and skipped the whole Darla/Angel/ how angel became a vampire scene in this and instead used it only in that Angel episode (by the way, I do wonder if they redid the scene 2 years later, or just used footage from the first time... I can't recall now if they did but something tells me they re shot it because I do not remember Darla saying "Close your eyes" when I watched it in the Angel season two episode (I think it was season 2 but I will not check... there are levels to my geekdom, after all... though I DO remember she tears at her bosom and uses that to make him become a vampire... a little tit for tat when it comes to equating sex with downfall... and come to think of it, not very feministic either).

Not that there's anyone out there who wants to pick a fight with me on this, but actually I'd be welcome to hear your opinions on this... if you're either feeling bored or pissed off by my ravings. Feel free to reply, I'll post all valid replies. I would like to know if others have felt this way... or not.

Oh, I'm adding a new feature because... well why not. Music I've been listening to today (maybe it's what's affecting my moods... then again, it could be something in the water):
Tom Waits (about 5 different cds, old and new), Aimee Mann (Magnolia), Bowie (assorted), Etta James (Loves been rough on me), Annie Lennox (her latest cd.. played 3 times in a row)... that's it so far but the night is young.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled program (in other words, playtime's over, back to the coal mines).

Bluesy

(PS... I broke down and watched "The Namesake" last night... I was right the first time, big mistake... nowhere NEAR as impactful as the book... might not even have worked at all if I didn't know all the backstory by reading the book and loving it so... very disappointed in Mira Nair, who I normally love, especially her work on Monsoon Wedding... maybe if they had Jumpa Lahira write the screenplay it would've had something of the magic the novel had... then again, maybe not... now I'm even more terrified to see what they've done with "The Kite Runner."

New Year 2008 on the horizon and I'm hard at work on a new screenplay, a feature film, sci-fi (my favorite genre) of which I don't want to say anything about, for fear of giving it the well known kineahorah. It's got supernatural stuff in it and was no doubt influenced by all the Joss Whedon stuff I've been watching lately on DVD (especially "Angel"... Love Angel... killer series, awesome TV... yes, I know that's not just because of JW but all of the great writers they had on staff, Marti Noxon, Jane Espenson, David Greenwalt, Tim Minear... but the man's got vision, a great sense of character and story... and apparently he and I have watched all the same stuff growing up because I admit a secret thrill when I see a redo of a classic episode of the Outer Limits (like the one where a woman's getting plastic surgery by disfigured monkeys so she can be "pretty" like them... gotta love that Gru homage) and get all the in jokes (to serve man, it's a menu!).

My script's also influenced by Joseph Campbell (well, at least I hope so, I mean, I personally feel influenced by the man, so he must've rubbed off). Funny, I was always told to read Campbell in film school and, I confess, always blew off in the past as in "I don't need no stinkin' campbell." Boy was I an idiot. Joseph Campbell was one of the smartest, most influential dissectors of dramatic story structure that ever lived (well, maybe aside from Aristotle). Needless to say, I am very hip on Campbell these days and sure the script will show it, hopefully in a cool, non-didactic way. If you could cross the structure of Campbell with the dialogue of some of the Tracy/Hepburn films... the looks of Cary Grant... and like put it in space... imagine what a killer script you'd have.

I've also been writing the script as a graphic novel, though I think it makes more sense for now to complete it as a screenplay, then write it as a GN. The mediums are both very similar and completely different. Still, I've always wanted to write a graphic novel... I'm totally enamoured with the good ones. Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series is still the king of them, as far as I'm concerned, though I've recently read some cool ones like Ex Machina, Lucifer, and checked out the Buffy and Angel ones, which are pretty good.

I've also been working on a spec script -- a "Bones" spec script... another show I never watched before the writer's guild strike (sad that so many friends and wonderful creative people are worried about losing their homes and I'm revelling in lost tv series offerings). Anyway, I picked up the first season DVD set and got addicted so much that I had to watch all three seasons to see what happened (funny because the reason I checked it out in the first place was because I'd just finished re-watching every episode of "Angel" for like the third time and was interested to see what David Boreanaz was up to... and while Bones probably has more in common with "House" or those CSI/detective shows than "Angel"... well, actually it has nothing at all to do with "Angel"... it just goes to show that David B's a diverse and talented actor. Cool that he can move from playing an iconic larger than life vampire hero to a Catholic ex-sniper FBI guy smitten with a girl who's super smart and can do a drop kick even better than he can at the blink of an eye... hmmm, come to think of it maybe there are similarities, albeit if Angel were human and channeling James Garner from "The Rockford Files").

Anyway, Bones has definitely grown on me. Love the lead female character, Temperence Brennan... I'm a very big fan of brainy girls who can kick butt, but have no interpersonal skills (maybe Temperence is an Aspie?). And I've got a killer storyline for it (pun intended). So, I started outlining the script for that show and will probably write the teleplay as soon as I've got a rough draft of my feature script completed. (Am I the only writer who can work on two completely different stories at the same time? Am I the only ADD writer who can work on two completely different stories at the same time? I think not. Not if I don't need to sleep, that is. Sleep is totally overrated.)

So... that's what I've been up to, all two of you who are reading this (whomever you are).

Oh, I also watched the pilot episode of Battlestar Galactica, the miniseries again... as awesome a piece of storytelling as it was 3 years ago when I first saw it. I've seen every episode of the show from the beginning; that and Lost, House, Heroes, Dexter, Weeds, Nip Tuck, The 4400, Californication, Pushing Daisies, Rescue Me... amongst others... let's face it, I'm a pathetic TV addict... there is no hope for me... just think, if it weren't for the writer's strike, I probably wouldn't have had time to add these box set series to my repertoire. And now that I signed up for Hulu, I'm totally gonna be media saturated.

I'm still waiting to see the DVD of "The Namesake" which I've had in the house for a month now, waiting on top of my DVD player for me to pop it in. I think deep down I'm afraid to watch it because I adored the book so much and I'm never happy after I see a movie based on a book I absolutely loved. I'll probably keep the Kiterunner on standby for months as well when that one comes out on DVD... I haven't rushed to the theatre to see it and won't... I wonder if there's a word for this sort of adaption-phobia. It's similar to remakes of classic french films that have been Americanized... I often fear those as well. Must have been all that time I spent in the Berkeley film archives. A film snob who's addicted to TV, hmm, is that a paradox?

And the music I've been writing by these days... very eclectic.
lots of Elvis Costello, classic David Bowie, Rolling Stones, John Coltrane, the new Alicia Keyes, Amy Winehouse's "Frank", classic Chicago blues, Aimee Mann, Bob Dylan... what a weird mix. In any case, 2008 is certain to be a unique, productive and exciting new year.

Bluesy