‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ Was Addicting Television With A Libertarian Streak – The Federalist
Today is Sarah Michelle Gellars birthday. Gellar originated the role ofBuffy, the Vampire Slayer for television 20 years ago in 1997 (Kristi Swansonplayed an earlier Buffy in Joss Whedons 1992 film of the same name). During the series, Buffy dies (and is resurrected) and we see her gravestone, which reads: Best Friend. Beloved Sister. She saved the worlda lot. And Buffy did save the world a lot; but we should stop and ask: from what?
I first sawBuffy the Vampire Slayerin its second season, in 1999. I was working 70 hours a week in residential real estate in downtown Washington, D.C., and could have easily cloned myself and given my triplets lucrative full-time employment. I was an hour late to meet a lesbian couple in Dupont Circle, and as soon I entered their rented co-op I was handed a plate of the pasta they had just prepared and told to join them, because we would have to watch Buffy and then write the offer. It was a season two finale, with Buffy battling the evil alter ego of her boyfriend (to save the world). Sword play, martial arts (Gellar was a black belt in taekwondo), incredible gymnastics: I was hooked.
Buffyalways had a big lesbian and gay following. Female action heroes, anti-authoritarianism, a love that dare not speak its name between a slayer (human) and a vampire, a teen and her friends (the Scoobies) who must keep the secrets of their blossoming identities and their after-school activities from their parents and teachers; in later seasons, a major character (played by Alyson Hannigan, who went on to star in both theAmerican Piemovies and in the hit seriesHow I Met Your Mother) becomes a lesbian.If youcant findit on one cable channel or another inreruns, you can get the series fromAmazon.
ButBuffyhad wider political ramifications. Buffy protected a sunlit world of oblivious humans (in Sunnydale in sunny southern California) from a dark world of predators waiting to eat them. Predators were either the authorities in charge (a Mayor working dark magic to become a pure demon in dragon form, by a ritual that included eating the graduating senior class), or aided and abetted by authorities (Buffysbete noir, Principal Snyder).
And even when the government stepped in to manage and control the demonic threat (a military funded project 314 which captured demons and vampires, with the hope of turning them into weapons), it failed. And Buffy had to save the world, again. (In the case of the military, she was aided by a boyfriend played by actorMarc Blucasas a kind of hunky heterosexual Bradley Manning defector, who slugs his commanding officer and declares Im an anarchist.)
Meanwhile, asBuffywas becoming a cult hit, we were all in our own sunlit worldthe asset bubble created by the federal government and the Federal Reserves currency inflation to buy government debt and fuel government expansion under Clinton, Bush, and then Obama. That inflation lit a boom and bust cycle with one collapsing asset bubble after another, from the tech bubble, to the real estate bubble, to the coming devaluation of the currency and downgrading of government bonds and student loan debt.
The predators in this case also operated in the dark, with the Federal Reserve refusing transparency and both major partiesaside from Ron and Rand Paul, Justin Amash, Thomas Massie, and a few othersdiscussing tax rates and proposing gimmicky miniscule pseudo-spending cuts, but never discussing the effects of currency inflation on investment and employment. Most voters and taxpayers have been oblivious to this, just as Sunnydale residents were oblivious the vampires lurking in the night.
The writers atBuffyactually knocked government and statism often. Social climbing cheerleader and mean girlCordelia Chaseis thrown into poverty in her senior year when the IRS seizes her home and her parents business and assets. Demon-turned-human and Buffy friend Anya is shown in one flashback sparking the Russian revolution, in her role as a vengeance demon, because she wants to see maximum bloodshed.
Later, when Buffys cancer patient mom is facing a hospital that cant cure her, someone in the Buffy entourage says I hate hospitals. Ever-Dadaist Anya replies, Its like communism. And of course there was Principal Snyder, tin pot dictator of Sunnydale High (played byArmin Shimerman, who had a role as a villain in theAtlas Shruggedmovie and a recurring role as an alien in one of theStar Trekfranchises).
This isnt surprising, since Joss Whedon (who is a liberal, not a libertarian) always has libertarianish heroes in his work. Theres the crew of the shipSerenity, rebels turned smugglers in the space operaFirefly, who outwit a galactic empire that created an aerosolized drug used by the government for mind control of the population.(The source of the libertarianism in Whedons work is co-writer Tim Minear, who now has his own series on the FX channel,The Feud, about the relationship between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford).
Whedonwho produced pro-Hillary videos last year parodied by writers atThe Federalistand elsewheresays he came up with the concept of Buffy by reflecting on all the many horror movies where a monster attacks and kills a young girl, and wondering, What if the girl fought back? The feminism is obvious. But its also libertarian, in that the young girl is the ultimate underdog and individual, battling forces of domination.
Buffy spawned many imitators, most of whom have also been successful. Though based on the occult mystery novels by Charlaine Harris, the HBO seriesTrueBloodis easily a Buffy progeny: a young girl with a special power battling evil and negotiating peace and privacy for herself as well as her community. The ABC seriesOnce Upon a Timelikewise features a young woman with a magical gift who must battle evils, including authority figures like a mayor who isalso a witch.
Itsinterestingthat NBCs copy ofBuffy, the recently concluded seriesGrimm, featured a male character, who was the slayer and a homicide detective. InGrimm,the demons and vampires were replaced with creatures called wesen (Grimmfavored Germanicnomenclature and mythology), two-spirited creatures like were-wolves and were-foxes.
In the world ofGrimm, individuals were evilnot mayors or high school principals, but private people whose secret nature asanimalistic carnivores required a cop who was on occasion willing to violate the 4thAmendment and other pesky aspects of the Bill of Rights. Grimmwas a well-produced andsatisfying series, albeit one that ended slightly abruptly when the writers didnt know what else to do. Butits interesting that it fit so well into the NBC fascist culture, where private individuals are evilfromLaw and Orderin all its permutations toTo Catch a Predatorand only strong government saves us from them.
Sarah Michelle Gellaris reported to be registered as a Republican, as is her reportedly more politically active husband,Freddie Prinze Jr.One assumes that, being young Hollywooders, they are more libertarian than social conservative. But I have never heard them interviewed about it. (Emma Caufield, who played Anya for the last half of the series, publicly endorsed Ron Paul one year, mainly it seems because of his foreign policy views.)
Of Buffy, Gellar has said: I truly believe that it is one of the greatest shows of all time and it will go down in history as that. And I dont feel that that is a cocky statement. We changed the way that people looked at television.
I cant help but agree with that, even aside from the politics of the Scoobies. And the show does seem to have helped encourage an endless array of entertaining occult fantasy shows (Moonlight, Being Human, TrueBlood, Grimm). Happy Birthday, Sarah Michelle Gellar!
Photo Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seth Green, Charisma Carpenter, Alyson Hannigan, and Nicholas Brendon in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)
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'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' Was Addicting Television With A Libertarian Streak - The Federalist