I think I have figured this blog out: it will live again, but it must live in ways that I can enjoy it. Whether it's me ruminating on my family research finds and the socio-political and historical significance of them, or it's me throwing down some random thing about pop culture, or it's a post bagging out the colony - I need to be able to enjoy writing again. And this is going to be a place where I do just this. Hope the two readers I have enjoy it too.
I have been rewatching Buffy and Angel again, and two things have brought this on. The first was the untimely death of Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Dawn Summers. The second was the announcement that a reboot series was on its way, and that it would include Sarah Michelle Gellar, while series originator Joss Whedon would not be included. Whedon being elsewhere is not surprising - in the intervening years, just how problematic the dude was with those he worked with has been documented in a number of places, and I will barely delve into that here. The extent of the complaints are easily findable. My curiousity though of how this show will grow what existed before it led me back to revisiting what actually did happen before.
Here's a basic - both series have not aged well. I am not terribly surprised. For me, they were more of an enjoyable and female-centric romp rather than the cutting-edge feminism they were often touted as. They broke ground by taking a blonde-bimbo prototype character and instead placing her as the protector of the world, they featured the first prime time lesbian kiss, and at least in Buffy, men were in supporting roles. However, I had problems with certain things back then. For starters, why did almost every dude Buffy have sex with turn evil after the act (except for the boring one we all hated), if he wasn't already evil? What sort of purity self-flagellation was that? And the show is littered with ableist slurs, Buffy is kind of racist at times (assuming Robin Wood was from "the hood", for example), and for some bizarre reason, the only thing that could send Spike on a redemptive path was a rape attempt, even though the bloke had been redeeming somewhat for two seasons prior. Also, what the fuck was Xander, in general?
My biggest problem though always related to Cordelia. I was not surprised when, only a couple of years ago, Charisma Carpenter went public about her experiences being written out of the series, because way back then, her trajectory was just so incredibly problematic. They started with a vapid rich bitch, set about redeeming her over the years so she became a warrior in her own right, then just threw her out. And why? Well, essentially because the woman behind the character had the hide to be pregnant.
It was truly fucked. Why? Because as a plot device, Cordelia had already managed to be impregnated twice (once in her head), via demons trying to spawn. Her body was up-for-grabs as far as pregnancy went, as long as they could control the narrative. The femaleness of it was exploitable as an incubator of life, provided that life was created in a non-consensual manner, and needed to be destroyed for the good of the world.
And so, when Charisma Carpenter fell pregnant, so it seemed the showrunner set about punishing her for doing so, by turning her own pregnancy into an evil thing, set in motion by a sordid act, that needed to be destroyed for the good of the world. What's more, it appeared to be greatly excused for what it was by the Buffyverse, for some "greater good" that was the maintenance of Whedon's legendary status. As I watched it unfold, it made my skin crawl, and as I found out over the years that my suspicions about Cordelia's arc then exit started to be confirmed via actors speaking out over the years, I was not surprised.
Why couldn't Cordelia have a positive and wanted pregnancy on the show? Why couldn't her pregnancy be written into the storylines in a good way? It wasn't like they didn't have the opportunities to do this. Gruselug, for example, was a half-demon from Pylea who Cordelia started a consensual relationship following his exile from his home dimension. Perhaps instead of exploring some sort of growing romantic connection with Angel, the two of them could have remained in an uncomplicated camraderie while she shacked up with a bloke who, himself, could have had an expanded role fighting the good fight permanently? Or maybe she could have pursued single motherhood, and brought her own child up in this alternate reality of demons and good-doing? Perhaps she could have decided to be a surrogate for the assumed pansexual Lorne? Who knows - they didn't explore a positive vision of pregnancy, then motherhood, for the character.
Instead, they had Cordelia boff a son-like figure in a pity-fuck scenario to fall pregnant. Then the minute she was pregnant, she became evil. Then her child essentially destroyed her as she birthed it, leaving her unable to function beyond that point. Finally, after being in a coma for a while, they brought her back to set Angel on the "right path", only to finally kill her off. It was, in a word, disgusting.
I actually cannot imagine what it must have been like for that actor to have her pregnancy so abused. Carpenter has stated that Whedon was mad with her, that he asked her if she was going to "get rid" of it, and that he called her fat. But I can imagine that as they then set about abusing her character in the storyline, the poor woman had to put on some serious game face just to continue fronting up on set. For a bloke so often celebrated for his "pro-feminist" work, it was all pretty misogynistic work by Whedon. Did Carpenter even get the opportunity to enjoy her pregnancy, and is it any wonder she has also indicated she suffered from post-natal depression?
Rewatching it now, it's making my skin crawl with added ick, cast into relief by both my own ageing process, but also the cast revelations over the years. I can't actually believe, with the power of retrospect, that this was ever considered OK. And I hope, with the reboot, these lessons have been learnt and truly, a new era of the show really does take it to new, actually feminist, places.
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