Meanwhile, this is a new project started up by someone I know: So Buffy, What do we do now?

Boyz on Top?

BIG SPOILER FOR ANGEL SEASON 5 - look away! look away!

The following is my initial thoughts on Hole in the World and Shells. In the interests of fairness, I rewatched them and found some positive things to say. Those are posted down the bottom. I also want to put in contextualising links but it's gone 1am and I have work tomorrow. And can't find a good Looking for Mr Goodbar page anywhere.

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I got Hole in the World and Shells last week. And...well, underwhelmed is a good word. To have one female member of the regular cast posessed by a godlike demon bent on being born into this world is an accident, to have two looks like carelessness.

Actually, it looks suspiciously like at the very least sexism, if not downright misogyny. I've always enjoyed the idea that Angel is the boyz[1] show to Buffy's grrls: I like that element of it. But with this treatment of Fred I can't help but feel we're seeing a Looking for Mr Goodbar tendancy becoming utterly ascendent. A woman can be a virgin, a mother or a whore but are punished if trying to be anything else (or even just a combination of those). Women's ability to give birth is to be feared. Women are Up To No Good. Look at the role call of recurring female characters in Angel:

• Cordelia
  early attempt to be cheerful and sexual being ends in insemination by demon spawn. Goes through happy phase in which she settles into her place as platonic companion to the champion(s). Falls in love. Love never consumated (actually, what with Doyle as well, she manages that one twice). Comes back and spawns: spawn is a big problem. Effectively dies.



• Darla
  early attempt to be cheerful whore ends in death and effective insemination by demon (the Master). Returns human, comes to terms with humanity only to be taken by evil again. Comes back and spawns: spawn is big problem. Dies.



• Lilah
  even ignoring that her name echoes both D'Lilah (the wicked woman who caused Samson's downfall) and Lilith (Adam's first wife in some versions of the Bible) ....she takes delight in sexual power play. Evil. Starts to fall in love. Killed.



• Justine
  named after S&M slave in de Sade's novel (see here). Settles into place as companion of someone she sees as hero. Falls in love. Never consumated. Is punished and abandoned. Victimised but likes it.



• Fred
  Victimised but doesn't like it. 'Handsome man saved [her] from the bad guys'. Goes through happy phase in which she settles into her place as platonic companion to the champion(s). Her presence in amongst all those boyz causes lots of infighting and jealousy. Falls in love. Love never consumated. Gives metaphorical birth to big problem. Dies.



• Eve
  named after Biblical woman who caused the fall from Eden. Sexual and loves it. Evil. Currently awaiting punishment.

Even Kate gets a rough deal and vanishes when they don't know what to do with her. And it's pretty apparent that wolf-girl's sexual frenzy nearly kills muppet-Angel.

Ah, but it balances Buffy, you say? Yes, if you were to take the two shows in isolation. But Buffy was about overthrowing the notion that empowered women cannot be happy: that the sexual women of the horror film will be punished with death. Buffy, both series and character, does that.

Yes, Buffy's sex life causes problems and it isn't all lovely (of course, I argue that season 6 is showing that a woman's sexual desires can be dark too), but ultimately she has the power and symbolically gives birth, via Willow's neat mojo, to other empowered women. Admittedly with a rather naff montage but still, the point is that the women are not punished. Despite Giles' threat to spank Willow. Are the men disempowered? A little, except Buffy (character) needs them with balls, hence her request for the old Spike and her inclusion of Giles and Wood. And even Andrew is enabled.

So Angel (series) does provide a countertune to Buffy (series) but it does it by using the same old cliches. It's adding to the culture which tells women they can't be sexual without punishment. That with power comes death. That their ability to reproduce is dangerous and to be feared. It, at a subtextual level, undoes all the work Buffy set about achieving.

I'm giving serious thought to not watching the rest of the series. I'm only sticking with it for Spike. He might not do a lot, but he's seen A Nightmare Before Christmas! [2] Awww, bless.

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So I watched these two episodes again, to see if I were being unfair. To be honest, I still find them indicative on something wrong but I'll hang on to the bitter end. Six more episodes of Spike, plus the satisafaction of having seen every single episode of Buffy and Angel are keeping me engaged.

So, five positive things to set against my annoyance:

• Gunn singing 'three little maids'. utterly adorable.


• the whole workplace meme about the spacemen and the cavemen, especially the Angel/Spike fight over it. Such little boys. I'm also curious why Fred says "of course the cavemen win".


• Angel calling Spike a champion.


• Wes's decision at the end. Of course, this is another chance for him to redeem himself as a Watcher as well an indicator of the depths of his Fred obsession.


• ok, kalima has discussed the use of 'five' in this season, for example that the core A-team is five: Angel, Spike, Wes, Gunn and Fred. So I couldn't help but notice there were five crystals embedded in the casket. One was purple (time), two are blue and two are white. The old demon took the purple one and has time-manipulating powers. You could wonder if the two blue ones are intended for, say, two humans and the two white ones are intended for two, say, vampires with souls. And if said crystals provide each with special powers. With six episodes to go, that means one per transform and then a 2 part finale.

I am, naturally, way off on that. I mean, I thought season 7 of Buffy was going to be the entire planet, gaia-like, as the Big Bad.

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[1]maybe I'm not googling right, but I can't find anything that outlines the idea that Angel is a boyz show. I will have to expand this idea later.
[2]I have a theory about that. But I'll write it up as fanfic, I think.

Something old. So old it pre-dates the written word.
(Tara, Buffy 5.08, Shadow)

I'm alway so behind on this blog. In fairness, this is because my alter ego* is frighteningly busy and so writing up my Buffy/Angel thoughts coherently is a low priority.

So anyway, a passing note before I write up my diatribe about Hole in the World/ Shells...

I'm just watching some of season 5 of Buffy again on tape. Apart from far too many growls of lust for Spike (how has he aged as quickly as he has? how?), I snorted with laughter when Tara works out Glory is "older than the written word" and therefore they won't find anything in the books. I'm not mentioning Hole in the World. I'm not. Not at all. No.

Oh, and I've added haloscan comment linsk now, as the old place vanished.

*actually, this is my alter-ego to an alter-ego that somehow got conflabulated into my RL world. Stupid online personalities...