5/30/2023 0 Comments Get it done buffyThis isn’t the case for Buffy, who, as the one slayer in her generation, is endowed with super-human strength, agility, and fast healing. Men’s superior strength renders women vulnerable to them, and so little boys are taught that hitting little girls doesn’t constitute a fair fight. It’s central to note when critiquing the ‘Dead Things’ scene that male-on-female violence is viewed as so heinous primarily because of the physical differences between men and women. These gender dynamics are complicated further by Buffy’s many supernatural and fantasy elements, which make comparisons to real-life almost impossible. Viewing these two scenes in conjunction with one another - one where Buffy is the aggressor and another where she is the victim - highlights just how difficult it is to unpick the power dynamics between men and women in the show, primarily because it features a female lead with super-human strength, greater than or equivalent to that of male characters. That title, quite deservedly, goes to Spike’s attempted rape of Buffy in the infamous ‘Seeing Red’, several episodes later. As it stands, it is not often counted among the show’s most controversial moments. This applies to ‘Dead Things’ in particular because, whilst it stirred discomfort among audiences nearly 20 years ago, it would likely inspire a far more visceral reaction today. For a show often credited as setting the tone of modern pop culture analysis, it’s also the season most worthy of re-examination. The scene - which amounts to an act of spousal abuse - is just one among several disturbing moments in the series’ sixth and penultimate season, regarded as its darkest and most contentious by critics. The beating is, therefore, a manifestation of her self-hatred, her disgust at a desire to bed the enemy that she cannot fathom but also cannot seem to stop. And yet, she has been pursuing a secret sexual relationship with him, something deeply taboo within the collective morality of her friendship group. As per the lore of the Buffyverse, this means that he doesn’t have a soul. Spike is a vampire, Buffy is a vampire slayer. There is a scene in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode ‘Dead Things’ in which Buffy repeatedly punches her lover, Spike, in the face.
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