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By Daki Historically, BtVS has been a new-feminist-order wet dream, has it not? Butt-kicking petite lil blonde chickie who would normally be pushing pom poms… a few powerful witches wandering around being wild and beautiful and loving other women… vengeance demons cursing nasty men… a single mom who isn’t a nightmare… powerful female role models, never two-dimensional, covering a whole new spectrum of what it means to be feminine. Hold that thought. Enter the Troika. Is this Joss’s anti-feminist dark side coming out to play or what? I mean, to begin with, the whole sex-bot thing… and then Katrina. These geeks are like the three faces of Whedon misogyny on a stick. It’s a whole expedition through the looking glass of the twisted, women-hating, pathetic side of the male psyche. Nerdy guys who couldn’t make it with the cheerleader in highschool taking out their revenge on the biggest powerful female target around… and anyone else who gets in the way. And it’s leaking into the rest of the verse as well. Hello Xander, classic commitment-phobe, leaving Anya at the altar; Hello Giles… abandoning father figure (who while present was a quiet closet drunk); Hello Spike… sadistic, stalking rapist much? True, there really hasn’t been a single positive male figure to speak of that doesn’t sport some (ahem) significant flaws, but how much worse can the men in this show get? Hold that thought. Enter Tara. Can you think of a more classic feminine figure than Tara, whose name even means “earth”? Gentle, moral, comforting, kind, with a history of victimization she has moved beyond. She is the feminine center of the verse. And now Warren, the epitome of male misogyny run rampant, has killed her. Shot through the heart. “Your shirt,” she says, even in death concerned by default for those around her. What is Joss playing at here? Is he trundling out his shadow side for a shot at transformation… or just getting his ya ya’s out with it? Enquiring minds want to know! Unfortunately, I was not heartened by my face to face encounters with him at the 2002 Bronze Fest in LA. Down in the secret compartments of the hall, I was treated to the sight of Joss, schlockered off his ass, drooling over the jutting breasts of some blonde, bronzed, stacked ski bunny who obviously was smarming up to him in the delusion he would give her a place in the World of Whedon Enterprise. I suddenly saw the Troika there before me… nerdy guy who could never get a date with a chick like that in highschool, reveling in the power of it all as he played her for all she was worth (about $3.99, retail). Not knowing Joss personally I have no idea how big a role this aspect of his personality plays in his life. I’d like to think not much… but I guess the proof will be in the pudding. And don’t think the whole “crush his balls to steal his power” thing got past me. Metaphor much? Will the other faces of the Troika step forward to redeem the plunge into venom, violence and vengeance? Jonathan is our biggest hope. His conscience nags at him… yet he impotently tags along, too wimped out to stand up and be a real man. Warren’s impotence has twisted him inside beyond redemption… and classically he substitutes brutality and tyranny for real personal power. It is those who feel the most powerless who wreak the most havoc in the world. Meanwhile, Andrew is just gay, stupid, misguided and impotent. To give the episode credit, in the end Xander proved a mensch and reined in his assholitis long enough to rise to the true heights of some of the best aspects of maleness: loyalty, understanding, support, generosity… and courage. We can only hope that Joss will choose to move beyond his cynicism long enough to redeem his vision of men in the face of female power. I’m betting he has some juicy transformations in store for us. But then… I tend toward optimism these days. DAK |
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