Heroine of the Week: Buffy Summers

Today I will be focusing on Buffy Summers, from the film/television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The creator Joss Whedon has said that the idea for Buffy came from all the horror movies he had seen featuring a helpless young blonde who would almost always be the first to die. He felt she needed a better image. (Fuck yeah!) I think her character appealed to the 15 year old version of me because she was the new girl who has special powers, who couldn’t let too many people her secret. She had a good group of friend which she could count on and always seemed to get the guy(s) of her dreams. (Mmmmm Spike) I could identify with her because she had all the same trivial high school problems I had, except she dealt with vampires and other supernatural things. I think that is why girls nowadays like Twilight, Vampire Diaries and Secret Circle because it follows the same formula. There are things that bug me about her character though, but perhaps that because I view her now through years of experience. She is kind of annoying (in that young adult kind of way) and I wonder how a hundred year old vampire could actually want to be in love with a teenager (think about it twilight fans). However there are reasons why I love this character now. Instead of being a victim she protected everyone consistently and later in the series her character matured as her responsibilities increase. There was a grace with her fighting style when she would include the occasional gymnastics move. I love that with her blonde hair, California attire and odd name she is a person who on the surface you wouldn’t expect much from. To quote Whedon “She’s Barbie with Kung Fu grip, she was an adolescent girl finding out she has great power and dealing with it.”