saturday night musings...

I think I can imagine what it might be like to lose a limb. To feel the presence of something after it is gone.Like a ghost--present in some ambiguous form--there just enough to remind you of what was, yet absent in the most vital way. The limb, untenable and poisonous is still a precious sacrifice. Cut it away and start again.

interview with a vampire slayer...and her friends

Since I am on summer break from school I am doing summer cleaning and organizing. Now that I am teaching I suspect summertime will be my catch all opportunity for accomplishments. Anyway, dusting my DVD collection I decided it was time to view the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series again. I forgot how much I enjoy this show and found an old paper I wrote while in adolescent development class.

The relationship between pop-culture and psychology is a rich one. Literature, music, motion pictures and television have been explored by psychologists and presented as examples of psychology and human behavior. The enormous popularity of vampire mythology, especially among adolescents, deserves special attention. Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire, the many incarnations of Bram Stoker's Dracula, the tween and teen phenomenon that is Stephanie Meyer's Twilight and the Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer are a few examples of pop-cultures obsession with the vampire. Vampires are powerful, dangerous, seductive, immature and vulnerable, and thus much like adolescents themselves. Set in high school, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BTVS) is uniquely suited to illustrate the adolescent challenges inherent in the vampire genre.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer offers a continuing journey through classic challenges faced by adolescents with humor, sarcasm and real emotion all within the backdrop of gothic romance and horror. The series begins with Buffy, a 16-year-old white, middle-class teenager typical in her appearance, language and interests, moving to Sunnydale, California after being expelled from her Los Angeles high school for burning down the gymnasium along with a group of vampires. Sunnydale High is built atop a Hellmouth—literally gateway to Hell—a portal to demonic dimensions that attracts a plethora of demons, vampires and supernatural phenomena to the town. On her first day at Sunnydale High, Buffy, the hopefully retired slayer meets her new watcher, Rupert Giles, also the school librarian, who quickly becomes a surrogate father to Buffy. A core group of friends who know Buffy’s identity as the Slayer aids Buffy and Giles in their war against vampires.

This core of friends includes Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris, Cordelia Chase and Oz, Willow’s boyfriend, a brilliant, yet understated rock musician and sometimes werewolf. Willow has a MENSA IQ and is shy and sweet. Xander is unfocused and use his sharp-tongued wit to hide self-disappointment and fears of failure. Cordelia is a wealthy, popular member of the in crowd who is seemingly superficial, but at times exhibits a selflessness and maturity beyond her years. She reluctantly participates in the Slayer’s gang and is alternately horrified by and attracted to the socially outcast Xander. The relationship between Cordelia and Xander offers viewers a classic example of the powerful effect of peer group dynamics. Succumbing to pressure from her circle of popular friends, Cordelia breaks up with Xander because of his poor background and low social standing. Cordelia, realizing that she is merely falling in line with what others expect, declares her independence, “…I am not a sheep and I’ll date whoever I want, no matter how lame he is” (Bewitched, bothered and bewildered, 1998). Erikson maintains that identity is developed through social interactions (Muuss, 1996). In the high school arena, the peer group dynamic provides much of the social interaction for identity development; it is an integral element in the development of adolescent identity.

BTVS is gripping in its depiction of themes of adolescent development. Buffy’s role as the Slayer; her responsibility to save the world from vampires seems a metaphor for the sense of power and control the adolescent feels. In the adolescent’s world, where the sun rises and sets just for them, a teenage girl who has the power to save the world—or not, seems an excellent metaphor for the egocentricity of the adolescent. Yet Buffy’s failures provide the counterexample that this sense of power is often misplaced and is short-lived at best. She illustrates the adolescent struggle with identity: the Slayer carries the weight of the world on her teenage shoulders and takes her responsibilities as the Slayer seriously; however, she also treats the burden of her destiny with the same disregard as selecting a nail polish color. After a particularly difficult night of slaying, Buffy complains to Giles, “things are getting serious—I broke a nail and am forced to wear a press on” (Prophecy Girl, 1997).

Giles is an important character and represents the adolescent’s desire for a parental figure. Giles acts as a surrogate father to Buffy, she comes to value his leadership, and advice despite that he often forces her to train and develop her skills as a Slayer.

Oz’s character provides a novel approach to the inner struggle between good and bad—the struggle against primitive behavior. Oz is a nice person, but as a werewolf, each month he must struggle against base animal instincts. Locking himself in a cage so he will not harm anyone during his canine excursions seems an obvious metaphor for the control of adolescent drives.

Both Buffy and Xander display resistance behavior and are disengaged from the learning process, though not willfully refusing to learn (Olafson, 2006). Buffy appears distracted by her duties as the Slayer and in retrospect, school seems frivolous and unimportant. Xander’s disengagement seems to stem from a long history of failure and low achievement; he is disengaged from learning because he believes it will have no effect on his future or current circumstances.

Carol Gilligan might describe the shy and quiet Willow as an adolescent female who displays the behavior she describes as going underground (Nakula and Toshalis, 2006). Willow, who is highly intelligent and possesses strong opinions, is plagued by insecurity and reluctance to voice these opinions. A minor character, Jonathon, is a loner, teased and tormented by the in crowd. He is driven to bring a high-powered rifle to school in an attempt to kill himself. This episode, Earshot from 1998 poignantly discusses bullying, isolation and loneliness and what might result from the lack of a peer support group in the high school environment. Michael Kimmel describes how school violence readily occurs even in bucolic, white middle class neighborhoods (Sadowsky, 2003) such as the mythical Sunnydale, California.

The most provocative relationship in the series is Buffy’s romance with Angel. Angel is a 200+ year old vampire with a history of viciously killing innocent people and wreaking havoc all over 19^th century Europe as the evil vampire Angelus. Cursed by gypsies with the return of his soul, he spends the 20^th century suffering guilt and pain for his bloodlust. To make amends for his past, Angel helps the Slayer in her quest to rid the world of vampires. Buffy and Angel fall hopelessly in love, thereby providing an archetypal illustration of fatalistic love. By falling for Angel, Buffy illustrates two common themes in female adolescent development: compensating for a missing father by choosing an older boyfriend and rebelling against her mother and the status quo by dating a bad boy.

Moreover, one cannot miss the irony of a vampire slayer in love with a vampire. Nor is the irony of her relationship with Angel lost on Buffy. She rebukes Giles after he claims to understand how she is feeling, “…you don’t know how it feels to be 16 and the Slayer and having to kill vampires when you are having fluffy bunny feelings for one of them,” (Angel, 1997). Buffy and Angel eventually succumb to their mutual attraction and consummate their relationship, inadvertently removing the gypsy curse and with it Angel’s soul and bringing the brutal Angelus back into being. Buffy suffers the devastating experience that so many young girls have suffered, especially with their first love—give your heart and soul to a man, if not your body as well, and end up being rejected and alone. BTVS poignantly illustrates the sense of loss teens might feel with the loss of a first love. When learning that Angel is leaving Sunnydale, Buffy sobs to Willow that she cannot breathe, the weight of her grief forcing the air from her lungs. Even through the television screen, Buffy’s grief is palpable.

The specific adolescent challenge addressed in episodes of BTYS is often represented in the demon Buffy must fight; for example in an episode about isolation and loneliness, Buffy fights a demon that transfers its ability to read minds to her when she gets the demon’s blood on her skin. Buffy, who often feels a sense of isolation as the Slayer, is now privy to the thoughts of everyone around her. She discovers that each person is experiencing a sense of isolation in some form or another despite what outward appearances might suggest.

Buffy the vampire Slayer has a lot to offer the viewer: some basic adolescent development issues, such as: self-esteem, self-identity, love and sexual relationships, peer envy and feelings of failure. Transitions are highlighted in BTVS through moving, graduation, an absent parent, the death of a parent, running away from home and beginning college. Based on merits of pure entertainment value, BTVS offers drama as satisfying as any classically styled television drama. The television series with its dark, self-deprecating humor treats its themes more seriously and presents a more physically strong and strong-willed Buffy than the motion picture of the same name. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an hour of TV drama full of jagged jokes and fizzy pop culture references. However, the series also contains unguarded, straightforward, real emotions amidst blithe knowingness and sarcasm; juggling humor, gothic romance and horror like a pro. I would recommend this TV series to both adolescents and parents; in fact, I would suggest that adults watch the show together with their kids. The content and humor is rich and broad enough to appeal to both adults and adolescents alike.

My Main Man

Those of you who are not familiar with me, here is the most important person in my life. Ernie is my nephew whom I have raised since he was 3 months old--he is now 28. Ern is developmentally and physically disabled yet smart and funny and the life of any party.

This picture is of Ernie waiting for a Meet and Greet with kd lang at the Moore Theater in Seattle, Washington. Ern is a huge kd fan and has been to several concerts and met with her a couple of times.

This is backstage at the Moore theater with kd. Ern had everyone laughing and crying with what he had to say. My life is nothing like what I envisioned when in high school--it is something so much more and Ern is the reason. More to come about my Ernman.

By the way, in case anyone is interested, not only does kd lang have an increadible voice, but she is a genuinely nice person as well. She, and all the folks at her management company, have been nothing but terrific with Ernie.