It’s difficult to already feel like an old geezer for stating, “Back in the good ol’ days they knew how to do a vampire show.”

Buffy, the creation of God Whedon is still a show I rotate on my DVD player/stream through Netflix now and then.

My latest round of viewing was to catch my boyfriend up on the part of the entertainment world that I actually do like and an annoyance in the atheist ‘community’ has had me pull out my feminist soap box (if you know what I’m talking about… I sided with Dawkins. Girl wouldn’t know a feminist issue if it… well, I’ll save for a later if I need to go there again).

My initial draw to Buffy was a summer of boredom. It was after Season Two had just ended and I had avoided that show due to the film association that gave it a bad rep. I didn’t want to see some airhead cheerleader slay vamps with poor acting and dialogue. I didn’t want to watch a dumb high school drama and ‘Buffy’… what kind of name was ‘Buffy’?

My life plate was full with raising two kids, one at that time was more frequently in and out of hospitals for major and minor operations; I was rallying with the special needs communities for accessibility to the community (you don’t think how poorly constructed a city is until you have to maneuver it with a wheelchair, and since at that time I didn’t have a car yet some of the sidewalks or lack of made things tough… but we didn’t whine, we made changes.)

By that point, even at that young age, I had a lot of life already lived from Alaska to Oregon; as a woman, single mother since I was 16, quadriplegic child, absence of Christian faith and being cursed with incredible good looks I had no tolerance for flaky or weak females- or men for that matter. Xena didn’t interest me and most everything else out at that time had no appeal.

I had just gotten out of a month long stay at the hospital with my son and with him being in a spica cast that went from his arm pits to his toes so we didn’t really have any place that to be that summer.

I guess in order to prep for the up coming season they were doing a two season marathon and boredom and lack of things to do got me caught up rather quickly. What was the appeal other than boredom? I guess in a way I related to a young woman at a young age quickly had to take on the world- but did it with style and a humorous ensemble. She was quirky, awkward and clueless about love and life regardless of physical strength or situation endurance.

Yes, some of the concerns they wrote for her were superficial and shallow, but so were some of mine. I was drawn in and saw the show as something I could watch with my daughter (sometimes awkwardly) and for my son he was used to being around strong females, he liked it immediately and told me that I was like Buffy. Granted, me bleaching my hair blond, wearing a crucifix and thrusting wooden stakes in pretty much everything assisted with his comparison… even though it took a few months of doing such and answering the phone “Hi, this is Buffy… the Vampire Slayer… Jonathon, did you hear me?” Don’t judge.

Basically yes- in America we live in a much better world than woman did even fifty years ago. We can report it and have it taken seriously if you beat us, rape us, flat out deny us work if we’re female (because we are of child bearing age, and yes that happened to me too), are sexually harassed at work. Unfortunately in my life time some of the laws didn’t come into effect until right after the fact, but the world around us continues to get better for human rights as long as we don’t remain quiet and passive. We are able to, and are encouraged to build up our strengths and defenses to protect ourselves should anything bad come our way so we can prevent it or at least have the mental strength to come out of it not being a vegetable.

Through the Buffy vehicle, a lot of issues were hit upon as the years progressed and you could tell there were strong female writers (my favorite was Marti Noxon). Writers (male and female) who ‘got it’ and didn’t write for sensationalism or mainstream. They had something to say and they said it through the dialogue, having the characters give a certain look that said so much more than words could.

The show didn’t try to be brainy, it didn’t try to overly campy, it didn’t try to be anything more than real… as real as you could get for slaying vamps/demons and just about anything else you could imagine.

It had wit, subtle humor and little observations that you could relate to or hit upon something that assisted you in your own life dealings. The additional thing it gave you that other shows lacked was its quirky group of underdog friends that you found attractive through personality and dynamics as time went on. Each character had their own struggles and vehicles for growth and I don’t think there was anyone I was wishing away or didn’t cheer on.

The show didn’t insult your intellect and at the same time you didn’t need a dictionary sitting beside you in order to understand it. It wasn’t arrogant or pompous and at one time or another, it gave everyone a soul.

Watching the show causes me to say what I said when it ended almost ten years ago… there’ll never be another one like it again, and there hasn’t been.

R.I.P. Buffster- I miss you. As for God Whedon… YEE TO AVENGERS!!!

And now to give you something to watch. I saw this on Huff-Post today in a blog and I just have to say to Dar Williams, thank you. The song brought back so many wonderful memories of, well, when I was a boy.

Current Mood: Giddy