Buffy the Vampire Slayer
on December 7, 2011 at 10:30 am
She's not exactly meek or mild mannered.
When I first conceived of the “pop culture anti-girlfriend” category, Buffy was naturally first on my list, but I ended up bumping her for the very worthy Miss Piggy because she, unlike Buffy, had a movie coming out. (This is what we in the journalism biz call a “peg.” And by journalism I mean “blogging” and by “blogging” I mean “aggregating.” And so on and so forth.)
The reasons for choosing Buffy to fill this role are innumerable as well as obvious–she’s smart, tough and independent. She dresses well (if not always sensibly for vampire slaying–let’s not talk about her super frilly dresses from Season 3). She kicks ass, literally.
Though a large chunk of the second and third seasons were devoted to Buffy and Angel’s love story, which I immensely enjoyed, you never got the sense that the character and show was defined by that relationship. You had no doubt that once that relationship ended, Buffy would persevere, not simply because the writers and network would have it so. She was never the type of girl who simply had to have a boyfriend all the time.
It’s not at all a foregone conclusion that loving vampires or being in proximity to them means that you will end up cool and strong.
Case in point: Bella Swan of Twilight fame.
Has any film “heroine” in recent memory been as passive as Kristen Stewart’s character? I think not. Even Sooki Stackhouse has more spunk than this girl.
