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In
its last few years, the series achieved a number
of milestones for lesbians on television, both in
terms of physical displays of affection between lesbians
and (more importantly) the normalizing of lesbians and lesbian
relationships.
Willow's
relationship with Tara was (and still is) the longest-running
lesbian relationship on network television (2.5 seasons),
and the pair developed a dedicated following among lesbian
and bisexual fans who felt overjoyed to finally see aspects
of their lives and their relationships reflected back through
Willow and Tara's. It is probably not an overstatement to
say that Willow and Tara enjoyed a more loyal and dedicated
fan base than any other lesbian couple on U.S. television.
Willow
and Tara's initial courtship period in Season Four was extremely
chaste, however, especially when paired with explicit sex
scenes between the heterosexual characters on the show.
By Whedon's own admission, this was due to restrictions
imposed on the show by the WB, who worried it would be too
controversial.
By
the beginning of Season Six, Buffy
had switched networks to UPN, and began making up for lost
time; by the end of the series, images of lesbians kissing
were no longer a rarity on the show. The musical episode
"Once More With Feeling" included scenes of Willow
and Tara proclaiming their love for one another through
song, along with a metaphorical sex scene, and in the controversial
episode "Seeing Red," Willow and Tara were shown
naked in bed together post-sex--something which had never
been shown on network television before. Buffy
pushed the envelope of sexual expression between women even
further, however, in one of the last episodes of the series,
"Touched," when it showed Willow and Kennedy in
the first lesbian sex scene
on network television.
The
character of Kennedy challenged convention as well, as she
became only the second regular Latina lesbian character
on TV (the first was Lisa Vidal's character on ER)
and the first lesbian "action
hero" on television. She was also one of the only
regular lesbian characters on television whom we didn't
see in the tentative, struggling-with-her-sexuality phase.
Kennedy was refreshingly out and proud from the moment she
was introduced, an image we still rarely see on network
TV.
Willow,
along with Dr. Kerry Weaver on ER, is also one
of the longest-running lesbian characters on network television
(3.5 seasons). Although Weaver will surpass this record
when she returns on ER next season, Willow has
had far more screen time devoted to her and her relationships
than Weaver will probably ever have (if last season on ER
was any indication).
But
perhaps Buffy's greatest contribution
to lesbian visibility was to expose viewers over a long
period of time to the lives of
three very different women who were all
lesbians. By sharing the joys and sorrows of these characters,
viewers grew accustomed to seeing lesbians as a regular
part of the series rather than as just a novelty in a special
"lesbian episode" designed to spike the ratings.
Furthermore, television portrayals of lesbians are few and
far between in general, and to have three fully fleshed-out
lesbian characters on one series is almost unheard of.
The
series wasn't afraid to expose the flaws of its lesbian
characters, either, as they did with Willow: we saw her
at her best (sacrificing herself for her friends) and at
her worst (flaying a man alive). In this way Buffy
humanized its lesbian characters and didn't fall into the
trap of making them too perfect--yet all three characters
remained likeable, or at least sympathetic.
Of
course, Buffy was not perfect, and Whedon
& co. have been justifiably criticized for some of their
decisions over the years. Many fans felt that killing
Tara off and subsequently turning Willow evil reinforced
the dead/evil lesbian cliche to such a degree that it canceled
out all other positive contributions the show made to lesbian
visibility. I disagree, because I believe the Buffy
writers were treating Tara just like the other characters
on the show (since main characters frequently die on Buffy,
as Anya did in the finale). But nonetheless, they should
have thought through Tara's murder a little better, and
perhaps handled that storyline differently, even if Tara
still ultimately had to die to drive Willow's character
development.
Willow's
relationship with Kennedy also felt rushed, which strained
its credibility somewhat. On the other hand, no one wanted
to see Willow end up sad and alone at the end of the series,
and the writers didn't have much time to work with with
the end of the series approaching.
The
decision to make Willow a lesbian instead of bisexual was
problematic, as well, since Willow was clearly attracted
to her boyfriend Oz in high school. It would have been more
realistic and more groundbreaking if Willow had come out
as bisexual (since that is never done on television),
or at least had a discussion with Tara or Buffy about whether
she was bisexual or a lesbian, instead of just pretending
bisexuality didn't even exist.
But
these are minor complaints about a series
that overall has done more for lesbian visibility on television
than any other show since Ellen came out in 1997.
We might argue within the gay community about the good or
bad of a specific storyline or character on Buffy,
but I am grateful the series gave us so much rich material
to argue over in the first place.
Many
of us, however, probably won't truly appreciate
the extent of Buffy's contribution until a few
years from now, when we're back to settling for only the
occasional lesbian character on network TV. We are already
seeing the impact of Buffy's departure in next
season's lineup: there are only two regular lesbian characters
on primetime network TV so far for the entire 2003-2004
season (Weaver on ER and a bisexual ex-wife on
the new sitcom Two and a Half Men) and neither
are likely to get much screen time.
In
losing Buffy, we lost some of
the best (and only) lesbian characters on network TV, and
we're not likely to see anything like it
again anytime soon. But Buffy has normalized and
de-sensitized lesbian relationships to such an extent that
network television will never be the same. Individual series
may revert back to old practices of ignoring or stereotyping
lesbians and lesbian relationships, but network television
as a whole will never be able to stuff the lesbian genie
back into the bottle and pretend that lesbians don't exist.
But
Buffy's contribution to lesbian visibility on television
can perhaps be summed up best through its own dialogue
in the last few moments of the series: "We
saved the world!" Dawn said, to which Willow replied
"We changed the world."
Thank
you, Buffy, for changing the world of television
into a better place for women of all sexual orientations.
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Buffy Season 7 on DVD
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