American Culture and Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Despite setbacks in the production, Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was able to envision the success that Buffy has become. Yet, the popularity of this show should not be surprising considering it plays on the timeless themes of angst, coming of age, good vs. evil, redemption, selflessness, and sacrifice. The characters also are appealing in the way they seem to balance humor, horror, and the everyday soap opera of being a high school student. Within the series, Buffy and her friends have labeled themselves the "Scooby Gang," in reference to Hanna Barbera's Scooby Doo, Where Are You?, whose teenage cartoon characters chased monsters every week (Skippy 2). Each week, audiences also watch Buffy Summers and her "Scooby Gang" as they, once again, save the world from any number of monsters who are intent on bringing about the apocalypse. Yet, as many fans as this show has gathered, it has just as many people who would like to see it off the air due to its violent, explicit, and often sexual undertones. This paper will discuss and analyze Buffy the Vampire Slayer within the context of American culture and media, examining such influences as teen life, historical and cultural background, commercialization, and real-world events.

Saving the world is never easy and neither is coming of age in America, which is a point driven home every week as the "Scooby Gang" struggle against monsters and themselves to strive for some type of normalcy in their lives. Yet, Buf

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th, who is a rogue slayer that has decided to side with evil. In a sense, Buffy "reflect[s] the postmodern American attitude toward religion that falls between faith and disbelief" (Skippy 6). This relates back to the fear of losing one's identity or sense of self by being consumed by either a belief or a vampire, which fosters the non-conformist coolness portrayed by Buffy (Davis 2). One of interesting things about being a cool non-conformist is that others decide to be just as cool by conforming to the style of the non-conformist. This is what sells "Buffy." As previously discussed, teens who watch these shows become enchanted by the characters to the extent that they identify with them and want to be like them (Sisk 2). Therefore, by wearing a Buffy-logo T-shirt or using a Buffy-logo keychain, the teen fan can now associate themselves with "cool." Further, there are now Buffy the Vampire Slayer roll-playing games and computer games, which encourage the players to identify with various characters and act out their fantasies in these games. This, in turn, encourages buying more Buffy merchandise so that besides a Buffy storyline, there is now a Buffy franchise. According to the marketing research firm, Teenage Research,

Category: Film - A