Seven Seasons of Buffy: Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Discuss Their Favorite Television Show (Smart Pop series) (31 page)
Authors: Gilene Yeffeth
W
ICCA
1 (hesitantly): Like what?
W
ILLOW
: Well, there’s the wacky notion of spells. You know, conjuring, transmutation . . .
W
ICCA
2 (giggling): Oh yeah, then we could all get on our broomsticks and fly around on our broomsticks.
W
ICCA
1: You know, certain stereotypes are not very empowering.
T
ARA
: I think that . . .
W
ICCA
2: One person’s energy can suck the power from an entire circle. No offense.
T
ARA
: Well, maybe we could, uh . . .
W
ICCA
2: Yeah, Tara. Guys . . . quiet. Do you have a suggestion?
Tara just shakes her head and looks down, but then she looks at Willow.
W
ICCA
2: Okay, let’s talk about the theme for the bacchanal.
The certain stereotype that the Kittenboard feels is not very empowering is generally referred to as “The Myth of the Dead Lesbian,” or “The Lesbian Cliché” for short, which basically boils down to the following motif: One lesbian dies; the other becomes evil. Or, as explained in the Kittenboard’s Lesbian Cliché FAQ:
2) What specifically is the “Dead/Evil Lesbian Cliché”?
That all lesbians and, specifically lesbian couples, can never find happiness and always meet tragic ends. One of the most repeated scenarios is that one lesbian dies horribly and her lover goes crazy, killing others or herself. (Sound familiar?)
The parallels to Tara’s death and Willow’s subsequent murderous rampage at the end of season six are obvious, and more elaborate descriptions of this motif and essays examining it can be found at the Kittenboard, along with listings of prior instances in literature and film. Discussions can also be found, though, of course, overly divergent opinions will be deleted by the moderator.
For a private group, this is standard, and, to a certain degree, expected. Those who do not agree with a group’s policies are free to go off and form their own groups, as with Willow and Tara leaving the campus Wicca group, and Plan C and Blood of the Banned splintering off from the Kittenboard.
However, just as the campus Wiccans wished to publish the “Gaian Newsletter” to get out the “message of blessing” to their sisters, the Kittenboard is also into advocacy. And one of the things they advocate, in a strange parallel to the conservative Christian Parents Television Council, is censorship.
At the 2002 World Science Fiction Convention, a track of
Buffy
panels were created by author Seanan McGuire, who was also moderator for the panel
The Dead Lesbian Myth—Buffy and the Death of Tara
. During the course of the discussion, Seanan made the following statement:
I ended up really liking Tara, to the point where I went over the course of a season, from . . . A magazine I write for I started an article with, “I think I should tell you right up front that I would like to see Tara boiled in applesauce and fed to hogs.” I went over the course of less than half a season from that viewpoint to sobbing hysterically on the couch, going, “Those bastards, those bastards, how dare they make me care . . .”
This statement was then buzz-clipped in a panel report by Rally, the main Kittenboard member covering the convention, as:
“Tara should be boiled in applesauce and fed to wild pigs.”— Seanan McGuire—Moderator of the Buffy and The Death of Tara Panel
Though a lesbian herself, Seanan was also reported as a homophobe. This report elicited much shock and outrage from the membership of the Kittenboard, followed almost immediately by cries for PTC-style letter-writing campaigns and pressure on convention organizers to no longer invite any of the panelists to future conventions. For example, from the Kittenboard thread,
World Science Fiction Convention W/T the cliché & the lie
:
Bob said, “I think copies need to be made and sent to a great many people . . .” Starting with EVERY SAN FRANCISCO and SAN JOSE PAPER AND TV STATION. Let the convention organizers hear from these towns and that homophobic conventions are not welcome. I want a retraction for the convention and an apology. Members of this board offered to be on this sham of a panel and were refused. Instead, they put little miss Anita Bryant jr. up there . . . as the MODERATOR!
Thankfully, after a number of days, Rally transcribed her tapes of the panel discussion so that Seanan’s remarks could be read in context, though likely not before a number of letters had gone out.
Of course, Seanan McGuire was in many ways taking the heat for the true focus of the Kittenboard’s ire, Joss Whedon, who has been receiving a huge amount of pressure for his decision to kill Tara. As he responded on the Bronze board:
over the gay thing, revisited
Posted by: Joss—May 22, 2002, 2:27
A.M
.
Thought I was out, but . . . had one more thing to add. I killed Tara. Some of you may have been hurt by that. It is very unlikely it was more painful to you than it was to me. I couldn’t even discuss it in story meetings without getting upset, physically. Which is why I knew it was the right thing to do. Because stories, as I have so often said, are not about what we WANT. And I knew some people would be angry with me for destroying the only gay couple on the show, but the idea that I COULDN’T kill Tara because she was gay is as offensive to me as the idea that I DID kill her because she was gay. Willow’s story was not about being gay. It was about weakness, addiction, loss . . .the way life hits you in the gut right when you think you’re back on your feet. The course of true love never did run smooth, not on my show. (only Dennis Franz has suffered more than my characters.) I love Amber and she knows it. Eventually, this story will end for all of them. Hers ended sooner.
Or did it . . .?
Yeah, it did.
This was not accepted by the Kittens and has led to the writing of letters to writers and producers, a call for a boycott of episodes taking place after the death of Tara, and calls to not buy
Buffy
video tapes or DVDs. There’s even an interesting web site that takes this as a title,
Sex, Lies & btw.: Don’t Buy Their Video Tapes!
(
www.puk.de/ivanova/toaster_neub.html
) with links to the Kittenboard’s Lesbian Cliché FAQ and an interesting comparison of quotes from Joss and the other shows writers, many of them in response to the pressure they have been receiving, ranging from the sad—
It’s the first time that we’ve gotten public outcry where I really can’t even read some of the letters, they hurt so much. It’s very indicative of how underrepresented gay people feel in the culture. Because the kinds of letters we’ve gotten have been so emotional and so personal and so deeply felt, you realize that every single
instance of a positive portrayal of gay love on television means so much to people. (Marti Noxon,
Advocate
, July 2002)
to the angry—
In characterizing Tara’s death as yet another in the string of cliched lesbian deaths, you indicate that you do not see Tara as anything but a lesbian, you do not see her as the unique character she was, but rather just as a woman who had sex with women, and, in doing so, you reveal your own homophobia, your own prejudice and, more than anything else, your own lack of understanding of what we did with that character. (Drew Z. Greenberg,
Bronze Beta
, Oct. 15, 2002)
At the date of this writing, the lesbian drama still continues: Willow now dating Kennedy, Tara not yet returned—even as an incarnation of the First Evil, though this is more due to reported contract negotiation difficulties with Amber Benson, who portrays Tara, than with a decision by the show’s writers.
Then again, members of the Kittenboard have claimed that Amber has said she would not return, out of respect for her fans. But given that Plan C was named after a (joking) plot for Amber Benson to be kidnapped by women in kitten ears en route to a Canadian
Star Trek
convention, it is possible that Amber’s respect for her fans is tempered by fear:
(Excerpt from
planc.bravepages.com/aboutus/manifesto.html
)
[. . .]Plan B: Kidnap Amber.
We stealthily take over the hotel at AmberCon (forget TorontoTrek, it was AmberCon, dammit), disguise ourselves in kitten ears, kill the lights, kidnap Amber in an Amber-sized bag tied with velvet rope (no chafing), and escape in a fanboat outside. Due to the large number of kittens involved, some would have to ride outside the craft and thus flutterkicking was practiced.
Then we realized that there would be geeks in Klingon costumes in the hotel, some probably carrying batleffs, and as we are a non-violent group, didn’t relish the idea of having to fight our way out.
And so was born . . .
Plan C.
1) Border guard (with kitten ears) instructs Amber that the path to Toronto is under “construction” and recommends a detour that will get her there faster. [. . .]
After all, an unbalanced fan killed singer Selena Perez, and another killed actress Rebecca Schaeffer. Benson, talented as both, can hardly miss the parallels, especially since her character has already been kidnapped (by Glory) and murdered (by Warren). And death threats have already been sent to executives of The WB, who are far less recognizable and don’t have to make convention appearances to further their careers.
If this is the case, then the fans, in their intensity, have been responsible for an even greater change in the show, the voluntary exclusion of an actor. Which, overall, is far more significant than the dropping of a minor subplot, such as the Double Meat Palace storyline. Tara was the conscience of the show, the hamburgers were a joke.
Finally, Sarah Michelle Gellar has elected not to renew her contract, thus ending the series, at least in its current form. Fans are free to speculate as to her reasoning for this, but it’s fairly certain that all the pressures did not go on the plus side of the scale. And so the story ends . . . for the moment.
The manipulations continue.
Buffy
is over, but
Angel
and the gang will continue to face threats and horrors, fighting them, dealing with them, making workarounds and compromises in untenable situations, and even occasionally being beaten. And the same will be true of the cast, crew, and the writing staff of any future shows in the continued mythology.
A native of California, Kevin Andrew Murphy writes novels, plays, short stories, poems, and games. His most recent works are the novels
Fathom: The World Below (
a novelization of Michael Turner’s Fathom comics) and
Drum into Silence,
a posthumous collaboration with the late Jo Clayton, concluding her Drums of Chaos trilogy, as well as a novella, “With a Flourish and a Flair,” in
Deuces Down,
the latest volume in George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards series. He has poems upcoming in
Vox13’s
humorous H.P. Lovecraft anthology
Hastur, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
and the mainstream
Poets Against the War
anthology. White Wolf will be publishing his World of Darkness novel
Penny Dreadful,
and he’s currently working on a role-playing game adaptation of
Wild Cards
for the Theatrix system. More of his works may be found at
www.sff.net/people/Kevin.A.Murphy
.
