Courtesy of Tor.com I came across this interesting article about Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The author, Evan Pokroy, posits the thesis that BTVS is at heart a conservative show, quite at odds with the normal fare produced by Hollywood and that people of a conservative political persuasion should celebrate this series.

The article is well written and nothing in it is factually in error or untrue. It is certainly possible to view this series as one the reaffirms a number of conservative values,. However it is also possible to come away with a quite opposite conclusion, that BTVS reaffirms liberal values and morality.

Let me lay out just a brief outline of some of the liberal values celebrated, promoted, and central to the truly wonderful series.

 

“A Slayer with family and Friends, that sure as hell wasn’t in the brochure.” Spike in the episode –“School Hard”

Historically Slayers have operated in secret and alone. Granted there was support from the Watchers’ Council, but in the field, battling the demons night after night the Slayer stood alone until the coming of Buffy Summers. Through the coordinated actions of the Scooby Gang, Buffy defeated threats that lay beyond her abilities alone. Time and again in the series we are reminded that  together as a team, as a collective, are victorious.

 

“I’m so out I’ve got my Grandmother fixing me up with guys.” Larry in the episode — “Earshot”

Diversity is a good in BTVS, characters are fully accepted for who they are as a person, gay, straight, or werewolf. Buffy does more than just fight and defeat demons set upon their evil plans, she also fights for people and accepts people as who they are without thought to clique or acceptance, such as her quick willingness to accept Willow Rosenberg.

 

“New Watcher? Is he evil?” Buffy in the episode Bad Girls

Buffy questions authority, the wisdom of the ages is forever being tested, challenged, and overthrown. Mothers, fathers, step-fathers-to-be, father figures and mother figures are mocked and usurped. The Old Guard is always suspect and not always right.  Parents in the show do not, in general, fare well . While Joyce Summers, Buffy’s mother, eventually comes to supporter her daughter as the Slayer, her initial reaction was to throw her daughter into the street. Willow’s mothers is a hopeless academic, clueless to her daughters reality, and Xander’s unseen parents a warning sign that not all parents are to be honored. Beyond the parental figures, nearly all authority figures are distrusted, evil, or foolish. Giles, Buffy’s watcher and mentor, starts the series more at odds than respected, and become respected the more like Buffy he becomes until he too is challenging the accepted wisdom of authority in the episode Helpless.

 

“Anyone who’s not having fun here, follow me.” Buffy in the episode–Anne.

Buffy protects and defends the weak from abuse and exploitation. She clearly sees it as part of her duties to use her strength to protect and defend those who cannot. This goes beyond fighting demons, to protecting those who are bullied and threatened. The liberal aspect is best observed in the episode Anne, there Buffy, temporarily in Los Angeles, finds runaways are being used as slave labor by a demon. Armed with a Hunga Munga and a hammer she frees the workers from their exploiters.  The Hunga Munga, a sickle-like weapon, helps create an impression of a hammer and sickle used in a beauty-shot for the rest of third season’s credit sequence.

 

The point of my essay is not to say that Mr. Pokroy is wrong, because he is not. Buffy The Vampire Slyer is truly a work of art, and the best works of arts are multidimensional. They possess many facets just as a well cut diamond does. BTVS is a well of truly exceptional art, and as such people of all philosophical beliefs can find something in the show that speaks to them.

 

I think we should celebrate well-crafted art for its own sake, and not try to fit it into the tight, restricted left/right paradigm of political discourse.  Buffy The Vampire Slayer is a wonderful show, with well-scripted characters, interesting deep thoughts, and exciting action. When you watch it you think about what it might mean, lets keep that a personal journey and not one where we impose a philosophy.