I thought this thread might be interested in a paper that I proposed to the annual religious studies conference. It was accepted, but I can't give the paper because I had other papers accepted that are actually in my field and there is a limit. Anyway - lucky me because it sure seems like my thesis has been shot to hell.
From Lesbian Vampire to Lesbian Witch: From Dangerous Sexuality to Queer Icon
I propose to address the construction of one prime-time queer character, Willow Rosenberg of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Unlike the other queer camp favorite, Xena: Warrior Princess, with its intentionally polysemic relationship between Xena and her sidekick Gabrielle, BtVS does not leave its audience guessing about the nature of the relationship between Willow and her girlfriend Tara Maclay. [On the polysemy of X: WP, see Elyce Rae Helford, “Feminism, Queer Studies, and the Sexual Politics of Xena: Warrior Princess” in Fantasy Girls (2000),135-162.] However, when first hinting at Willow’s queerness, BtVS did exploit various subtexts. Initially, BtVS engaged the well-know film image of the lesbian vampire; subsequently, it turned to the more positively valued lesbian wicca. This transformation sought to undermine the message of the lesbian vampire that lesbian sexuality is inherently dangerous.
In the beginning of BtVS, Willow is a shy, intelligent, apparently straight high school sophomore with an affinity for magic. She has two male interests in the first three seasons of the show: her best friend Xander and her boyfriend Oz. In their senior year, she has a brief romance with Xander, which is discovered by Xander’s girlfriend, Cordelia. Cordelia’s anger sets the stage for learning more about Willow’s sexuality. In “The Wish,” a vengeance demon grants Cordelia’s wish that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale (had Buffy never come to Sunnydale, Cordelia would never have dated Xander). In a Buffy-less Sunnydale, however, vampires dominate the town and many of the students, including Xander and Willow, are among their numbers. Vampire Willow is not the computer-oriented girl who wears clothes with fuzzy characters on them; she is a bisexual, leather-wearing dominatrix.
Although this alternate reality is destroyed, vampire Willow reappears in “Dopplegangland” summoned by a spell that Willow botches. In this episode, the two Willows come face to face. Vampire Willow corners Willow and, after taking a long lick along her neck, suggests that she come around to her “way of thinking.” Willow responds with extreme anxiety, “Would that mean we have to snuggle?” Willow breaks free, shoots Vampire Willow with a tranquilizer gun, and locks her in a cage until Buffy and the others return. A distraught Willow says to Buffy, “It’s horrible! That’s me as a vampire? I look so evil and skanky, and I think I’m kinda gay!” Buffy reassures her that the vampire has nothing to do with the person it was. However, she is corrected; the opposite is actually true.
The encounter between the two Willows works on a number of different levels. First, it recalls lesbian vampires of film who are frequently portrayed as narcissistic, a Freudian comment on the infantile nature of lesbian sexuality. [See Twins of Evil and Andrea Weiss, Vampires and Violets (1992), 94.] More importantly, it informs the audience that Willow is innately bisexual. Furthermore, we learn that she is deeply disturbed by her sexuality and that she, literally, is fighting it. Ultimately, however, Willow is unable to slay her bisexual vampire self and arranges to send her back to the alternate dimension. As they embrace goodbye, Willow abruptly ends the hug when the slyly smiling vampire runs her hands down Willow’s body. In the alternate dimension, vampire Willow is returned to a fight scene in which Oz stakes her. Oz’s action recalls the final act of the lesbian vampire film in which the man kills the lesbian vampire and saves the mortal woman from her advances. [Weiss, 103.] Oz also, of course, protects Willow from her queer self as her first heterosexual lover and dispels, for the time being, the danger of her true sexuality.
Oz, however, is a werewolf who has to cage himself during the full moon. In their first year of college, in “Wild at Heart,” Oz meets a female werewolf whom he draws into his cage for animal sex on the pretext of keeping her from attacking humans. Oz subsequently leaves Sunnydale in order to learn how to control his inner wolf. Willow overcomes Oz’s betrayal and absence through a friendship with another wicca, Tara. Willow and Tara grow closer by performing a number of spells, which not only have romantic qualities, but also make them breathe heavily and bring them to orgasm. The never subtle subtext of spells as sex and witches as lesbians becomes increasingly obvious both to Willow and Tara and to the audience. [On lesbianism and TV witches, see Sarah Projansky and Leah R. Vande Berg, “Sabrina, the Teenage...? Girls, Witches, Mortals, and the Limitations of Prime-Time Feminism” in Fantasy Girls, 13-40.] At this point, Oz returns, having found a way to control the wolf during the full moon.
Since there is no new man in Willow’s life, Oz wrongly assumes that she is available. Willow doesn’t correct him, spending much of “New Moon Rising” undecided. Oz discovers the truth when, with his heightened werewolf senses, he smells Willow, but turns around and sees only Tara. He transforms into the wolf and chases Tara. Once again, he tries to attack and destroy the lesbian element of Willow, but this time he fails. Tara escapes, and in the end, Willow chooses Tara over Oz. Willow’s adolescent fear of her own sexuality is transformed by understanding her sexuality not through the negative image imposed on it through the male gaze (lesbian vampire), but through the lens of a women’s power movement (lesbian wicca).
Although magic is ambiguously typed in the show (good magic verses dark, addictive magic), any negative connection that it might have to the inherent queerness of the two women is repeatedly rejected. The positive portrayal of this same-sex relationship has been received extremely well by lesbians. [“The Kitten, the Witches and the Bad Wardrobe,” a website dedicated to Willow and Tara, provides an introduction board in which people frequently reveal their age, occupation, and sexuality.] In the final analysis, the move from lesbian vampire to lesbian wicca provides at least one viewing audience with a welcome popular television antidote to notion of lesbian sexuality as inherently dangerous.
"It's like, it's like freeze frame. Willow kissage."
Innocence
