Conceited Slayers: Is Buffy A Bad Role Model?

For anyone who has seen an episode of the epic Buffy the Vampire Slayer, they’ll know that Buffy is a strong feminist figure. She is a girl chosen to fight against “the vampires, demons and the forces of darkness”; a heroine working on the side of good, a role model for young girls. So what’s wrong with this image? Essentially, nothing. But the more we see of Buffy as the show progresses, the more it comes to light that she has become somewhat conceited, taking her power to mean she is better than her peers, begging the question: does a physical advantage equate to being “better” than another person? This attitude of Buffy’s finally comes to a head in season 7’s ‘Empty Places’ where her friends confront her on her mind-set and Buffy finally faces one of her biggest demons yet: herself.

This piece will examine Buffy’s role in the series and her character’s attitude towards her abilities as a slayer and how that impacts other people. I will assess whether Buffy is indeed a good role model or whether in fact her conceitedness is too much to bare, and is a bad example to viewers.

Why Buffy shouldn’t be counting her chickens

Buffy’s ability is, as Anya puts it, “handed” to her. She didn’t earn it. She should feel lucky, be humbled by her position as a slayer – she was chosen as a slayer, but as season 7’s revelation of potential slayers demonstrates, any of these potential slayers could have been chosen too. And this is highlighted even in season 2 when Kendra is called as a slayer – there are plenty of girls all ready to take the slayer position, they just need to be called. So Buffy isn’t quite so special after all; she’s one of many girls who have been chosen as potentials. The way her power is thrust upon her rather than being something she has achieved is even highlighted in the early seasons, where in season 1’s ‘Prophecy Girl’ she exclaims “I quit” in her reluctance to accept her duty, something which she didn’t ask for or desire.

Yet despite this reluctance in the early seasons, Buffy also maintains a level of drama around her position as slayer at pretty much all crucial times. She consistently makes a fuss of attempting to keep others safe, how every fight is “her” fight, and refusing to accept help. She yells at her friends for trying to help her, at one stage even exclaiming how they “get in the way” and she can’t spend all her time trying to protect them. Her brash treatment of the ‘Scooby Gang’ in this respect depicts a conceitedness of character from even seasons 1 and 2.

We see further such behaviour in season 3 with the arrival of Faith, who brings out this conceited attitude in Buffy. Of the two of them, Buffy is definitely the “good slayer”. Yet she still errs from the “right” course at first, going along with Faith in ‘Bad Girls’, where we see Buffy led into crime and carelessness as she uptakes an attitude of “want, take, have” – something which is later echoed in season 7’s ‘Touched’ where she walks into a man’s house and demands him to leave – “it’s what all the cool kids are doing”. She does what she likes with little regard for the people it affects, believing that she is better than them so is entitled to do as she pleases.

By season 5 this conceitedness manifests in a general ‘I’m better than everyone [because of her power] therefore I can beat anything’ attitude, and we see Buffy at perhaps her most frustrated when she is taken down a peg or two by Glory, a hell god. Later in the season, Buffy is required to undertake tests by the Watchers Council, where after briefly submitting to them, she rebels back, arguing that she quits the council – she no longer needs their help, they need her. Which was probably true, but this experience seems to fuel her conceited attitude. Later, in season 6, she goes through a tough time – what with being resurrected and so on. Yet with a younger sister of 16 – the age Buffy was when she first hit our screens – you would think she would allow said sister to help her on patrols, or at least with research. But no, it’s always “too dangerous”. Which we could accept as a valid excuse, except that Willow and Xander at 16 (essentially helpless teens back then) were allowed to tag along (at least with research) without much persistence of Buffy (except patrols and physical battles – she didn’t like them joining in on those). So, um, why is slaying (or rather, research) only “your” thing Buffy?  Because only she has the ability, the special slayer powers to do it. It’s her exclusive thing that makes her better than others. Yet this contrasts everything we’ve seen of the rest of the Scoobies, who quite frankly didn’t seem to be doing too badly protecting Sunnydale from the vampires (including going out on patrols) at the beginning of season 3 whilst Buffy had ran away from her responsibilities. So clearly being a slayer doesn’t mean only you exclusively can slay vampires. Season 7’s normal human and vampire hunter Robin Wood is also an example of this.

“Luckier than us”

By season 7 Buffy’s attitude gets the better of her. She treats the potential slayers like children and even looks down on her ability-equal Faith, being outraged during the ‘Empty Places’ intervention-type discussion with her friends when they make the suggestion that Faith becomes leader for a while. Buffy fails to see how anyone could surpass her abilities and skills, even though Faith has a similar level of experience and has the same biological slayer abilities as Buffy. Really, there isn’t actually much of a reason why she shouldn’t have a go at leading.

What I find the most frustrating about Buffy’s conceited attitude, though, is that despite frequent underlying suspicions throughout the show, she finally actually admits it to Spike in ‘Touched’, where she talks about how she has “always cut herself off” from others as she feels she is in a different league to them because of her slayer skills – “being the slayer made me different”. The issue that needs to be addressed is whether or Buffy is actually “better” than normal people because of her skills. Well, Buffy herself has not been awarded her slayer skills; they just happen to have been assigned to her. There’s no denying she’s done a good job as the slayer; she is, after all, the longest living one. However, her abilities do not make her better than her peers for the very reason that she did not earn them. As Anya quite nicely puts it, “that doesn’t make you better than us; that makes you luckier than us”. Buffy has been blessed with these abilities and should act accordingly with them; this includes not becoming conceited and working on behalf of, and with, others – including a reformed Faith, who having overcome her own conceitedness, is able to work alongside others to do good with her abilities. What’s ironic about this, of course, is that in season 3 we were all begging Faith to be like Buffy; but by season 7 in some respects we’re kind of hoping for it to be the other way around.

Is Buffy a good role model?

On paper, Buffy is a good role model – she’s a hero, she always saves the day and tries to do what’s right. As a slayer, she is a good role model – she succeeds in her trials, she fights well and she is a fierce leader. She gets the job done, and she’s not overcome by evil in the way Faith was in earlier seasons. Buffy’s a safe bet. But her character also possesses an underlying conceitedness which means she is a bad role model. Her subtle haughtiness throughout the show does not induce feelings of sharing and equality to viewers, and this is potentially quite dangerous. In particular, in season 7 when her behaviour eventually manifests in a smash of opinions as her friends confront her on her behaviour. Given that it was something that needed to come to a head in the final few episodes of the show, clearly even writers could see that this character had some serious arrogance issues which needed addressing. Buffy’s power got out of hand, and her attitude with it. Her behaviour, particularly towards the end of season 7, demonstrates how power can corrupt a person, giving them a feeling that they can do anything and treat others how they like, and for this reason Buffy is not a good role model. In her case, her friends had enough and this is what led to what viewers see as an epiphany-type discussion with Spike.

Following this, Buffy began to accept that others might be as strong and important, or even more so, than herself. For example, when she refers to Willow as her “big gun”, where Willow’s spell was the most crucial part of her plan – not her own performance. Finally, it’s not just Buffy fighting by herself: it’s everyone. And so by the end of the final episode, she finally achieves a good role model status, a leader who sees her “army” as equals; they could have continued fighting without her. For a character who has been a conceited, bad role model for the rest of the show’s 142 episodes up until the last two, though; well, it’s just too little too late.

TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer created by Joss Whedon is available now on DVD from amazon.co.uk.