closet-keys:

my thoughts on the potential Buffy reboot– 

I loved Buffy growing up, but the series is hard to watch as an adult. There’s rape jokes, romanticized pedophilia, abuse apologism, saneism/ableism, and a shit ton of racism (including the use of the g*psy slur, repeatedly). Not to mention the lesbian death trope, really blatant cissexism, and just general misogyny that is not acknowledged as such in text. 

It of course maintains a nostalgia factor, and I am not like anti-anyone who enjoys the show for the moments that helped young girls introduce themselves to basic feminist ideas or confront rape culture or learn it was okay to be a lesbian even if you dated boys in high school. There was some genuinely meaningful moments, and I get it. 

But I also think the basic premise of a feminist show that dealt with social issues through monster-of-the-week metaphors was handled poorly more often than not, and the thematic content reflected the underlying misogyny, transmisogyny, racism, ableism, and homophobia of the creator. Joss Whedon is an asshole and it really is not surprising that his views, in combination with the input and effort of a team of writers and actors, led to the creation of that series, as complex and flawed as it was. 

So the idea of a reboot with that premise– which is genuinely a good premise for a show for teenage girls!– staring a black girl and having Monica Owusu-Breen (a Ghanian and Spanish woman who grew up in Brooklyn) leading as writer, executive producer and showrunner is encouraging! In my opinion, there is real potential for a new generation of teenage girls to experience this general premise of storytelling that introduces them to or empathizes with them about relevant feminist issues in their lives through supernatural fiction. 

But also Whedon is still going to be one of the executive producers. I understand why- as there are a whole lot of fans who keep up with whatever that man specifically is up to. They know if he’s not on the team, they won’t get that guaranteed Whedon audience. (Though honestly they still might not cause I already see a whole lot of people super unhappy with the idea of a reboot, both from those who have an emotional nostalgic loyalty to what they grew up with and from those who are just racist and don’t want a black Buffy). But Whedon’s involvement makes me wary of the reboot cause quite frankly I just don’t trust him, and I worry that he will use his influence as the “original creator” to fuck with the direction of the new show. I also don’t know much about Owusu-Breen’s other work and whether she’ll bring new and challenging topics to the show in a respectful and responsible way. At this point I’m assuming she will– I tend to give folks the benefit of the doubt and I’m hopeful– but of course there’s no guarantees. 

So I am not like thrilled or outraged or any other Big Emotion about the announcement, but I do think that the idea/project as a whole has serious potential, and I hope people don’t just reflexively discount it because they don’t want to have their memories disrupted by seeing a new Buffy. After all, the Buffy series itself was a reboot of the original movie, which most agree now was terrible. Maybe after this reboot, we’ll see Buffy as a framework of storytelling that gets increasingly better and more polished with each retelling.