ARTICLE: Vampiros lesbos

[Kimber <kacoe@xxxxxxx>]

It's old but definitly worth the read. Thought you guys might enjoy =)

Vampiros lesbos

If "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is the hottest gay show on TV, why are all of the characters
straight?

By Donna Minkowitz


Jan. 12, 2000 | Dear Joss Whedon,

Please. Please. Please.

You have power now. You like lesbians. For Christ's sake, you're a guy who minored in
feminist film theory!

Do this one thing with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" for us and we'll never even complain
about the sucky macho politics of "Angel."

Make Willow gay.

You heard me. You must know that millions of your lesbian- and gay-adoring fans (some of
whom are straight) held their breaths the other week when Willow held hands with that cute
Wicca girl so they could make really, really strong magic together! (Afterward, the girl
told Willow she was "powerful" and "special.")

It's not just that Alyson Hannigan looks adorable with that red dye job, or that she made
nerds and people who read Latin sexy forever. There are fundamental principles at stake.

You suppose you're radical because you made Willow a lesbian in that "It's a Wonderful
Life" alternate-reality episode where she was also a torturer and a vampire. Well, my
Laura Mulvey-reading friend, that's just not good enough!

I am sick of the characters of fantasy TV only being able to be queer in alternate
universes, or when they get blows to the head, or go through really special wormholes. Do
you really want to be no better than "Star Trek," where it's the 24th century but there
are still no lesbians or gay men anywhere but our imaginations? And no, it's not enough
that you have the occasional boy-loving vamp, or Larry the football player, or the evil
queen from the costume store. I want a recurring, human, demon-fighting, likable, complex
gay or lesbian major character, a member of the Scooby gang in fact.

What's the good of a show that's so smart about sex and love when it doesn't even
acknowledge that it comes in more than one variety? (And no, it doesn't count that Riley
once helped the campus lesbians hang their banner. Hets get he Buffy-Angel love thing in
all its pathos, beauty and terror and we get a sly reference with a banner?)

You think you're pro-gay because you've occasionally had homo-symbolism on the show, of
the sort that only lust-crazed queers could ever uncover. "It's very doubtful we'll bring
Larry back for a gay arc," you had the remarkable chutzpah to tell me two years ago,
"because we're doing a gay arc already with Buffy." Oh really? Buffy's a lesbian? Funny no
one ever noticed!

Perhaps no one ever figured out about her lesbianism because, uh, you never really showed
it existing. One scene where Buffy comes out to her mom as a vampire slayer is supposed to
bear the weight of lesbian and gay desire forever? Well, f--- that! Do you think we can
eat symbolism? We need stories, as you so obviously know because of the reasons you've
said you created Buffy in the first place: because girls and women "needed a movie where
they could walk through an alley and take care of themselves."

I have needs too, Joss. Do you have any idea how galling it is that the smartest, most
feminist show that has ever been still makes me read myself into the characters and
construct elaborate fantasy love-lives for them behind the official versions? Your lesbian
and gay fans live on crumbs: Buffy and Faith do a sexy dance one time and we sigh in
ecstasy as though they had had an entire Buffy-Angel Virginity Arc lasting three seasons.

I don't need gay characters on boring, conventional shows like "Will and Grace." I need
them on fantasy shows where people like me -- all people -- participate in the hero's
journey. I need them on shows like "Buffy" that deal profoundly with all those subjects
Americans don't like to discuss, like intimacy and sexual vulnerability and loss.

Anyhow, Willow doesn't have to be exclusively gay. Let her be bi, like the exploring
Wiccan smart girl she is. That would be fine, and there wouldn't be any
retro-unpleasantness about explaining all those feelings for Xander and Oz.

A simple question: Who is "Buffy" intended for? Teenagers and young adults. Who are the
people who beat up and kill gay people? Teenagers and young adults. (Almost exclusively.
Look at the stats.) Talk about the need for new kinds of stories.

Oh, while you're at it, have Professor Walsh come out, too. (She's obviously not evil --
she's just butch! And so alluring.) Time to make it real, Joss, and live up to all those
things you've said about making audiences identify with the most marginalized people you
can. Demon liberation is one thing, but your human viewers have more urgent needs. Take
the plunge.
salon.com | Jan. 12, 2000
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About the writer
Donna Minkowitz is the author of the Lambda Award-winning memoir "Ferocious Romance." She
lives in New York.