On the 10th of December, we here
in Namibia celebrate Human Rights Day, but we also celebrate another day, one
that’s sadly overshadowed by it. We also celebrate International Women’s Day.
Now, I realise that as a man, I have very little authority to talk about women’s
issues, but as Sir Patrick Stewart so eloquently put it, "People won't listen to you or take you seriously unless you're an
old white man, and since I'm an old white man I'm going to use that to help the
people who need it." I hope I can do a bit better, and have someone
else do the talking. Buffy Anne Summers.
Buffy Summers was created as a response to
that old writing trope – that of the bubblehead blonde that wandered into the
dark alley and got murdered. Buffy was that bubblehead blonde, and she fought
back and won. As she taught us, appearances can be deceiving – she might have
been blonde, true, and a typical girl, but she was no bubblehead, and she was
in no way weaker for being either. For "into
every generation a slayer is born: one girl in all the world, a chosen one. She
alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons, and the
forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their
number. She is the Slayer."
Because while Buffy the Vampire Slayer seems to be but a simple pop-culture show,
it is anything but. It has more academic papers, essays and books written about
it than any other media property – at last count, over 200 – and those papers
range from gender and family studies to aesthetics. Because while Buffy may
appear to have a simple premise, the fights against vampires, demons and the
forces of darkness parallels the similar fights most women have growing up –
fighting their own vampires, demons and forces arrayed against them.
Buffy is, in essence, teaching us all how
to deal with the absurdity of life. We all seek inherent value and meaning in
life, while the universe we inhabit is by its very nature meaningless – the
very nature of our existence is thus absurd. How do we deal with it? The way that
Buffy shows us – we need to create our own meaning in life, and to live life to
the fullest, as it can be snatched from us at any moment. As Buffy tells her
sister, “The hardest thing in this world
is to live in it. Be brave. Live.”
Buffy teaches us that all we need to be
strong is ourselves. No one else. Even when almost defeated, and her former
lover taunts her with a sword pointed at her with, “No weapons, no friends, no hope. Take all that away, what's left?”
Buffy can respond with, “Me.”
Strength is in what you are, not what you’re given, and you should not allow
anyone to take it away from you.
The show also teaches us the power of
forgiveness and redemption. Throughout the seven years, we see not only Buffy
grow up from a teenage girl to an independent woman, but we see the people
around her, and how she deals with them. Just like the real world, her world is
not black and white, but rather varying shades of grey. Several characters that
could at the start be said to be bad, find redemption, and those that start
good turn bad as well. Buffy herself has to learn to forgive those around her,
because “To forgive is an act of
compassion. It's not done because people deserve it. It's done because they
need it.”
Buffy also reminds us of our own empathy,
by deliberately invoking a feeling of sonder – i.e. the realization that each
random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own — populated
with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an
epic story that continues invisibly around you. Or as she put it to Jonathan, “My life happens on occasion to suck beyond
the telling of it. Sometimes more than I can handle. And it’s not just mine.
Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they're too busy
with their own. The beautiful ones. The popular ones. The guys that pick on
you. Everyone.”
But perhaps the greatest gift Buffy gave to
all women is her message of agency. Buffy had to fight many demons, both
internal and external throughout her struggles, but what she never gives up is
her capacity to act. She never gives up. In a world where women are constantly
under siege, in a country such as ours with a horrible culture of domestic
violence, the one thing no woman should ever forget is that she has the
capacity to act – to change the world. Even more powerful than her message
against domestic violence (“No man is
worth your life. Not ever.”) is her choice to never cede agency. As she
puts it, “Strong is fighting. It's hard
and it's painful and it's every day. It's what we have to do, and we can do it
together.”
So to all the women in Namibia, Buffy only
has this to say: “So here's the part
where you make a choice. What if you could have that power, now? In every
generation, one Slayer is born, because a bunch of men who died thousands of
years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men. This woman is more
powerful than all of them combined. So I say we change the rule. I say my power
should be our power. Every girl who could have the power, will have the power, who
can stand up, will stand up. Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?”
