Cult Followings: What Draws People to the Buffyverse?
I'm writing this paper for my English class, and not really sure if I like how it's turning out so far...opinions and suggestions please :) Cult Followings: What Draws People to the Buffyverse? In 1992 a movie was made which focused on a young cheerleader chosen to fight vampires, but the movie didn't do well in the box office. The movie was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Five years later the same writer of the movie attempted to bring Buffy back, but this time in the form of a television show, and it was a hit. In every generation a slayer is born to fight vampires and demons, and that was obviously Buffy Summers. Buffy moved to Sunnydale, California from Los Angeles hoping to escape her destiny as the slayer, but with no luck. As soon as she got there she already began noticing weird things happening, and things continued happening until 2003 when the show ended. The show continued to gain more and more fans as the show went on. "By the third season, it's season long audience had settled at around 4.5 million viewers nationwide, though it's draw in urban centers for particular episodes was considerably greater" (Adams p.4). Buffy the Vampire Slayer was one of the first shows to get a large Internet presence, with fansites (unofficial websites dedicated to the show, and created by fans) popping up constantly (and still new ones are created everyday). The amount of merchandise continues to grow from soundtracks, to trading cards, an official magazine, shirts, novels, comics, and more. Buffy's fanbase is so strong that when The WB canceled after it's fifth season, UPN picked it up because of the amount of work fans put in to get it noticed and picked up again. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and it's spin-off Angel has drawn some of the most dedicated cult followings in the history of television, even though many don't seem to understand what draws people to it. One of the things that draws fans to the shows is the unique language of them. "Those within the Buffyverse, are enthusiastic users of slayer slang. And although slayer slang isn't the legal tender of standard American English, it is cultural currency: some who hear it wrinkle their brows, -*test*-('") the paper, and hold the watermarks up to the light; in the end, they are forced to accept it as the way at least some of us talk now" (Adam p. 11). Buffy has been recognized in many places for this unique language. Words or phrases like five-by-five, dump-o-gram, beefstick, sparkage, and single-white-femaled are only a few of the many Buffyverse words. The "slayer slang" did not stay limited to the show though. Right away it was being used by authors writing official Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel novels and fans writing fanfic (stories written using characters, settings, mythology or all of the above usually from a TV show but also can be from movies). This still wasn't the limit of the spread of slayer slang though, fans began using it in everyday conversations and in online forums, and journalists were using it in their articles on the shows. "Whether your culture is popular or elite, Buffy has influenced it, and because Buffy is so linguistically potent, its cultural influence amounts, in part, to influence on American speech" (Adams p.11). Jane Espenson a co-executive producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer wrote in Slayer Slang that "Buffy gets its humor out of juxtaposing casual language with dramatic import (Adams, p. viii). An example of this comes from the episode Doublemeat Palace in season 6, when Buffy is telling her friends that the Doublemeat Medley (a sandwich served with a beef patty on top, and a chicken patty on the bottom, at the Doublemeat Palace, a fast food restaurant where she works) is made with human meat. BUFFY: The beefy layer is definitely people! Probably not the chickeney part! But who knows? Who Knows?! The language appeals not only to the young, but the older audiences as well. Buffy brought back old slang terms like, sitch, wigged out, and freaked out, but the writer's changed them to wig and freak to make it part of the Buffy language. All these factors in the writing and developing of language on the show helped to draw not only fans, but TV critics too. " immediately became a huge craze among preteen and teenage girls with enough boys joining them to make it a ratings hit" (Jones, p.151). With Sarah Michelle Gellar, an Emmy award winner for her role on the soap opera All My Children and a spokesperson for Maybelline, the concept of "girl power" had been introduced to television. Buffy was able to stop the ultimate evil and then worry about going to the mall. In the final episode of the series, Chosen (7:22), Buffy is about to go up against the source of all evil.
GILES: We're saving the world to go to the mall?
BUFFY: I'm having a wicked shoe craving.
Buffy paved the way for many "girl power" shows like Charmed, Alias, Tru Calling, and the newest cult favorite, Veronica Mars. "Adult reactions to the new female action heroes have been mixed. Educators and cultural commentators have been saying for decades that girls need more media role models of power and heroism, and those models have finally arrived… it is reinforcing the idea that girls can't be powerful, cool, admirable, unless they look and dress like cover girls" (Jones, p.151-152). One of the last points Buffy made in Chosen though was that this wasn't true.
BUFFY: From now on every girl in the world, who might be a
slayer will be a slayer. Every girl who could have the
power, will have the power. Can stand up, will stand
up. Slayer everyone of us.
Being a slayer was a metaphor for girl power. While Buffy is saying this, the scene cuts to a young girl playing baseball, with a boost of confidence, a girl eating with her family stands up feeling new sense of power, and the same with a girl leaning against the lockers at her school, and a girl stands up to her abusive father. All this happens, because they have become slayers, powerful women. This scene demonstrates that all girls can be strong no matter who they are, or their situation. This message is another key factor that attracts people to the show.
I'm writing this paper for my English class, and not really sure if I like how it's turning out so far...opinions and suggestions please :) Cult Followings: What Draws People to the Buffyverse? In 1992 a movie was made which focused on a young cheerleader chosen to fight vampires, but the movie didn't do well in the box office. The movie was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Five years later the same writer of the movie attempted to bring Buffy back, but this time in the form of a television show, and it was a hit. In every generation a slayer is born to fight vampires and demons, and that was obviously Buffy Summers. Buffy moved to Sunnydale, California from Los Angeles hoping to escape her destiny as the slayer, but with no luck. As soon as she got there she already began noticing weird things happening, and things continued happening until 2003 when the show ended. The show continued to gain more and more fans as the show went on. "By the third season, it's season long audience had settled at around 4.5 million viewers nationwide, though it's draw in urban centers for particular episodes was considerably greater" (Adams p.4). Buffy the Vampire Slayer was one of the first shows to get a large Internet presence, with fansites (unofficial websites dedicated to the show, and created by fans) popping up constantly (and still new ones are created everyday). The amount of merchandise continues to grow from soundtracks, to trading cards, an official magazine, shirts, novels, comics, and more. Buffy's fanbase is so strong that when The WB canceled after it's fifth season, UPN picked it up because of the amount of work fans put in to get it noticed and picked up again. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and it's spin-off Angel has drawn some of the most dedicated cult followings in the history of television, even though many don't seem to understand what draws people to it. One of the things that draws fans to the shows is the unique language of them. "Those within the Buffyverse, are enthusiastic users of slayer slang. And although slayer slang isn't the legal tender of standard American English, it is cultural currency: some who hear it wrinkle their brows, -*test*-('") the paper, and hold the watermarks up to the light; in the end, they are forced to accept it as the way at least some of us talk now" (Adam p. 11). Buffy has been recognized in many places for this unique language. Words or phrases like five-by-five, dump-o-gram, beefstick, sparkage, and single-white-femaled are only a few of the many Buffyverse words. The "slayer slang" did not stay limited to the show though. Right away it was being used by authors writing official Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel novels and fans writing fanfic (stories written using characters, settings, mythology or all of the above usually from a TV show but also can be from movies). This still wasn't the limit of the spread of slayer slang though, fans began using it in everyday conversations and in online forums, and journalists were using it in their articles on the shows. "Whether your culture is popular or elite, Buffy has influenced it, and because Buffy is so linguistically potent, its cultural influence amounts, in part, to influence on American speech" (Adams p.11). Jane Espenson a co-executive producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer wrote in Slayer Slang that "Buffy gets its humor out of juxtaposing casual language with dramatic import (Adams, p. viii). An example of this comes from the episode Doublemeat Palace in season 6, when Buffy is telling her friends that the Doublemeat Medley (a sandwich served with a beef patty on top, and a chicken patty on the bottom, at the Doublemeat Palace, a fast food restaurant where she works) is made with human meat. BUFFY: The beefy layer is definitely people! Probably not the chickeney part! But who knows? Who Knows?! The language appeals not only to the young, but the older audiences as well. Buffy brought back old slang terms like, sitch, wigged out, and freaked out, but the writer's changed them to wig and freak to make it part of the Buffy language. All these factors in the writing and developing of language on the show helped to draw not only fans, but TV critics too. "