[Editorial] Exploring Sexuality in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I have written previously about how vampires are the embodiment of sexuality, and it seems to be a sentiment that the majority of people very much agree with. Their power and influence over humans relies solely on the ability to seduce us into a false sense of security, or should we call it a false sense of lust, and therefore succumb to their blood-sucking nature. Sometimes the end result is death whilst other times the end result is joining their league and becoming an immortal soul hungry for the blood of humans, roaming the lands forever. Therefore talking about a TV show that promotes the death of these creatures seems opposing when it comes to our exploration of sexuality within the vampire, but if you’re a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan you will understand exactly why this pairing goes so deliciously. 

Buffy Summers is your typical 15 year old high school girl, who has just moved from another town for what we later learn was destruction of said high school, and she is looking to start fresh. Her mother Joyce is adamant that this will be their forever town, the place that they finally settle and Buffy’s destructive rebellious behaviour won’t be the downfall of. In some regards this seems like the perfect opportunity for Buffy to finally also settle in and find a place that accepts her for the outcast that she is, but unfortunately for the teen she is destined for another fate. She is the chosen one. She is the Slayer. And with that comes huge responsibility as she needs to protect not only the town of Sunnydale, but by protecting the small US town she is protecting humankind from the horrors that are trying to escape from Hellmouth. 

The poor girl doesn’t really stand a chance of living a normal life with such an immense responsibility lying on her shoulders, so even though she does accept her fate and battle the demons and monsters that come her way - she tries to lead a somewhat normal teenage life on the side. All of which of course includes falling in love… But if you’re wrapped up in the world of horror creatures, who are you going to fall for - a stable and normal high school peer or a mysterious vampire lurking in the depths of the alleyway shadows? The vampire is always going to succeed here. 

Throughout the 7 years in which we see Buffy serve as the protector, we are essentially watching some of the character's most formative years as a young woman. Buffy was a character that influenced me very heavily when I was younger; I first started watching the show a couple of years after it first aired in the UK in 2000. For me, I was about 9 years old when my parents allowed me to watch the show that had been the only thing in the world I was interested in. If my memory serves me right, a friend of my Dad’s said that he thought it would be more than suitable for me, and that it wouldn’t particularly scare me as I already had a keen interest in everything supernatural and spooky, and therefore he passed on a few pirated copies. Just an FYI: I don’t condone piracy but back in the early 00s the world was quite different to how it was and piracy was very big - not so much on the Internet because you still had to dial in using the landline, but more so in being able to copy DVDs and put digital shows onto DVD. 

So, a highly influential young girl finally had these copies of Buffy and quickly became completely obsessed with what was held there - I remember feeling like some form of God at the fact that I finally could watch the show I had been so desperate for. Buffy was everything and more that I had hoped her to be, she unlocked my visions of what it would be like to be a teenager that age, just with the added aspect that she also had to fight the forces of darkness on the side. Watching a young girl at the age of 15 years old does seem a little odd in a  few ways now that I am older, however, the show feels honest in its approach to the relationships and attractions that a girl of this age has. You could argue that her relations with the men in her life could be seen as a little ‘creepy’ due to age differences, however, the show is fantasy and it never felt like it revelled or was gratuitous in the way it portrayed her intimate relations with these other characters. 

But regardless of some of the problems, Buffy was a young female that I could resonate with and one that first taught me about falling in love and what it means to discover your sexuality. And to bring it back to my first point about vampires, of course the girl that was destined to hunt them and kill them would find herself falling not for one vampire, but eventually for two vampires. Her first encounter was with Angel, who would have been approximately 270 years old and was considered as one of the most brutal and violent vampires to have ever graced the Earth. However, when Buffy first sets eyes on the devilishly handsome and enigmatic Angel, she’s greeted by someone that comes across as soft, sensitive and with a desire to only protect Buffy from the evil that lives around her. We discover in the show that the reason behind his change in demeanor is because his soul has been returned and his remorse for slaughtering hundreds of people means he lives in a state of shame. Immediately Buffy falls for Angel, and as a young teen myself, this was one of the first encounters of love and intimacy that definitely set my expectations of men far too high. 

The sexual chemistry between Angel and Buffy could have permeated through the screen back in the 90s - watching them both wrestle with feelings that innate felt wrong and against character, but came so naturally to them. The sense of forbidden love as a teenage girl discovering her sexuality felt like a fantastical fairytale only to be dreamt of, but for Buffy it was the reality of her first true love - sneaking amongst the shadows late at night, having to invite him into her home through her windows to sneak a tender moment together, hiding their unrequited love from the world because of external judgment. And with forbidden love comes heartbreak, which is exactly what happens between Buffy and Angel, they can never truly be together which Angel recognises as something that will always destroy their relationship and so he leaves. This for me was absolutely devastating to see on screen - the fact that even the strongest love could be broken just didn’t seem to make sense. 

Then there was another vampire that came into Buffy’s life and once again she was thrown into a dangerous and complicated situation of sleeping with the enemy. One of Buffy’s biggest enemies throughout the series is bad guy, Spike, known for his notorious torture methods and having killed two previous slayers. At first, their relationship is nothing more than fighting against one another, but this changes and we see as Spike falls in love with Buffy after he has a chip implanted into his brain without consent, one that renders him unable to attack humans. But interestingly here, we see Spike fall in love with Buffy, and although reciprocated in some aspects, Buffy seems to use this vampire to fill her sexual needs and fantasies whilst never fully giving him back the love he longs for. When they begin to tumble into bed together, Buffy is older and has gone through heartbreak and numerous men that have been unsuccessful, so to some extent her pain feels relevant and it was easy to understand why she decided to take a more selfish relationship route when it came to this vampire. But what’s sexier than fucking the hot vampire who you know only can’t kill you because of a chip in his brain? Nothing really. When it comes to sexuality, risk and danger have always been something that excites the human condition - the thrill of doing something you shouldn’t be doing is a sure way to fire any person up, and that is exactly why Buffy finds sleeping with Spike in secret so exhilarating. At first these scenes are steamy and raunchy, watching the two bring pure primal passion to their on-screen relationship by flinging each other around with such ferocity that the carnal sexuality just oozed from our televisions. 

However, the relationship becomes something else for Spike when he falls further and further in love with Buffy. It becomes quite upsetting to see a man rendered useless, stripped of his legacy, and completely beholden to a woman that doesn’t see him. Although we know of his horrific background, it was hard not to fall in love with Spike. However, we saw in the show that even love could not banish the beast that resided within him, and during one episode we are witness to a particular uncomfortable and traumatising scene in which Buffy turns down his advances and in response he grows frustrated and angry, trying to rape Buffy. I remember this scene really affecting me for so many reasons - it was the first time I had realised that even someone you loved or trusted could be the perpetrator of such a crime, which felt like a revelation that was hard to swallow during my young teenage years. Spike does feel remorse for his actions and go on to hide in shame and search for his soul to become a better vampire, but there is no changing what happened between the two of them. 

Yet it wasn’t just vampires that Buffy fell in love with, and there was one particular man that felt more stable and secure as a romantic interest for our protagonist and that was Riley. Throughout the early seasons of Buffy, all she was really interested in was dating what she constituted as a normal boy so that she could try and live her life as a regular teenage girl. The problem with dating a normal boy and doing normal things was that everytime she tried to do so, she was pulled back into the darkness and found herself having to make excuses and sneak away to fight demons, a theme explored time and time again over the course of the show - often making the young girl seem unreliable. Riley and Buffy became entwined with each other quite quickly, but soon enough Buffy discovered that he himself was living a double life; part of the Initiative, a military organisation designed to also fight against demons. This commonality grew the strength in their relationship, and with so much in common and Buffy finally being able to be her true self, she fell for Riley. 

One of the most standout sex scenes within the show was when Riley and Buffy first sleep together. After fighting a demon together, there is an electric chemistry running between the pair - a sense of power, hunger and connection between the two that allows them to embrace their sexual desire for one another. This was a scene that for me was potentially one of the hottest throughout the entire series; although perhaps not as raw as those between Spike and Buffy, nor as intimate as those between Angel and Buffy, there was something deeper in what they shared and was bound by a connection that could only be dreamed of. Sharing your inner most secrets with another person and them not judging you is a huge attraction and one that strips back any fears, causing a vulnerability that is sexually charged. It was this aspect between the two that really stood out to me. Sadly though, that same connection and power became the downfall of the pair as we watched Riley struggle with his own strength and masculinity - dating the most powerful woman in the world isn’t as easy as it seems. 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a show that resonated strongly with me as a young teenager, and really made me think about the different types of relationships and sexual encounters that can occur. It was fascinating to see how so many factors play a part when it comes to sexuality - it is never quite as straightforward as it seems. Although these relationships were bathed in fantasy in so many ways, they had a realness to them, something that showed how sexual attraction is complicated and is not always the right decision to make. We might be sexually attracted to someone, but just because of that connection and our emotions for them, it doesn’t mean that it’s always going to be a happy ending. Buffy Summers’ encounters taught me so much about how complex relationships are, and also opened my eyes to the ongoing knowledge that vampires are still definitely the sexiest creatures alive (or dead).

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