Lorna Jowett

“Transgressions is the attraction of any dead boy, but as with openness of other more minor characters, this functions both to enlarge and restrict their potential as alternative gender representations. Dead boys exist through binary opposition; they are always already Other”

“...Spike may be the most "hybridized" character in terms of gender, within the show he is presented until the last moment as a failure.”

“The beatings are further proof that Spike's "humiliation," the level to which he has sunk, and a physical sign of vulnerability. But they are also "sexy wounds" (as Buffy playing Robot-Buffy says in "Intervention"), since Spike's body is displayed to be looked at. Further, as with Angel and Dru, Spike and Buffy's relationship uses pain/violence as eroticism (when Spike tells Buddy "I love you," she responds "You're in love with pain" ["Smashed"]). Mulvey's association of voyeurism, sadism, and narrative is useful here.”

“Throughout the relationship Spike has ignored Buffy's denials, even though it was fairly clean that Buffy's "no" didn't mean no and ambivalent scenes such as this paved the way for the "real" violence of the attempted rape...there are strong links between love, sex, and violence, and Spike uses romantic heterosexual love as a "defense" of sexualized violence.”

“Spike is sensitive not only in that he is easily hurt but also in the "feminine" way of being attuned to situations, relationships, and underlying emotions, as his frequently perceptive comments demonstrate. this ability to articulate his emotions also explains why his character fits so well into "Buffy", a show that consistently values this trait...”

“Thus angel embodies neatly the idea that "the muscular body functions as a powerful symbol of desire and lack." Angel is manly but not a man, and his display of masculinity points to the ambivalences that surround gender.”

“...his [Angel's] body is displayed semi-naked at least as often in scenes of woundign or torture as in "bedroom" scenes (season 2 scenes with Drusilla conflate the two throuhg S/M)..."Angel spends a ludicrous amount of time in chains, shirtless.”

“The display of Angel's body and the sexual reaction it provokes lead to the revelation of his vampire nature: as he kisses Buffy, he shows his vamp face (a displaced manifestation of male desire?). The tension inherent in this display of the masculine body is that it actually has the effect of feminizing the character by positioning the male as sexual object to be looked at.”

“...the character's failure to move with the times leads to death, suggesting the anachronistic nature of this [hyper/stereotypical] type of masculinity.”

“...the new man cannot exist without the old monster masculinity. All the new men are aware of how masculinity is constructed and therefore how they differ from its traditional form...new men do not have to "lack" the attributes of real men, and therefore make them more appealing to viewers, but it also closes down some of their potential for a revisioning of masculinity.”

“That both Riley and Warren are attracted to independent young women is an interesting contradiction that serves to valorize the agency of the "girls" and to underline the static macho masculinity of those guys- they cannot or will not change, therefore they cannot keep the girl.”

“I suggest that across the seasons of Buffy there has been an increasing exaggeration of bad girls...In some ways, instead of challenging these stereotypes of bad girls, the show has emphasized them. This matches the development of the show's good girls.”

“Good partners offer the "reward" of romance, but these girls cannot have power and a successful relationship, partly because of the demands of serial narrative, but partly because they seek agency in their romance relationships”

“The show tries to offer its young female characters postfeminist identities that break down gender boundaries and hybridize gendered characteristics to produce new versions of power and heroism...being a woman involves work, work of constant self-(re)construction. Buffy's female characters are represented as always working in this way, whether to come to terms with power, or to maintain a "successful "good-girl" identity...”