Article analysis for group discussion

The following is an analyzation of the article: Frustrating Female Heroism: Mixed Messages in Xena, Nikita, and Buffy, by Mary Magoulick, 2006.

While critics are happy with the strong female characters in Xena, Buffy and Nikita, the author believes these shows are more likely portraying the male fantasy stereotype of women characters.  Alienating feminists.

Xena is an evil warrior turned good by the help of Hercules.

Buffy is about a warrior who protects a small town from the forces of evil.

Nikita is about a woman framed for murder who is given the choice of jail or becoming a government spy.

Networks hope to lure women viewers with strong female characters.  But the writers catered to male audiences by making the sexualized women in male adventure roles.

Many viewers saw these characters as a good start in the right direction of female heroes.

The press of The Christian Science monitor and Good Housekeeping applauded these shows for their female heroes.  Websites devoted to the shows are popular with fans and critics wanting female heroes.

In the book, Fighting the Forces: What’s at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, scholars debate feminist messages in the show.

Critic Susan Owens likes Buffy for its use of feminism, but questions its institutional relations of power.  The show allows American capital culture to influence the social relationships.

Joanne Morreale hails Buffy as a complex character.  She thinks Xena is trying to avoid gender stereotypes in its show.

Sherrie Inness, in her book Tough Girls, believes people are mistaken in their views of Xena and that Xena is a more complicated character.

Critic Frances H. finds Buffy a positive, feminist character.

These critics views, mostly positive, show that viewers want strong female roles.  Everyone seems to ignore that all the characters are controlled by men.

In all 3 shows, the women heroes, are usually controlled by a male romantic partner.  The only man who can beat her in a fight.  The female hero usually has to end up fighting against her man.

The character Xena is formed by each relationship she has with both friend and enemy.

Xena and Gabriele have a complicated love relationship.  Critics see a disturbing trend toward violence between love interests, including Xena and Gabriele.

Buffy experiences a vision of the source of her power being created by 3 ancient men.  They use a demon to create the Slayer because they were afraid to face the evil themselves.  From creation Buffy remains controlled by men.

Buffy has a male enemy who becomes her lover.  The lover later becomes her enemy.

Men in all 3 shows must be fought by the female heroes.  Buffy inadvertently creates her own enemy of Angel, by breaking his curse, when she sleeps with him.

The author summarizes Angelus and Buffy’s relationship and ending.  All of Buffy’s relationships are twisted negatively.

The character Spike is introduced as an evil character in early seasons.  After receiving a soul in season 7 their relationship is troubled.  As Buffy’s friends become disloyal, Spike becomes her only friend.  Buffy’s character has an unrealistic amount of stress put on the character, even according to the show’s star, Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Nikita is formed by a man and controlled by a whole group of men.  Michael becomes her lover and fighter.

The writers have Michael beat Nikita so she can rejoin the spy group after an absence.  The show finds a way to add acceptable violence to her love relationship.

The author summarizes that all 3 shows have female heroes repeatedly abused by men.  Secondary female characters in the show even have parallel abusive relationships with men.

All the women are treated badly by men and others they love.  Humiliation is a recurring theme.  Xena needs humiliation from Hercules to become a good person.  Nikita is humiliated by Michael’s other family.  Buffy’s humiliation is when she is forced out of the group of slayers.

Each female’s success is controlled by men.  While each show gives feminists hope for male independence; each woman latches onto male leaders.  This sends mixed messages and images to the viewers.

Male heroes are not traditionally happy in shows, unless they have a female relationship.

The shared plots of the 3 shows have dominated females, in relationships, to broken men.  Sexy actresses are the heroes.  Similarly, traditional male heroes share sex appeal with these females.

All 3 women are dressed impractically for warriors.  Sexy outfits that are more for decoration then practical use.  The characters’ sexuality is flaunted and used to appeal to the male viewer.

Promotional materials for Xena and Nikita portray the characters as sex symbols.

The female heroes are focused on surviving in the world, instead of building relationships and futures.  The females’ worlds are violent and filled with modern symbolism.

Buffy compares the evil creatures to gangs and drugs in high school life.  Buffy is a constantly tortured character who lives with being threatened with death.

Nikita’s world is symbolic to the levels of Hell.

These women heroes are all raised from the dead, either symbolically or literally.  The Western roles of women living in a depressed, survival world is standard.

Critics often praise these female heroes for analyzing their own roles.  Other critics believe there are mixed messages for feminism and LGBTQ studies.

There is a deeper message of:  don’t be independent or you will suffer violence and torture, especially, from trusted relationships.  Strong women are only physically strong not mentally.

The author sums up the article with the idea that the female heroes of these 3 shows are actually, the fantasy of male writers.  The writers try to justify their dominance of the female characters by basing their views on their personal culture.  The women are sexualized and punished for their strength and independence, in the author’s opinion.

Many women remain hopeful waiting for believable female heroes on television shows.  The current shows only offer stereotypes of women with negative subtexts.  Feminists need to recognize the absence of appropriate female characters.  Feminists need to push for what they want to see.  Otherwise we will just have more of the same character types.

Do you agree with the author’s main points?

Yes.  I have watched all 3 of the shows discussed.  The characters are often portrayed as wonderful role models for girls.  I believe each show does have sadly repetitive negative subtexts of violence and co-dependence. 

Is this article important?

I believe this article helps viewers recognize all 3 shows as lacking good female role models.  Viewers need to push for better female heroes.  Women heroes need to be independent and strong women without the aid of male guidance.  A good example of this is Wonder Woman the movie 2017.  The writers did not have to anchor Wonder Woman with a male relationship throughout the movie, as the series did.  The writers kill off the male lead of Steve Trever and Diana still saves the day on her own merit.  We need more of that kind of character hero in movies and television.

Works Cited

Magoulick, M. (2006). Frustrating Female Heroism: Mixed Messages in Xena, Nikita, and Buffy. Popular Culture, 729.