Dan DeLuca has a great article in the Philadephia Inquirer, on the dominance of the revenge narrative in pop music by women.

The cultural predominance of the female revenge narrative came up continually in my class on women and pop last semester, and it seems to be a trend that emerges every few years or so– enough that it might be time to think about when the theme makes it big comebacks, over and beyond its status as a trend.

Also, I can’t help but wonder if this fits as a different take on “x like a girl“? And if it relates to the question of feral women, particularly à la girls gone wilding and the men without hair.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

In s7, an evil being called The First is killing all of the girls in the world who are potential slayers. For protection, girls from around the world come to live with Buffy, who must train them in the fight against the First.

In the following scene, Buffy has been cast out as leader, because the other girls think she is too hard on them (there are also tinges of jealousy; after all, she has the power they all ultimately want). Also, she has led them into a disastrous battle against Caleb, the emissary of the First who repeatedly defeats Buffy. Floundering in her role as leader, which is quite different from her role as warrior, Buffy is ready to give up.

Spike, who is a vampire who used to be evil but who is now on the path to redemption, tries to revive Buffy’s lowered morale:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NiIYZz3Z5c]

Buffy’s “always alone” speech has roots in the show’s history of her power, which has always required her to feel like/worry she must stand alone. This is first consolidated at the end of season two, in an episode titled (appropriately) “Becoming, Pt. 2” In the scene below, Buffy battles Angel, a vampire who is her first-love-turned-evil, having lost his soul as penalty for finding true happiness, i.e. having sex with, Buffy. Now he is trying to end the world, by opening hell with the stone demon thing in the background (properly known as the acathla). As they battle, Willow (the red head in the bed), is trying to restore Angel’s soul, which Buffy does not know:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H2gZFf0JyE]

Being “chosen” is always synonymous in BtVS with being alone and making sacrifices in relationships–a theme you are also familiar with from the Alias pilot. At the end of season 7, however, she begins to develop new strategies against the First and Caleb.

Continued here…