Post by Emmie on Apr 11, 2008 0:25:18 GMT -5
Found this on whedon.info:
Torture in the Whedonverse
Joss Whedon as writer, producer, director & composer on Buffy, Angel & Firefly
First, a trigger warning : I am not going to get unnecessarily graphic here, but this post is about erotic torture in Joss Whedon’s work, so the subject matter itself may be triggery. Proceed knowing that.
OK, now then. I was just reading the Undead TV essay "At Stake : Angel’s Body, Fantasy Masculinity, and Queer Desire in Teen Television" by Allison McCracken (who I think is an American Studies professor at DePaul). I didn’t finish it (ran out of time), but the beginning was about Angel’s body as a site on which erotic and violent fantasy is played out by female and queer viewers of Buffy and Angel. Which got me to thinking, it’s not just Angel.
There are several instances of eroticized male torture in Joss’ work. Off the top of my head, I can think of two Buffy scenes in which Angel is tortured (by Drusilla in What’s My Line Part II and by Vamp Willow in The Wish) ; one Angel scene in which Angel is tortured (by Spike in In the Dark) ; four Buffy scenes in which Spike is tortured (by Glory in Intervention and by The First in various—usually female—guises in Never Leave Me, Bring on the Night, and Showtime) ; one Angel scene in which Spike is tortured (by Dana in Damage) ; one Buffy scene in which Giles is tortured (by Angelus in Becoming Part II) ; one Angel scene in which Wesley is tortured (by Faith in Five by Five) ; and one Firefly scene in which Wash and Mal are tortured (by Niska in War Stories). Women, on the other hand, are never or nearly never tortured. Buffy is captured and chained or tied up a handful of times (by the frat boys in Reptile Boy, by the mob in Gingerbread, and by Spike in Crush), but the only time torture is really even mentioned is when Faith and Angel-pretending-to-be-Angelus shackle Buffy up in Enemies, and no harm actually comes to her. The closest approximation to torture of a woman I can come up with is what the Gnarl does to Willow in Same Time, Same Place, and that is certainly not eroticized.
What does it mean, then, that men, both human and demon, are shown being tortured fairly regularly, often at the hands of women, and women are never shown in the same position ? Does this have more to do with what viewers find acceptable on television (or what a presumably largely female viewing audience wants to see), or more to do with an intentional message sent by Whedon and the writers of the shows ? How are male and female bodies considered differently ? It has been mentioned in several places that male bodies are more often shown naked and "on display" than female ones in Buffy, and I think the same is true to a lesser degree in Angel and Firefly as well. However, men are no more likely than women to suffer general violence in these shows—the women get beat up and killed just as often as the men do (in Angel, probably more often). Does this imply that these male-centric torture scenes are supposed to be read as more about sex than about violence ?
Another example of a man being "tortured," in an even more eroticized way, is Faith’s attempt at choking Xander (while straddling him, after kissing him and making pointed comments) in Consequences. After Angel rescues Xander, Faith tells him they were "just playing." Angel responds "And he forgot the safety word. Is that it ?" Though Xander’s body isn’t put on display in this scene (his clothes stay on), the connection being made between sex and torture by Faith, in her actions and in her response ("Safety words are for wusses") and by Angel, in his comment, is clear. The sex and violence connection is later even more clear with Buffy and Spike (he says she "makes it hurt in all the wrong places"), but that sex is consensual, and neither one of them is ever shown being tortured by the other. Though there are portrayals of rape and attempted rape on the show (most famously Spike’s attempted rape of Buffy in Seeing Red, but also The Trio’s attempted rape of Katrina in Dead Things and Xander’s advance on Buffy when he’s in his hyena form in The Pack), they are never linked to torture, nor is any man ever shown torturing a woman he has had a relationship with (though Spike mentions tying Dru up and torturing her until she loves him again in Lovers Walk, it isn’t shown and we have no reason to believe it ever actually happens). Even Angelus, who is repeatedly called the most vicious and sadistic vampire on record, inflicts his only actual torture on Giles, another man. When he kills women, including Jenny Calendar, there is no eroticized torture element to the crime. Women, on the other hand, are shown torturing both men they have had sexual relationships with (Dru’s torture of Angel, The First’s torture of Spike in the guise of both Buffy and Dru) and those they have not.
All of this lends credence to the idea that the shows intentionally carve out space for violent female sexual fantasy. I wonder, though, if there isn’t something more than that behind it. Is the important thing here that men are the ones being tortured, that women are the ones doing the torturing, or both ? I’m not as yet drawing any conclusions, but it’s definitely (slightly frightening) food for thought.
_______________________________________________
Any thoughts?
Torture in the Whedonverse
Joss Whedon as writer, producer, director & composer on Buffy, Angel & Firefly
First, a trigger warning : I am not going to get unnecessarily graphic here, but this post is about erotic torture in Joss Whedon’s work, so the subject matter itself may be triggery. Proceed knowing that.
OK, now then. I was just reading the Undead TV essay "At Stake : Angel’s Body, Fantasy Masculinity, and Queer Desire in Teen Television" by Allison McCracken (who I think is an American Studies professor at DePaul). I didn’t finish it (ran out of time), but the beginning was about Angel’s body as a site on which erotic and violent fantasy is played out by female and queer viewers of Buffy and Angel. Which got me to thinking, it’s not just Angel.
There are several instances of eroticized male torture in Joss’ work. Off the top of my head, I can think of two Buffy scenes in which Angel is tortured (by Drusilla in What’s My Line Part II and by Vamp Willow in The Wish) ; one Angel scene in which Angel is tortured (by Spike in In the Dark) ; four Buffy scenes in which Spike is tortured (by Glory in Intervention and by The First in various—usually female—guises in Never Leave Me, Bring on the Night, and Showtime) ; one Angel scene in which Spike is tortured (by Dana in Damage) ; one Buffy scene in which Giles is tortured (by Angelus in Becoming Part II) ; one Angel scene in which Wesley is tortured (by Faith in Five by Five) ; and one Firefly scene in which Wash and Mal are tortured (by Niska in War Stories). Women, on the other hand, are never or nearly never tortured. Buffy is captured and chained or tied up a handful of times (by the frat boys in Reptile Boy, by the mob in Gingerbread, and by Spike in Crush), but the only time torture is really even mentioned is when Faith and Angel-pretending-to-be-Angelus shackle Buffy up in Enemies, and no harm actually comes to her. The closest approximation to torture of a woman I can come up with is what the Gnarl does to Willow in Same Time, Same Place, and that is certainly not eroticized.
What does it mean, then, that men, both human and demon, are shown being tortured fairly regularly, often at the hands of women, and women are never shown in the same position ? Does this have more to do with what viewers find acceptable on television (or what a presumably largely female viewing audience wants to see), or more to do with an intentional message sent by Whedon and the writers of the shows ? How are male and female bodies considered differently ? It has been mentioned in several places that male bodies are more often shown naked and "on display" than female ones in Buffy, and I think the same is true to a lesser degree in Angel and Firefly as well. However, men are no more likely than women to suffer general violence in these shows—the women get beat up and killed just as often as the men do (in Angel, probably more often). Does this imply that these male-centric torture scenes are supposed to be read as more about sex than about violence ?
Another example of a man being "tortured," in an even more eroticized way, is Faith’s attempt at choking Xander (while straddling him, after kissing him and making pointed comments) in Consequences. After Angel rescues Xander, Faith tells him they were "just playing." Angel responds "And he forgot the safety word. Is that it ?" Though Xander’s body isn’t put on display in this scene (his clothes stay on), the connection being made between sex and torture by Faith, in her actions and in her response ("Safety words are for wusses") and by Angel, in his comment, is clear. The sex and violence connection is later even more clear with Buffy and Spike (he says she "makes it hurt in all the wrong places"), but that sex is consensual, and neither one of them is ever shown being tortured by the other. Though there are portrayals of rape and attempted rape on the show (most famously Spike’s attempted rape of Buffy in Seeing Red, but also The Trio’s attempted rape of Katrina in Dead Things and Xander’s advance on Buffy when he’s in his hyena form in The Pack), they are never linked to torture, nor is any man ever shown torturing a woman he has had a relationship with (though Spike mentions tying Dru up and torturing her until she loves him again in Lovers Walk, it isn’t shown and we have no reason to believe it ever actually happens). Even Angelus, who is repeatedly called the most vicious and sadistic vampire on record, inflicts his only actual torture on Giles, another man. When he kills women, including Jenny Calendar, there is no eroticized torture element to the crime. Women, on the other hand, are shown torturing both men they have had sexual relationships with (Dru’s torture of Angel, The First’s torture of Spike in the guise of both Buffy and Dru) and those they have not.
All of this lends credence to the idea that the shows intentionally carve out space for violent female sexual fantasy. I wonder, though, if there isn’t something more than that behind it. Is the important thing here that men are the ones being tortured, that women are the ones doing the torturing, or both ? I’m not as yet drawing any conclusions, but it’s definitely (slightly frightening) food for thought.
_______________________________________________
Any thoughts?
