“Unreal” Gender Messages in Late 90s Women-Centered Action Dramas

Abstract

The rise of women-centered action drama series such as Buffy, The Vampire Slayer (1995-2002), Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001), and Charmed (1998-2002), in the late 90s was seen as feminist progress by some thanks to the shows’ powerful lead female hero characters, yet the issue of women’s emerging power is still at play in contemporary fiction series such as these. A critique can be made of these programs that the heroines are not “real” because the shows often contain some fantastical or science-fiction elements, which potentially limits the power of their “real” feminist messages.The lead female characters of Buffy and Charmed women have supernatural powers; Xena takes place in an ancient Greece where the heroine has regular contact with Gods, monsters and other mythical creatures. Furthermore, beyond this unreal “reality”, some of the strongest messages about femininity and masculinity come from episodes in which there is a second degree of fantasy. These are episodes in which the characters are not living their real, everyday lives, but when the characters literally, through various plot devices, are someone else or live a different reality, such as when they are shown in a parallel universes, in a dream state, in an alternative future or past reality, in a fairytale, or when they are under a spell.While alternate realities and identities of Buffy, XWP and Charmed involve change of appearance, there is often also an element of fantasy or magic involved that transforms more than the characters’ outfit. Some of the strongest messages about femininity and masculinity are produced through the character’s “other” identities as well. This paper will thus explore some of devices used to create these identities, and some of the messages contained within the episodes in which this other reality/identity of the characters is found. What “real” messages are proposed in this alternate version of “reality,” which is twice distanced from actual reality — first by the fantasy premise of the series, and second by a fantasy version of that “reality”? Do they fulfill a role of liberation or of containment?