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Buffy the Academic Over Achiever?

Nerds love “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

And it’s not just because of the way she looks in black.

The hot blond heroine of the now defunct TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," was the focus of a three-day academic conference that just wrapped up at Henderson State University in Arkansas.

The popular show starring Sarah Michelle Gellar aired on the WB and UPN networks for seven seasons and in that time attracted a cult-like following. Though what die-hard “Buffy” fans might not know is that the series also spawned enough academic books on the philosophy surrounding the roles of friendship and feminism to fill a 15-foot-wide bookshelf at Henderson State. 

According to professors at the Arkadelphia college, the show’s portrayal of a good-looking character who struggled with her identity and always left viewers with more questions than answers makes for outstanding conference material.  The leaders in academia say Buffy's constant quizzing is a trademark of a good philosopher—someone who is not so much about necessarily finding all the answers as wanting to ask better questions.

Buffy the philosopher—who knew? 

The three-day conference included discussions of more than 90 academic papers. Among them: "Buffy and Feminism,""Buffy and Identity,""Gender Stereotypes and the Image of Domesticity in ‘Buffy’,” and "Hero's Journey, Heroine's Return: Buffy, Eurydice and the Orpheus Myth."

Nearly 150 people turned out to discuss the vampire slayer and how power played into the series, which aired from 1997-2003. Philosophy professors also took part in workshops that debated whether Buffy’s strength came from her willingness to work with friends in her fight against creatures of the night or from an inner strength often associated with leading heroines. The conference also touched briefly on the 1992 film that introduced the character Buffy Summers. It was that film, which served as the inspiration for the series, which starred Gellar, Michelle Trachtenberg, James Marsters, Emma Caulfield, and Nicholas Brendon. 

Lucia Kim
Families Pop Culture Blog

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David Boreanaz: Man of the People

It would seem that serving the pubic is the name of the game for actor David Boreanaz who after a winning leading role in the hit TV, Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off show Angel, decided to take his curiosity into a deeper investigative role. As the character Special Agent Seeley Booth from crime scene investigation drama Bones, Boreanaz has greeted fans whilst shunning the media showing that the corruption that may have tempted his heart when he was fighting the evil Wolfram and heart as the Vampire-with-a-soul-gumshoe-hero-detective, has not infected the man behind the fangs either.

In interviews, Boreanaz has always seemed a little odd to me. His face gazing off into the distance as he discusses his love of ice-hockey or the activities he’ll be getting up to with his son. However his dedication to his fan-base cannot be questioned when he is full of vim and vigour and ready to deal with a barrage of questions from what I’m sure is a harem of screaming females aged 16-50. Sure he may be used to dealing with monster guts, demon blood, and an apocalypse or ten every now and again, but when you’re a multi-million Hollywood male star, and you’re being pushed down that runway with camera flashes blinding your eyes or media microphones trying to deepthroat you, then I wouldn’t find it unthinkable that stars like Boreanaz decide to revisit old roles as brooding loners and hit the underground where they can enjoy the peace of a good old wallow.

However, it is not just saviours that this man is know for playing but also destroyers, to be more specific, psychotic lady-killers; (SPOILER** for we mustn’t forget his not so heroic role as the twisted, high-school loser turned studly maniac in the slasher horror Valentine SPOILER END**); not to mention his twisted alter-ego Angelus in Angel.

So whether the thumping hearts of those millions of David’s adoring fans want to face it or not, there is the slight possibility that one day he may get a little confused about the kind of role he is playing as your interviewee and so decide to massacre the whole lot of you. So you’ve been warned, and you may want to give the man a break. In any case, respect to you David and your 3 parts motivation mixed with 4 parts dedication.

Nathan

Film Banana

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