Queer Identity In Buffy The Vampire Slayer

In the late 1990s Buffy The Vampire Slayer entered popular culture and over twenty years later, it still has not left. Following main character and vampire slayer Buffy Summers and her two best friends, Willow and Xander, the television series managed to present stories of vampires and mythos in relatable ways for teenagers to consume. After many seasons, Buffy The Vampire Slayer gained a cult following of LGBTQ+ people due to its Queer romance between Buffy’s best friend Willow, and her future girlfriend Tara. Although Buffy The Vampire Slayer has a cult following and some beautiful messaging about Queer love, the series lacks an intersectional analysis of power systems, institutions, and hierarchies. The show privileges white bodies and

While some believe she is a lesbian who just did not realize it until her young adulthood, others believe that bisexuality better applies to the character due to her well-developed heterosexual relationship with Oz in the early seasons. While fixed identity is important to many people, I argue that Willow’s fluidity in her sexuality adds depth to her character and makes her relatable to a wide variety of Queer, woman, lesbian, and bisexual audiences. Willow’s Queer identity is vital to her character, just as her magic practice is, and the both of them together create the perfect recipe for society to ostracize her. Since the beginning of the show, Willow has feared being an outcast, and even when she is a fully realized gay person and witch, her biggest fears still surround being rejected by her friends, family, and the greater society. Despite being in a committed Queer relationship and the acceptance and love that the “Scoobies”– her found family– provide for her, she still worries about being different from everyone else (Cite: Dream Fears Episode). As a homosexual woman, and simultaneously as a witch, Willow’s understanding of her community and identity are highly informed by the fears she developed from being different, a nerdy outcast, in high school. However, now that her coming-of-age arc is

Tara and Willow meet at their university “Wicca Group” and have a slow burn friends-to-lovers romance that lasts many seasons, ending with the death of Tara in the sixth season of the show, “Seeing Red”. Tara is a timid young woman, but a powerful witch, who claims to have learned about magic through her mother (Cite episode). As Willow and Tara’s love for one another grows, their individual power as witches does as well. It is evident throughout the show that their relationship makes them both stronger, but most importantly they are most powerful when working together (Cite episode). Tara and Willow learn together, teach each other, and grow together, illustrating a beautifully fleshed-out Queer relationship, which is hard to find on television. However, Tara’s experiences as a witch and as a Queer woman are very different from Willows'. Growing up in different environments, each young woman has individual coming-to stories, while still having many shared circumstances. Their different experiences speak to the truth that each LGBTQ-identifying person lives a unique life with unique relationships to their identity and