Buffy The Disciplinarian
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a system that efficiently employs surveillance and discipline in a new economy of
power. Although on the surface Buffy might appear to be a figure of feminist
resistance, and BtVS might be interpreted as politically progressive, a closer look
at the show’s representation of power relations reveals that the figure of the young
woman is merely being employed to signal the fact that modem stmctures of
discipline and punishment are so thorough and diffuse that they can be embodied
in even the most unlikely agents. Rather than simply relying on formal analysis,
then, an argument for the show’s potential for effecting positive political change
would be better served by examining its reception among fans and audiences.
University of Iowa
Martin Buinicki and Anthony Enns
Works Cited
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McMillan, Trade, and Oscar Owen. “The Buffy Files.” The Activist Winter/Spring 1999. Rpt. in “Teen
Socialist Idols.” Harper’s July 1999: 35-6.
Ono, Kent A. ‘T o Be a Vampire on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Race and ( ‘Other’) Socially Marginalized
Positions on Horror TV.” Fantasy Girls: Gender in the New Universe o f Science Fiction and
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Owen, A. Susan. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Vampires, Postmodemity, and Postfeminism.” Journal of
Popular Film and Television 27.2 (Summer 1999): 24-31.
W ilcox, Rhonda V. “There Will Never Be a ‘Very Special’ Buffy: Buffy and the Monsters of Teen Life.”
Journal of Popular Film and Television 27.2 (Summer 1999): 16-23.