Anya & Feminism: Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Selfless (2002)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Selfless: The WB's fictional episode, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Selfless, focuses on Anya as a powerful woman or a "vengeance demon" who allows herself to be a judge of "the other" in revenge for women unfaithful men have hurt. The episode alludes to 1970s New Woman and third-wave feminism, thus emphasizing the "girl power" or "pro-female" by showing the women community's obsession against patriarchal oppression. The episode is related to a dynamic and controversial debate about "feminism" and "femininity" definition by judging a woman's clothing, living style, behavior, etc. The main character, Anya, is portrayed as a powerful woman but problematic. Her failure to define herself after being cheated by Olaf as a traditional house-wife strengthens her instinct to be "equivalent to a man," hence finding her self-identity as "others" through her relationship with men. In the screening, Anya's behavior and clothing in the "human version" imply the social equivalence between males. Specifically, she openly talks about her romantic sexual relationship with Willow at college and wearing a top that exposed bra straps (can sometimes see her "nipples") to show her "girliness" and freedom in identity-expression.

Anya as an independent and powerful woman

However, when turning into "Anyaka" or "vengeance demon", Anya represents a woman scorned due to her monstrous appearance, thus creating an independent, horrific tone and deviating male patriarchy. Since the episode accentuates "feminism", it also implies to the Post-feminism period that they believe the third- wave feminism movement is "unnecessary." The postfeminist belief is supported by the scene of Anya in Sunnydale (2001), where Anya's appearance is similar to a Barbie doll by being a "blonde girl" wearing a pink dress and singing. Hence, this scene partially rejected the 1970s New Woman and third-wave feminism by functioning as a media-ties for the Barbie doll (a traditional women norm) as merchandise, which grabbed the young girls as a primary audience to this episode. Moreover, this scene also lessens the horror and heroic tone by inferring the French 1960s recitative dialogue musical, romantic film, emphasizing that France has a historical influence on spreading the traditional male patriarchy.

Anya's Unexpected Shift to a Barbie Look