Joss Whedon Reveals What He's Most Proud of About BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
“In every generation, there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer.”
March 10th marks the 20th anniversary of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I seriously can't believe that it's been 20 freakin' years since the incredible series premiered! It's easily one of my favorite series of all time, and we'll never really see anything like it again.
I'm currently rewatching the series with my girls, who have never seen it all the way through before. They love it because they see themselves in Buffy and they want to kick ass like her. Buffy is a strong female character that my girls can look up to.
Creator Joss Whedon recently did an interview with Yahoo to talk about the series and one of the things he’s most proud of is when women tell him:
"'That's the girl I think about when I think about strength.' Strength as in leadership and the ability to deal with a crisis and the decisions they make going forward. When I was still making the show, I had a woman come up to me in the commissary of Fox who was in her late 30s, and she was like, 'I was able to move cities and get this particular job that I was after because of her. Because I could use her power as mine.' I thought I was, at that time, still just talking to young people, and that was an amazing moment."
I really hope that inspiration and motivation rubs off on my girls as I watch the series with them. When asked what he was most invested in while making the series, he explained:
"The issue is always gonna be women’s rights and feminism and the basic respect that we all need to pay to each other. It turns out that there were other things. Obviously the Willow/Tara romance was very important for a lot of people. But I did not set out to do that. I did not think of the world and everything I did that carefully. Obviously we were careful about what we said about people, but I only had a gay romance in it because it was college and I thought, 'This is a good way to follow up Oz. It’s a tough act.' And then later on, I was like, 'Oh. Representation matters. I’m a white guy.'"
I think the show was ahead of its time and 20 years later the themes in it still resonate strongly. It's one of those shows that will stand the test of time and hopefully continue to inspire new generations.