I have been contemplating the reason Buffy the vampire slayer has been such a powerful force in my life and the lives of my friends who I met because of the show. After all, Buffy the vampire slayer is just a television show, right?
That's right. But whenever I watch the show, it becomes clear to me over and over again how many social and moral lessons happen to the characters on the show. Who knows what part is Joss's intent and what part is the network saying, this show must have moral lessons at the end of each episode? I once heard a friend say that a writer always transmits his or her belief system(s) into a work, whether he/she is aware of it or not.
I have a Bachelor's degree in Sociology and my education in that area demonstrates how fascinated I am with culture, how it is transmitted and how relationships are bound together. An important role of art that few people pay attention to is how that art can serve as a set of teachings that can hold a society together. My latest theory as to why and how I developed such close, intimate friendships through the local Buffy group? BTVS and Angel as socio-cultural tracts about how relationships work and society can work when and if those relationships benefit society as a whole. Also, how when those relationships are negatively affected or interfered with...those relationships can cause the social structure of the group in question and even the society surrounding the social group to implode. Now, speaking of real-life societal structures, this is a bit of an exaggeration. If I don't get along with my friends and we have an implosion, really there is no loss to society as a whole. But say group after group implodes. People don't need one another anymore. Social mores and morals break down. When this happens, a society might in danger of collapsing. I remember reading in a Sociology text book long ago that societal collapse is often brought into motion by the collapse of social support systems and social mores on a large scale. Now, I am getting that information from my cobwebby brain and have not done the research to back it up yet, so don't quote me on that.
We are social animals. People need one another. Some more introverted people do not believe that is the case, but we are wired naturally to thrive when we are members of healthy social groups. The popularity of churches in communities and other ways for people to connect with one another helps to show how communities self-sustain.
In BTVS and Angel and often in Firefly and Dollhouse (Joss Whedon's other creations) I see frequent references to the importance of a single human life. A single person who can affect the world around them. That people are powerful. And the characters have frequently used lines beginning with, "But it's Buffy" or "It's Cordelia," "It's Fred." In Angel, a spin-off of the popular Buffy series, Angel (a vampire cursed with a soul Buffy has a doomed romance with in BTVS), runs to catch Cordelia after she has painful visions. Everyone helps everyone else in BTVS and Angel. The core group of friends often is seen by the main characters as a family, even moreso than the characters' own families. Whenever a social support system or structure or moral is broken, there are consequences. When you do not treat people the right way, there are consequences and as most Buffy fans know, those consequences often do not end well (or leave behind shattered lives or even a shattered universe, the consequence of Buffy being brought back to life by Willow, the powerful Witch on the show who is a best friend to Buffy).
Perhaps when I meet with my friends we subconsciously apply the teachings of the show to our own lives enriching our social structure? Maybe, maybe not. But it sure is interesting to think about. But regardless of what the real data is, Buffy succeeds because she has friends. Because she has a strong support group, she lives longer than any slayer before her. To me, this speaks volumes about our own social relationships. I can apply that idea to my life. If I didn't have friends, it would be difficult to get through the difficulties of my life. Buffy and her friends come out as winners at the end of the television series because they worked TOGETHER. As a team. Go team!
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