Sexual Rhetoric in the Works of Joss Whedon

Buffy the Vampire Slayer has remained an enduring feature of late 1990s pop culture, spawning television spin-offs, rabid fans, and significant scholarly inquiry. Though there have been numerous books devoted to the work of Joss Whedon, this collection of fifteen essays is the first to focus specifically on the sexual rhetoric found in his oeuvre, which includes Angel, Firefly/Serenity, Dollhouse, and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, as well as Buffy. Topics covered include the role of virginity, lesbianism and homoeroticism in the shows and the comics, the nature of masculinity and femininity and gender stereotypes, an exploration of sexual binaries, and a ranking of the Buffy characters on the Kinsey scale of sexuality. Together these essays constitute a much-needed addition to the expanding body of Whedon gender scholarship.

Erin B. Waggoner is currently an adjunct professor in Kentucky.

Edited by Erin B. Waggoner

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 278
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2010
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4750-3
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5691-8
Imprint: McFarland

Preface      1
The Symbolic Gun in Willow’s Love Life
(Erin B      Waggoner)      7
Unthinkable Relationships: Vampire/Slayer and HIV Positive/Negative
(Todd Parks)      18
“Lez-faux” Representations: How Buffy Season Eight Navigates the Politics of Female Heteroflexibility
(Hélène Frohard-Dourlent)      31
Triangulated Desire in Angel and Buffy
(Alyson R      Buckman)      48
Andrew and the Homoerotics of Evil
(Patricia Pender)      93
Slaying the Heteronormative: Representations of Alternative Sexuality in Buffy Season Eight Comics
(Lewis Call)      106
Anya as Feminist Model of Positive Female Sexuality
(Tamy Burnett)      117
Images of Paraphilia in the Whedonverse
(Don Tresca)      146
Losing It: The Construction of Virginity in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
(Sara Swain)      173
Nothing Left but Skin and Cartilage: The Body and Toxic Masculinity
(Rachel Luria)      185
Virtually a Femme Fatale: The Case of Buffy’s Faith
(Pnina Moldovano)      194
The Role of Masculinity and Femininity in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
( Jessica Price)      215
Exploitation of Bodies and Minds in Season One of Dollhouse
(Catherine Coker)      226
The Companion as a Doll: The Female Enigma in Firefly and Dollhouse
(Nicholas Greco)      239
Exploding Sexual Binaries in Buffy and Angel
(Kathryn Weber)      248

About the Contributors      263
Index      265