One queer-coded ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ scene is still a powerful allegory for ‘coming out’
With a developing Buffy the Vampire Slayer series reboot on the brain as LGBTQIA+ rights are under threat, the titular hero’s slayer reveal in the iconic ’90s TV show remains a real tearjerker of a “coming out” scene that still resonates with queer audiences today.
Buffy has long been a topic of queer discussion, with beloved characters Willow Rosenberg and Tara Maclay being the first recurring lesbian couple on primetime TV at the same time the series aired. Faith Lehane, Buffy’s slayer frenemy famously portrayed by Eliza Dushku, is also frequently credited as many fans’ “gay awakening.” While Faith is the one who typically finds herself at the center of the show’s most heavily queer-coded scenes, it’s Buffy who initiates a dialogue that poignantly mirrors that of “coming out” when she tells her mother she’s a vampire slayer.
Spoilers for Buffy the Vampire Slayer ahead! (It’s been 20 years, girl, just watch it.)
Season 7 didn’t mark the first time Buffy was kicked out of the house. In the show’s season 2 finale, “Becoming Part Two,” our girl finally confronts her mom, Joyce, with the reality of her role as the Slayer. As tensions mount after Drusilla murders the second slayer, Kendra, Buffy is forced to work out an alliance of sorts with Dru and Spike. She and Spike meet up at her house, where Joyce watches in horror as her daughter stakes a vampire outside their front door.
Faced with a reality that contradicts the carefully constructed cis-heteronormative narrative that still largely defines how children are raised today, Joyce demands to know what’s going on. Later, Buffy tearfully affirms that she’s a vampire slayer, a truth that her mother flat-out refuses to accept.
“What do you think has been going on for the past two years? The fights, the weird occurrences. How many times have you washed blood out of my clothing, and you still haven’t figured it out?” Buffy’s words, though stern, are tinged with a real longing to be seen and accepted for who and what she is, a sentiment that’s always been echoed within the LGBTQIA+ community and one that can feel particularly maddening when your identity is willfully denied or erased by even those closest to you.
Despite her mother’s denial, Buffy is, at this point, steadfast in her responsibility, both to herself and to the world. “Do you think I chose to be like this?” she presses, “Do you have any idea how lonely it is, how dangerous?”
As a series, Buffy continuously names and drives home the dangers and inherent loneliness its main character battles, something so “accidentally feminist” on Joss Whedon’s part my best friend and I, among other fans, still marvel at Buffy’s raw character today. This and her desire to “be upstairs watching TV or gossiping about boys” totally subverts the aforementioned cis-heteronormative narrative in this context, as it’s simply not in the cards for the Slayer. Her “destiny” prevents it.
Buffy’s “coming out” sees an even more devastating layer added in the season 6 episode “Normal Again,” which reveals she actually told her mom about her slayer status after she killed her very first vamp. Back then Joyce responded by institutionalizing her daughter, contributing a conversion therapy metaphor to the larger allegory. In season 2, Joyce kicks her out of the house, telling her not to even think about coming back.
When Buffy first aired in the ’90s, similar experiences were a lot more common. Though our culture has seen a slight shift toward acceptance in recent years, the LGBTQIA+ community remains a target under the current Trump administration, with trans people facing the brunt of the attacks. Now, with a reboot led by Oscar-wining Chloé Zhao and star Sarah Michelle Gellar in talks, the show’s themes and scenes like Buffy’s reveal are once again timely and made all the more powerful.
All seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer are currently available to stream on Hulu, but you can also watch the hit series for free on Tubi
Original article at The Mary Sue.
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