Two posts in one day! Aren’t you a lucky bunch?
Anyway, ignore the bad taste of the title, it was the first thing that came to mind (I could totally write for The Sun with headlines like that!), this is actually a vaguely importantish issue. Important in that, for a change, it isn’t talking about how much I fancy everyone or showing you something delicious off that internet. But it is still essentially only about a comic book so don’t worry, I’ll ease you out of the fluff pieces slowly.
The latest issue of Dark Horse’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer tackles a controversial issue that takes The Chosen One away from her regular demon-merking duties to face a very personal one in her decision to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. In the last issue, our girl Buffy got royally wasted at a party, did some naughty things, can’t remember much including who she slept with and ended up PG, ouch, WORST HANGOVER EVERRRRRR! But yo, it happens.
While I’ve never actually read the comics before (mostly because as much as I would like to I LITERALLY can’t read comics because I’m a bit special needs when it comes to pictures and words all on a page together, wish I was kidding) but I’ve been an ENORMOUS fan of the TV show ever since the dawn of time (read: 1997). What was always great about the show (which the comics follow suit with so I’ve been told) is that our plucky heroine deals with just as many personal problems as she does supernatural ones, so it only seems fair that an unwanted pregnancy, a situation MANY women may find themselves in at some point in their life, is just as valid an issue to address. But there’s no denying that it is a bold move on the part of the writers of the long-running series, especially in America where abortion is a constant contentious subject between pro-choice and pro-life advocates.
But let’s look at this logically, Miss Summers is hardly know for her great taste in men, she most likely banged some variant of undead, soulless creature with commitment issues (and that’s just Riley. Hohoho, BTVS nerd joke klaxon!) Is this the kind of father you would wish upon a child? And what form of being would the baby even come out as? And would it chew itself out of her womb Twilight style? Ew, who the bloody hell wants to be Bella Swan!?
All jokes aside, Buffy creator and exec producer of the comic book series, Joss Whedon, addresses the issue with Entertainment Weekly claiming that while the subject is constantly under fire, abortion is never addressed head on in the public domain and that having Buffy decide to terminate her unborn child is a backlash against the media’s celebration of teen pregnancy and in Whedon’s words “young people having babies when they are not emotionally, financially, or otherwise equipped to take care of them” (*ahem* Teen Mom, Juno, The Secret Life of the American teenager etc.), a category that he believes Buffy definitely falls under.
(Info injected into my brain via The Guardian)
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