Courtesy of a link from When Fangirls Attack, my “Willow is Hot” post received a couple hundred hits.
This is slightly embarrassing.
Not because I’m ashamed of thinking Willow (or, more accurately, Allyson Hannigan) is hot, or even because it’s boorishly male of me. No, just because I like to think I have something more interesting to say than “ooooh, pretty” when people are actually reading this blog. The fact I was sandwiched between this and this may not mean I’m a chauvinistic male pig, but perhaps it calls for a bit more examination.
So: Willow is Hot, revisited. Or, Hey, Is That Supposed to be Xander?
The debate, it seems, starts here:
That’s supposed to be Willow – who has grown a foot, had breast implants and stole Buffy’s pants. She has also apparently spent the years since we saw her last searching out the single most impractical garment ever made to wear as a top.
Bah – I was so excited about season 8, but I’m not sure I can take it if every female character is drawn for men.
While I’d dispute the pure cheesecake quality of the cover, that’s not entirely the issue. Besides, I’m a comics-reading male, so it’s always possible I’m oppressing people without realizing it. Let’s acknowledge, at the least, that artist Jo Chen has glammed up Willow quite a bit. I don’t think it’s too far off Season 5 & 6 Willow, but it’s a bit more Magazine Cover than we usually saw on Buffy. (Though not nearly as Magazine Cover as some of the actual magazines in which Hannigan appears and looks far less appealing) But is polishing up Willow to a Hollywood ideal the result a sexist publisher catering to a male audience, or is it something else?
Exhibit A:
Whatever happened to Willow managed to get Xander, too. He’s wearing a lot more clothes, obviously, and isn’t striking quite the dramatic pose, but still: That’s not really Xander. Xander, even in the later “mature” seasons, was awkward, dorky, and pretty much useless in a fight. (Also, annoying and excessively self-righteous, but that’s harder to convey in a still portrait)
But the guy on this cover is cool, attractive, maybe even a little dangerous. He’s a mix of James Bond and Nick Fury. While the end result is different, the gap between “real” Willow and comic Willow is no larger than the one between our two Xanders. (Our Two Xanders being a great title for a TV show, if it weren’t for the fact that one Xander is annoying enough.)
There may be problems with Chen’s approach to the characters – perhaps they’re too idealized, too stylized into typical heroic, dramatic roles. But it’s not necessarily down to male/female divisions or catering to male audiences. What’s good for the Witch is good for the Weenie.