frelling_tralk | (no subject)

Eek it’s been quite a few months now since I’ve properly visited LJ, I’ve mostly been on Twitter this year and really lost track of this site I’m afraid, but I came across this article today and thought it was interesting after the many fandom debates there have been on this question

Buffy The Vampire Slayer creator would make Willow bisexual in modern-day remake after being persuaded against it: ‘We’re not ready for that’

Speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk, Joss says that some of the confusion regarding Willow’s sexuality would be cleared up today, since he was pressured to not make the character, over fears her same-sex attractions would feel like a ‘phase.’ ‘There are you things you can’t do, thanks to [the society at the time],’ the Marvel director explained.

‘It [was] like, “OK, you can’t make Willow bi, you can’t say this is a phase, because that’s what people do to deny their existence.”‘

Joss continued: ‘So, if I did it now, I’d be like yes she can be bi. Because some people are! But back then it was like, no…we’re not ready for that.’

Threaded | Flat

I don’t even think I have you on Twitter! What’s your handle? I’m wwonderstruck there.

Hope that you're doing well! (Apart from everything going, although I hope you're doing okay in that area too.)

(ETA: Ignore my little spiel, I misunderstood something.)

I was a teen back then and the concept of bisexuality was understood, but it was definitely more common for people to just land on "confused" or "very very closeted" or "just a phase." I feel like that's unfortunately still a problem, if much less so with more and more media representation.

Edited 2020-05-20 15:22 (UTC)

Twitter got too political for me recently, so I've been avoiding it..... Nice to see you here :)

Sometimes I wish I was less cynical. The way they went so overboard about the gay stuff makes me not buy this. It only reads to me like 'Oh, I totally would have done that if society could handle it!' Who was pressuring him? Certainly not the WB since they were worried about Will being gay, supposedly.

Then when he did those crappy comics, after the satsu publicity stunt, he again went out of his way to make it known Buffy is straight, y'all. Straight. Faith, who most see as bi, that wasn't explored in the comics, either.

Oh boy. This is going to fuel the fire even more with how contentious the subject of Willow's sexuality has been in the fandom throughout the years.

I'm confused about what is being said here, though. Because yeah, there was a lot of restrictions of what they could or couldn't show and the network did want a lesbian couple featured on the show, but that didn't mean that bisexuality as a whole wasn't an option. It was implied through many interactions with other characters of this possibility. They mentioned they didn't want to do what other shows on networks were doing back then, they just wanted to focus on two women falling in love without any labels attached. They didn't even mention Willow being gay until the fifth season. She just said that Tara was her girlfriend. I do think there was a much needed transitional point of her questioning her sexuality, of her deciding if she was bisexual or a lesbian, before finally realizing and accepting that she was a lesbian. And in my headcanon, that is what I believe she did during the fourth season and in between S4 and S5 before she finally accepted herself to be a lesbian.

I think in a modern reboot version they would definitely need to have a scene or conversation of Willow questioning her sexuality, which was the missing piece in the original series, but her being a lesbian wouldn't change in the end. It would showcase that sexuality is a complicated, complex thing, and that people do go through transitional periods of their life and discovering themselves. That it's okay to be confused, to explore your options before finding that place where you are comfortable with accepting yourself. But just making her bisexual for the sake of it because you "weren't ready for it" back then? That makes no sense whatsoever.

I don't know, I just don't know what to make of this. Like others have mentioned, it's not like Joss couldn't explore the possibility of bisexuality with other characters that demonstrated this through plenty of subtext in the main series (Faith, Xander, Spike, Angel, etc). This just feels like Joss needs to interject himself in this conversation that fandom has been having for a long time discussing her sexuality. It feels off to me, somehow.

It's so good to hear from you again :)

I just followed you on Twitter *^^*

Oh wow, there's definitely going to be a lot more debate regarding Willow's sexuality, I bet.

No reason not to have Willow be bi even then. Homicide had one of its leads be bi and that ruffled a few feathers cause he was a guy. But Tim Bayliss was one of the few tv characters to even say he was bi.
If Willow was allowed to be bi then her love for Oz was more real. She could still be with Tara and then Kennedy. So many people assume being bi is just a phase. Sex and the City did appallingly with this.
Did ship Samantha with her female lover though. Ah well.

As someone who was pretty damn naive back when I was watching Buffy, I'm can believe this. Bisexuality wasn't "mainstream" yet and being gay was definitely "safer" for a show like this, targeted towards a younger audience. I mean, it's kind of like now where you can have bisexual and gay characters but good luck getting a transgender or ace character (the whole Riverdale Jughead debate) in a mainstream show.

That being said, I don't know if I 100% believe this, it might have been more an unconscious bias and not a "I was stopped from doing this".

But who knows, past it past and I honestly can only get so mad about it? LOL

*waves*

Hi, nice to see you! <3

And thank you for that link/information. Good to know. :)

Nice to see you here.
I may have to find you on Twitter, even though I only really tweet about books and LivePD, and the occasional Design article.

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