Joss Whedon and the Girl Geek Archetype

I may have mentioned once or twice that I am a fan of Joss Whedon. Aside from being a self-proclaimed feminist, he writes stories, characters, and dialogue that entertains me and intellectually stimulates me in equal measure. I won’t pretend to unabashedly love everything he does; I have issues with both Angel and Firefly for feminist and storytelling reasons, I thought Dollhouse was a brilliant premise with flawed execution, and as much as I adore Buffy, I’ll never pretend that it was perfect or consistent in its message and mythology. But no matter how flawed the premise or the execution, I never leave a Whedon production without a million thoughts whirring through my head. Whether he hits or misses, he always gets me thinking, and I’ll always appreciate him for that quality alone.

That said, I have a bone to pick with him that I meant to pick awhile ago. Watching Firefly for the first time in years reminded me of one of my least favorite qualities of Whedon’s writing: the use of the girl geek archetype.

Like many writers, Whedon uses and re-uses some of the same stock character archetypes in many of his projects. There’s always a dorky funny average guy (Xander on Buffy, Doyle in the first season of Angel, Wash on Firefly), a creepier version of the dorky funny average guy (Andrew on Buffy, Topher on Dollhouse), and the snarky truth-telling character who makes fun of everyone else (Cordelia/Anya/Spike on Buffy, Jayne on Firefly). One of my least favorite archetypes Whedon likes to reuse is the Girl Geek. The Girl Geek can be seen in the forms of Willow Rosenberg on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Fred Burkle on Angel, and Kaylee Frye on Firefly.

Whedon’s version of the Girl Geek has several distinguishing characteristics. The Girl Geek is usually a genius who shows particular aptitude in one specific area, usually without having any formal training. Willow shows excellent computer hacking skills as early as “The Harvest,” even though no one knows where she learned these skills, and she shows similar aptitude for witchcraft, quickly shooting past Tara’s level of power even though Tara has been practicing for much longer. Fred, meanwhile, is a genius physicist; unlike Willow, she is shown to have studied physics for several years at the university level before reaching her “genius” state. However, later on Angel, her physics concentration became less important as she turned into the go-to science smartypants – “We have a problem that might possibly be somewhat related to science? Let’s ask Fred!” Finally, Kaylee is a genius mechanic who also doesn’t have any formal training; machines just “speak to her.”

Another defining characteristic of the Whedon Girl Geek is a quality of wide-eyed girly innocence. Willow is the shy, quiet member of the Scooby Gang who, despite being academically gifted and occasionally coming up with brilliant plans to save the day, doesn’t understand a lot of grown-up ideas – she’s sixteen before she understands what The Divinyls’ “I Touch Myself” is really about. The same cannot quite be said for Fred and Kaylee, as the audience is first introduced to them as adult women than as teenage girls, and both are more sexually mature than Willow was in the first half of Buffy, but they both have that quality of assuming innocence and good intentions from everyone they meet. (Kaylee also has an appreciation for frilly dresses that make her look like a cupcake.)

The final defining characteristic of the Whedon Girl Geek is the “sweetheart” nature of the character. The Girl Geek is usually the most beloved one of the group. Willow’s three love interests (Oz, Tara, and Kennedy) almost worshiped her, they were so in awe of her, and Giles referred to her as “truly the best of all of us” when they thought she was dead. Fred was initially viewed to be off-putting until she became the adored one of the group and both Wesley and Gunn fell in love with her. Kaylee never had the worshipful devotion of a love interest (as her crush Simon always seemed more interested in his own sister than he was in her), but she was still the darling of the Serenity crew – even Jayne had a soft spot for her.

And clearly, Joss Whedon has a soft spot for the Girl Geek archetype. I lost count of the number of times he gushed over Willow and Kaylee in the commentaries for Buffy and Firefly, and Amy Acker has joined the special club of Actors Whedon Likes to Cast A Lot. (This club also includes Nathan Fillion, Fran Kranz, Carlos Jacott, and Felicia Day, among others.) Unlike Whedon, though, I don’t care too much for this archetype. As much as I love seeing intelligent, academically gifted girls represented on television, but the combination of the three traits in Whedon’s Girl Geek – the naturally brilliant mind, the girlish innocence, the beloved status in the group – really gets under my skin.

First, the “naturally gifted” characteristic irks me because there’s a hint of the Exceptional Woman trope in there. The Whedon Girl Geek is either intuitively brilliant and needs no training, or she’s a genius. It’s not enough for her to simply be smart. She has to be The Smartest.

Second, the “girlish innocent” characteristic stinks of male fantasy to me in some ways, like Willow and Fred and Kaylee exist for the guys who are interested in smart women – as long as those smart women balance that intelligence with a dose of cutesy behavior. Smart women with assertive personalities are too threatening.

Third, the “universally beloved” characteristic annoys me because I want to see more women respected, not adored. Plus, this “universally beloved” trait is used to develop the storyline of a male character – Kaylee was less important as her own character than as a figure of cheery goodness on the ship, and Fred was shoved into the fridge to further develop Wesley and provide pain to all the other male characters on the show. (This was especially egregious after the fridging of Lilah and Cordelia earlier in the show’s run.)

Of the three Girl Geeks, Willow is by far the best character (even if she annoys the crap out of me, and even though I think Amy Acker is the best actress of the three Girl Geek performers). I appreciate Willow more than Fred or Kaylee because she has the most development in service for her own storyline, as opposed to a largely symbolic development or development in service to a male character. I also think Willow is aware of her beloved status and willing to exploit it to get what she wants, or rely on her perception of herself as “very seldom naughty” to excuse her bad behavior. There’s a strong current of passive-aggressive tendencies underlying her innocent exterior and a fair amount of resentment and rage, culminating in a character who I often find infuriating, but rarely boring and never one-dimensional. Fred and Kaylee, on the other hand, come across to me as a collection of ideal traits that a male writer really wants to see in a woman, and not so much as fully-formed characters in their own right.

Again, I love Joss Whedon’s work and I admire his writing and feminist sensibilities, but having watched Buffy and Firefly and Angel several times, I’m not in love with his Girl Geek characters, and I’m glad he’s not relying on that archetype as much in his later works.