[Note: I’m writing a series about consent issues in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I will post a new entry in this series every other Tuesday – or perhaps on a weekly basis, if I have the time. In this series, I will look at an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that deals with rape, sexual assault, or consent issues as a main plot point or as a featured event of the episode. I will examine these episodes in chronological order. If, in my writing of this series, you feel that I have skipped an episode that should be a part of this series, feel free to submit a guest post, and I will consider publishing it.]
EPISODE: “The Initiative”
INCIDENT: Attempted vamping framed as an attempted rape
PERPETRATOR: Spike
VICTIM: Willow Rosenberg
The specifics: Willow, sitting in her dorm room that she shares with Buffy, hears a knock at her door. She says, “Come in,” without checking to see who’s on the other side. Spike enters and pushes her against her desk. He tells her that he’s going to kill her, but he’ll give her a choice about the aftermath. He can either kill her permanently, or turn her into a vampire. She threatens to scream. Before she can, he clamps his hand over her mouth, turns up the music on the radio so no one can hear her yell, and shoves her onto the bed. After a struggle, he holds her down and tries to bite her. She screams, and no one in the hall hears her.
Then there’s a cut to a commercial break. When we come back, Spike is seated at the opposite end of the bed, and Willow has no obvious bite marks on her neck. He couldn’t bite Willow. He tries again, but gets a searing pain in his head. Willow thinks that Spike was unable to bite her because he wasn’t really interested, but Spike assures her that it isn’t the case.
The mind of the perpetrator: Spike’s looking to have a confrontation with Buffy. When he escapes from The Initiative, he hacks into a computer, tracks her down and finds her dorm room. When he’s invited in and sees Willow instead, he isn’t the slightest bit fazed or disappointed. He makes a violent play for her instead and is frustrated when he doesn’t succeed.
The victim’s perspective: Willow is scared when Spike tries to kill her, but when he’s unable to attack her, she assumes that his inability to bite has something to do with her. She’s already heartbroken and sad because of her breakup with Oz, and she thinks that Spike can’t bite her because he’s not interested in her the same way he’s interested in Buffy.
What does this episode say about misogyny and rape culture?
Technically, this incident in “The Initiative” doesn’t involve a sexual assault. Technically. After all, vampires are constantly trying to bite, kill, and/or turn humans on this show. But this episode has a sexual component that many other episodes don’t. There’s the fact that Spike attacks Willow in her room and shoves her onto her bed in a way that looks very much like an attempted rape. And, well, there’s the conversation they have after the commercial break. I’m just going to re-post it here in its entirety:
“SPIKE: I don’t understand. This sort of thing’s never happened to me before.
WILLOW: Maybe you were nervous.
SPIKE: I felt all right when I started. Let’s try again. (He attacks her again, but pulls back before he can bite, yelling and cursing.)
WILLOW: Maybe you’re trying too hard. Doesn’t this happen to every vampire?
SPIKE: Not to me, it doesn’t!
WILLOW: It’s me, isn’t it?
SPIKE: What are you talking about?
WILLOW: Well, you came looking for Buffy, then settled. I–I… You didn’t want to bite me. I just happened to be around.
SPIKE: Piffle!
WILLOW: I know I’m not the kind of girl vamps like to sink their teeth into. It’s always like, ‘ooh, you’re like a sister to me,’ or, ‘oh, you’re such a good friend.’
SPIKE: Don’t be ridiculous. I’d bite you in a heartbeat.
WILLOW: Really?
SPIKE: Thought about it.
WILLOW: When?
SPIKE: Remember last year, you had on that fuzzy pink number with the lilac underneath? (He raises his eyebrows significantly.)
WILLOW: I never would have guessed. You played the blood lust kinda cool.
SPIKE: I hate being obvious. All fangy and ‘rrrr!’ Takes the mystery out.
WILLOW: But if you could…
SPIKE: IF I could, yeah.
WILLOW: You know, this doesn’t make you any less terrifying.
SPIKE: Don’t patronize me.”
The metaphor couldn’t be more obvious. Turning someone into a vampire (or “vamping”) is the equivalent of sex, and Spike’s inability to bite Willow is a metaphor for impotence.
The scene after the commercial break is played for laughter, and effectively so. Alyson Hannigan and James Marsters are both funny, and Spike’s frustration when he tells Willow not to patronize him is especially amusing.
Yes, the scene makes me laugh. That’s the problem. Also problematic is the way the conversation delves into the “rape as a compliment” trope.
One of the most common misconceptions about rape is that rape is always about sex, that men only rape women they find attractive. This misconception is harmful to all rape survivors. An unattractive rape survivor’s allegations are dismissed when people say, “Why would anyone want to rape you?” An attractive rape survivor will be told that she should take it as a compliment or be flattered by the attention. (Obviously I’m only talking about female rape survivors here – I’m not sure if male rape survivors get similar comments or if their version of victim-blaming is different.)
Knowing that this misconception is so prevalent, I cringe a little when Willow and Spike engage in that “I’d bite you in a heartbeat” conversation. Pretend the conversation isn’t about biting at all – and it’s not hard to pretend, because the double meaning in the script is completely intentional. Replace a few words, and Willow is basically lamenting that she’s not pretty enough to fuck, while Spike is insisting that she is, and in fact, he almost fucked her the year before!
Isn’t that sweet? Except, well, Willow didn’t want Spike to bite her, so if “bite” basically means “fuck,” and the biting is unwanted…you see where I’m going with this, right?
Now, obviously, the writers didn’t write this scene with the intention of perpetuating the “rape as a compliment” misconception. That’s not what the scene is about. The scene is playing with a common trope of vampire stories, and in vampire stories, sex and violence are almost always interrelated. Willow having an insecurity attack about not being “biteable” is definitely in character for her, especially so soon after Oz broke her heart. And I don’t think anyone is going to watch this scene and think, “Hmm, I guess guys only rape girls they think are pretty!” That’s not why I’m writing this post. I’m writing it because, for the first time, I noticed a disturbing element to a scene that only ever made me laugh before.
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People actually tell rape survivors that they should be flattered that someone violated them and treated them as an object rather than a human being?
You can’t see it but the look on my face is one of shock and outrage.
Yes, it happens. I don’t think it’s as common as other types of victim-blaming, but it happens.
I’d never seen this before either. Good catch while still admitting the scene’s humor.
It wasn’t something I thought about until I prepared my list of episodes to review, but it really stuck out the last time I watched it.
Definitely not something I noticed the first time I watched the episode. Thanks for the analysis. The conversation itself isn’t really the problem, as you say, its very funny, the problem is the context. Within the space of a commercial break we go from the metaphor of biting = rape to the metaphor of biting = sex. I think that’s a symptom of how often rape is conflated with sex; even Joss Whedon, a feminist ally despite his flaws, (hopefully unintentionally) falls into that trap.
It makes me sad that the part you quoted couldn’t have been reframed, and used in a different way. It would work just as well if Spike’s discovery of his inability to bite had been revealed after a human offered him blood of their own free will. The chip would still not have permitted it, and humans who like being bitten were used as a theme in later episodes of the same season.
It would work just as well if Spike’s discovery of his inability to bite had been revealed after a human offered him blood of their own free will.
That could have worked, but I’m not sure if it would have worked as well. This is where I feel conflicted, because I think a big reason why the scene is funny is the unexpected nature of it. There’s a commercial break right after Spike is about to bite Willow, in a scene that’s very scary. During the commercial break, the audience knows that obviously Spike isn’t REALLY going to kill Willow, but there’s still a sense of danger, and we worry and wonder HOW she’s going to get out of this mess. I don’t think, when the episode first aired, anyone would have predicted the actual scene – that Spike couldn’t get it up.
The way it’s framed is more problematic than if someone offered him blood out of free will, but I also think the surprise nature of the scene is what makes it funny. So I’m conflicted.
Actually I think the way the show sets it up later, the intent of the perpetrator (Spike) has a lot to do with whether the chip fires or not, or to what intensity. (although I think this gets used as a convenient out by the writers at times) Which is not to say your solution couldn’t have worked.
When I watched this scene the first time last year I was laughing and cringing simultaneously; and it is so funny that it’s easy to forget how disturbing the whole thing is from both doylist and watsonian standpoints.