[Note: I’m writing a series about consent issues in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I will post a new entry in this series every month. 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.]
EPISODES: “Smashed”
INCIDENT: Violent sex
PARTICIPANTS: Buffy and Spike
The specifics: Before “Smashed,” Buffy kissed Spike twice. She kissed him at the end of “Once More With Feeling” and “Tabula Rasa.” In the beginning of “Smashed,” she swears to never kiss Spike again. By the end of the episode, Buffy and Spike are having sex in a dilapidated building. They quite literally fuck a house down.
The specifics, from Spike’s perspective: Spike thinks Buffy is leading him on – she kissed him twice and pretended it meant nothing. He tries to physically restrain her so she’ll listen to him. She hits him. He hits her back and realizes that he felt no pain from the chip in his head. After a conversation with Warren, he finds out that the chip is fully functional and just doesn’t work on Buffy. He calls her out, and when she doesn’t respond, he follows her and goads her into hitting him. He hits her back and informs her that the chip doesn’t work on her because she “came back wrong.” They fight, and he taunts her about being a “little lost girl” and being “less human” than she thought. He asks Buffy if she’s afraid of “giving him the chance” to hurt her. Before he can finish asking the next question, she’s kissing him and initiating sex.
The specifics, from Buffy’s perspective: Spike won’t leave her alone. She’s told him several times that the kisses meant nothing, but he still follows her around. She rejects him when he tries to call her on the phone. When he shows up, she tells him to get out of her way. He doesn’t listen, so she hits him. When he hits her back, she’s horrified that the chip doesn’t seem to work on her, and repeatedly insists that he’s wrong. They fight, and it isn’t long before she’s kissing him, pushing his back against the wall, and unzipping his pants.
What does this episode say about misogyny and rape culture?
You’ll notice that I didn’t post my usual “victim” and “perpetrator” labels in this edition of “BtVS and Consent Issues.” That’s because I’m not entirely sure what’s going on here in terms of consent. The relationship between Buffy and Spike in season six of Buffy the Vampire Slayer makes consent issues very murky.
On one hand, I feel that Spike is taking advantage of Buffy’s extremely vulnerable state to get what he wants. Buffy is obviously clinically depressed, and her decision-making skills are not great. He claims to be in love with her, and yet he takes entirely too much pleasure in informing her that she came back “wrong,” that she’s warped and strange and not entirely human.
On the other hand, Buffy is the one who turns the violent fight into a kiss, and she’s the one who shoves Spike against a wall, unzips his pants, pulls her skirt to the side, and starts riding him.
Is Spike violating Buffy’s consent by manipulating her when she’s particularly vulnerable? Or is Buffy violating Spike’s consent while initiating sex during a violent fight? Can both of these things be true at the same time? Or, is it possible that neither is true – that even though the sex is angry and violent, there is no violation of consent on either side?
I’m not sure how to answer those questions. I’ve watched the last few minutes of “Smashed” more times than any other single scene in Buffy the Vampire Slayer history, and I’m still not quite sure what to make of it.
I tend to believe that Spike provoked Buffy with the intention of making her emotionally vulnerable, or at least with the intention of proving her wrong, but that he was completely surprised (though not unhappy) when she initiated sex. I also believe that Buffy was attracted to Spike for a long, long time before the “you came back wrong” speech, and that she used the “you came back wrong” doubt in her mind to have sex with him – but I still don’t know exactly when and how she made the decision to stop fighting and initiate sexytimes.
What do you all think?
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God, Buffy and Spike. That is one messed up relationship.
On one hand, I kind of agree with Spike when Buffy starts in on him about being in love with pain – yeah, he is a vampire. The way the two of them see a healthy relationship is going to be fundamentally different until he gets a soul, and she knows that, and she’s always known that. She’s supposed to know better, because she can’t expect him to, since 1) vampire, and 2) a lot more emotionally invested than she is.
She does have a lot of issues with depression when she comes back, but at the same time, I’m not at all convinced that this wouldn’t have happened anyway. I don’t think the attraction started in season 6, and IMO, she was really using him in season 5, too, just in a different way. It was different when she didn’t know about his feelings, but once she did, she seemed to consciously take advantage of him. Do I understand why? In some situations, yes. In others, not so much.
On the other hand… well, you can’t really expect any better from Spike than he’s giving – he *is* a vampire, and as far as vampires go, he’s a lot more human and motivated by love than most. Whatever Buffy says, I do think that Spike loves her. I think it’s in a screwed up vampire-without-a-soul way, but I do think that the emotion is genuine. That said, look at all the qualifiers in that: the way Spike loves is fundamentally messed up, and just because you can’t expect better doesn’t necessarily mean that he should get a pass for it, any more than any vampire gets a pass for killing people.
I think that I’m of the persuasion that they’re both really, really screwed up, in different ways. They both have the opportunity to walk away. They don’t. Up until that rape scene (which I try to forget, because it’s not at all consistent with Spike’s character, IMO), I think they’re both hurting themselves more than they’re hurting each other.
Oh, I definitely think her feelings for him began sometime in season five. I don’t think it extended beyond a physical attraction (that she would surely deny) and appreciation for what he did for Dawn, but the seeds were planted.
She does have a lot of issues with depression when she comes back, but at the same time, I’m not at all convinced that this wouldn’t have happened anyway.
A Buffy/Spike hookup was bound to happen. The writing was on the wall (that they broke when they fucked the house down!) I think a combination of factors prompted her to finally give in to the attraction: depression, wanting to feel SOMETHING, feeling closer to Spike than before because of their burgeoning friendship in the beginning of S6. And I think the idea that she “came back wrong” meant that she had more freedom to pursue sex with him. She couldn’t justify sleeping with him before, but if she “came back wrong,” well, she’s fucked up anyway, so she might as well do it.
I do think that Spike loves her. I think it’s in a screwed up vampire-without-a-soul way, but I do think that the emotion is genuine. That said, look at all the qualifiers in that: the way Spike loves is fundamentally messed up, and just because you can’t expect better doesn’t necessarily mean that he should get a pass for it, any more than any vampire gets a pass for killing people.
I think this is all completely true. He loves her, but he doesn’t love her in a healthy way until S7.
I strongly disagree that the attempted rape was not consistent with Spike’s character. Look at “Crush”. Look at “Intervention”. Spike had been dangerously obsessed with Buffy for some time. He had a robot created in her likeness so he could fight and have sex with “Buffy”. Given the circumstances leading up to that scene in “Seeing Red”, I think he was perfectly in character.
I’m of the mind that it wasn’t out of character, but also an unnecessary plot point. I’ll talk about it more when I get to that episode, though.
Thanks for the thought-provoking read.
First of all, love this series of posts. I’ve been having a Buffy run-through these past few weeks and I actually stumbled across your consent posts while I was in season 6, so it was really interesting to read other perspectives while the events were so fresh in my mind (and wow, do you have your work cut out for you this season!)
I don’t personally think there has been a violation of consent in Smashed. I think the moment and her feelings had been building for some time; Buffy strongly initiates this contact, and though she certainly is depressed, I’m not convinced that her distress alone is what guides her actions. Similarly, it’s provided a springboard to think about Anya and Spike’s sexual relationship, which is based on mutual vulnerability/drunkenness; altogether, it clouds the question as to whether consent can exist alongside such vulnerability. In both instances, both women are using Spike, but I think that though both women are portrayed as having agency, this is stronger for Buffy (the initiator) than Anya (who seems more passive). For both encounters, I don’t think the consent is necessarily pure, or temporally stable, but IMO it’s still somewhat there, and I’d argue especially more so for ‘Smashed’, where there seems to be heavier and more stable feeling/attraction which underpins the encounter. (Those are my thoughts, but it is a heavily complicated storyline, and I’m equally wary about implying a ‘graded’ system of consent here in such simplicity, but that’s another issue altogether).
I disagree with the above, however; I think the events of Seeing Red were entirely consistent with Spikes character. His entire persistence in season 6 was built on not taking Buffy’s no’s and “go away”s for an answer; SR was just where his pushiness and his frustration reached an ugly climax.
(and wow, do you have your work cut out for you this season!)
Oh, I know. I’m really dreading getting to “Seeing Red.” I might have to write three posts for that one.
I don’t personally think there has been a violation of consent in Smashed. I think the moment and her feelings had been building for some time; Buffy strongly initiates this contact, and though she certainly is depressed, I’m not convinced that her distress alone is what guides her actions
That’s how I read the encounter as well.
Great series! And thank you for taking this on (in a rational manner) episode by episode. I found your blog through a link on su_herald btw
http://su-herald.livejournal.com/634513.html
I tend to believe that Spike provoked Buffy with the intention of making her emotionally vulnerable, or at least with the intention of proving her wrong, but that he was completely surprised (though not unhappy) when she initiated sex.
The shooting script on Buffyworld.com has a short scene that was deleted (or never shot) in which Spike is preparing his crypt before he calls Buffy at the Magic Box:
http://www.buffyworld.com/buffy/scripts/109_scri.html
INT. SPIKE’S CRYPT – DOWNSTAIRS – NIGHT
Spike moves about the room. Organized. Preparing.
From a chest of drawers, he pulls out a stun gun, fires it a couple times to make sure it works. Sets in on a table.
From a trunk at the foot of the bed, he brings out a coil of rope, pulling it tight. Puts it on the table, too.
He rustles some more in the trunk, reveals a set of chains. And a handful of padlocks. And a pair of handcuffs. On the table.
He rummages through a stack of records, finds just what he’s looking for: an LP of Roxy Music’s Avalon. He pops it on a dusty old turntable.
He lights some candles, sets a bouquet of flowers in a vase, sprinkles rose petals on the bed. He looks around, taking in his handiwork, then lets out a long, contented sigh.
SPIKE
There. All ready.
The scene then takes turn to the comedic when Spike goes to make the phone call and realizes he has no change in his pocket; but his intent seems extremely clear in the scene above – if anything, it’s a callback to Crush. I think in some ways the episode is more interesting without it BECAUSE of the ambiguity, which is what has kept us talking and writing and guessing for over a decade; but I pull this out every time I hear the “Spike was completely surprised and never intended to have sex with her argument.
The writers’ may have changed their minds, but even without this scene, watching the show for the first time this year, it was completely clear to me what Spike’s intention was. (Watching it on Netflix rather than in “real time” back in the day probably reinforced that impression: it had only been a week, rather than a year, since I’d seen “Crush” for instance.) I’d add of course that there was an element of satisfaction and revenge, in being her equal again; he may have loved her in his twisted way but the demon in him reveled in the damage he could do with his words “You came back wrong” (his expression is very smug when he says that, whereas she is horrified and then enraged.)
And I’m not trying to woobify Buffy either; that relationship was mutually abusive and it fascinates me. But the cut scene is relevant to your remark.