Buffy The Vampire Slayer Analysis

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as a series, has been discussed countless times in a number of different articles. Two specific kinds used most by viewers or researchers, are scholarly and popular sources. Scholarly sources are those that have been approved by a group with recognized advanced knowledge in the field under discussion, written to inform other scholars or students. Popular sources are usually magazines or articles written based off opinions for mass consumption. This essay will reflect my interpretation on the vast differences and similarities between these sources. This reflection is shown through two sources about Buffy Studies, a term used to describe the collections of works written about the television program that analyze the
The major point she makes is that “Before Buffy, vampire stories and horror movies alike focused primarily on the male monster antagonists who preyed on the innocent nubile young things. But in 1992, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s eponymous protagonist kickedboxed her way, via the big screen, into our heroine-starved, media-junkie feminist hearts, along the way reconfiguring the popular vampire/horror text” (Fudge para.1). Buffy never seems to break a sweat when juggling the responsibility of being the chosen one; the one born in every generation expected to slay evil vampires, and being a hot, young, not-so-typical high school girl. Fudge points out “Her makeup is impeccable, her eyebrows well-groomed… She may have returned from a night of heavy slaying, but her frosted hair is still in its pigtails, her sparkly makeup intact” (Fudge para.6). Buffy was an icon of the 90’s not only because she was respected as a slayer (for her power and strength), or even because she was a blond bombshell but because she was one of the first girl-power driven, martial arts-fighting, heroine to contradict television’s gender
The scholarly source is much more specified, you are told right off the bat the subject and content of the journal, which in this case is Willow as a hybrid/hero in the series. This shows that scholarly sources generally focus on a narrow subject. Scholarly source’s titles usually contain information that helps the reader gain more knowledge in a specific field of study. Scholarly sources usually have three major parts to their title name: an academic discipline, a catchy informal part, and a descriptive part. In this case Battis shows all three by first stating that this journal is from The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies, an academic discipline, then an informal and catchy quote from a specific episode of Buffy (“She’s Not All Grown Yet”), then a descriptive and straight-to-the-point title (“Willow As Hybrid/Hero in Buffy the Vampire slayer”). On the other hand the popular sources have only a catchy, yet short and sweet title, providing no background on the content and are usually very vague and uninformative (The Buffy Effect). In Fudge’s case a subtitle provides a small amount of description (Or, a tale of cleavage and marketing), but still a great deal less descriptive than the scholarly