Witchy Woman

I have recently begun watching Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. Yeah, it's a guilty pleasure. I also like Angel and Charmed. Go ahead, laugh and mock. Get it out of your system. Feel better now?

My circle of friends and I have been swapping around seasons. One of them complained about willow's relationship with Tara, believing that it was written in as a mimicry of Gabrielle in Xena. This complaining consists primarily of, "They made her a lesbian!" It took me some time to realize that this bothered me and why, then forming a counterpoint argument. Yeah, I'm slow.

At this point, Willow is in college. Experimentation, duh. Everyone does it. Particularly unsure, hesitant kids who were too concerned with grades and other responsibilities in high school. She has been attracted to men. At the very least, she is bisexual. Willow falls in love with people for who they are, not their gender. Tara complements her and is good for the character, gender aside. Their relationship just makes sense, even if it happened to be due to non-contextual reasons.

Now what rant of mine would be complete without a far-reaching social commentary? Said friend is complaining to a bisexual woman that they did not enforce heteronormative behaviours on a single character. No, the absurdity of it has not hit her yet. I thought I would wait and see how long it took.

Willow was one of the first non-hetero main characters on primetime TV. This was huge, we finally had the spotlight, even if she was stuck in a sidekick role. And we have been relegated to this position ever since, except for shows such as Will and Grace and The L Word where their sexuality and orientation are primary themes.

In interviews, Joss Whedon said that he hadn't inteded to write her that way. It just happened. Having written fantasy pieces for pleasure (not pay, and no, I have never written fan-fic), I can definitely understand.

Ultimately: who frakking cares? It works, it fits, just move on.