This is the second part of Adam Smith's exploration of Xander Harris in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Five, where he concludes his dissusion of Xander as a monster. Make sure you check out part one here, and if you want to if you want to share your thoughts on whether on not you think Xander is a monster, or if you want to share this or any of our previous posts, use the hashtag #BuffySlays20.
This
post isn’t intended as a defence of Xander Harris, but seeing as we’re here...
Whenever Xander gets what he claims to want he is distinctly uncomfortable. In
the Season Two episode ‘Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,’ when Xander attempts
to put a love spell on Cordelia but instead accidentally casts a love spell on
every woman in town except Cordelia (standard Xander), he finds himself on the
receiving end of a steamy seduction conducted by his first crush: Buffy
herself. Much of Xander’s posturing in Season One comes from his frustration that
Buffy won’t just fall in love with him, which is exactly what happens in this
scene. Xander fights her off and explains that he doesn’t want this, horrified
by the vision of a woman robbed of her autonomy the way he so often fantasises
about.
(Faith and Xander in 'The Zeppo') |
Famously,
there’s also ‘The Zeppo,’ a remarkable piece of television that follows a
typical Buffy adventure from Xander’s perspective, revealing how he thinks and
behaves in isolation, away from an audience (which is always when he is most
interesting). Xander is a fool, in the medieval sense. He is a performer. He
offers social cohesion by providing a laughter track for both the characters in
the show and at times the audience of the show. As he himself jokes in the
show’s third episode: ‘I laugh in the face of danger, and then I hide until it
goes away.’ His true value to the group is his ability to keep the group
entertaining, even in the darkest of situations. A consequence of this is that
when he stops joking, you know it’s bad.
Another
weirdly affecting moment comes in the episode ‘Halloween,’ when Xander is
rescued by Buffy at the school soda machine from a beat down by Larry the
school bully. Rather than being grateful, he snaps at Buffy, chiding her that
‘a black eye heals, but cowardice has an unlimited shelf life.’ He resents
Buffy, because being rescued by a girl has made him look weak. Intriguingly,
though, he seems aware of how stupid this is, the subtext being that he too is
a prisoner in the patriarchal reproduction of toxic masculine standards
(standards which Xander later finds significantly complicated, albeit somewhat
crudely, when in the next season Larry the bully is outed as gay).
(Comando Xander protecting Buffy in 'Halloween') |
These
two facets can explain (but let me stress, not justify) much of Xander’s
behaviour: his need to constantly perform and his obsession with
hyper-masculine gender standards. As a result, he tries and fails to perform
these constructed standards of masculinity and becomes hostile to anything that
foregrounds what he perceives as inadequacy. In his worst moments, he resents
not having access to that which he feels entitled too, a frustration he
internalises as the result of his failure as a man but is most often the
consequence of the reality that women are sentient and discerning life forms
and not disposable sex objects.
This
volatile cocktail is treated most overtly in one of my favourite Buffy stories,
the Season Five episode ‘The Replacement.’ Here, Xander takes a mystical hit from
the demon Toth that was intended for Buffy. He wakes up to discover that he has
been replaced by a double, who upon further investigation appears to have not
only stolen Xander’s life but to be doing a much better job of it. It later
transpires that the other Xander is not a robot, a clone or a shapeshifter, but
that Xander’s essence has been split into two (much like in the Star Trek
episode ‘The Enemy Within,’ which is itself referenced by both Xanders). The
exact nature of the split is left purposefully vague. At first, it seems there
is a good Xander and an evil Xander (which is how it plays out in Star Trek).
Later, they develop a theory that one is dominant and the other subordinate.
However, when they are brought together they are almost indistinguishable, and
each admits being jealous of the other. In the closing scene, when they stop
‘performing Xander’ - one stops playing the clown, the other stops acting the
alpha – they merge, sharing the same dialogue before ultimately sharing the
same body.
(Double Xander in 'The Replacement') |
Xander
Harris is thus revealed to be a man who admires, resents and despises himself,
all of the time. He is fixated on his ability (or perceived inability) to
perform what he understands to be manliness, even though, as we have seen, he
is also aware that this ideal in unrealistic and absurd. He is a man tortured
by his inability to accept who and what he is. In those fleeting moments when
he is distracted from his misguided pursuit of attaining a typically masculine
position in heteronormative patriarchy, he is funny, sensitive, brave and
compassionate. In those moments, he is the ‘heart’ of the team.
It
is tragic that such moments are few and are between.
Does
this make Xander a monster? Well, perhaps, in a very important sense.
As
most of this blog’s readers will be well aware, the word ‘monster’ is derived
from the Latin ‘monere,’ which means ‘to show,’ or ‘to warn.’ The OED tells us
that a monster is something ‘deviating in one or more parts from the normal
type.’ Monsters aren’t scary because they’re wholly other, they inspire terror
because part of them is recognisable. They embody a shocking and disturbing
relatability.
(Xander and Angel: who's the real monster?) |
A
large source of discomfort that I felt re-encountering Xander came from a place
of awkward recognition. When I was at school, though I don’t for a moment think
I was as terrible as Xander I certainly did desperately want girls to like me.
And I did obsess over my inability to be Angel. Fortunately, I realised much
earlier than Xander that I could be myself and express my identity in different
ways, and towards different ends.
And
I wonder now, looking back, if one of the reasons I came to that revelation
during my adolescence and ‘didn’t become a Xander’ is not at least in part
because of Xander; because I was exposed to a show as thoughtful, provocative
and interrogative as Buffy: The Vampire Slayer at such an influential part of
my life.
Dr.
Adam James Smith is a lecturer in English Literature & Liberal Arts at York St John
University, and he is also the Media Co-Editor for BSECS Criticks. Self-described
18th-Century Print Junkie, he is an avid fan of Giles and Anthony Stewart Head with
whom he is definitely ‘good friends’ (ask him nicely and he might show you
his treasured, autographed Giles photo!). You can also find him on twitter at @elementaladam.
this is so thoughtful and well written. thank you!
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