Emmarose Turett AP Lang
3/17/14 P. 3

Examining Stereotypes in Media
Stereotypes are often presented in television. I find that stereotypes of women are especially common in television shows. Stereotypes are casted upon the character Buffy in the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, specifically in the episode “What’s My Line”. This episode subverts the popular and inaccurate assumption that women are weak and that men control them.
Although Buffy is depicted as a “female hero”, in almost every episode Angel chivalrously rescues her from danger. However, In “What’s My Line” Buffy truly becomes the hero that she has been made out to be. In this episode, Angel gets kidnapped by his murderous rivals, and it’s up to Buffy to prove her strength, fight them off, and save the man that she loves. Buffy is the Slayer and it is her duty to take order from her watcher—Mr. Giles—and fight off vampires. Mr. Giles gives Buffy her orders and she must check in with him before confronting a vampire. This sets the stereotype that women take orders from and must obey men. Yet this episode subverts that stereotype when Buffy hears that Angel is in trouble and sets off to save him without the order from Mr. Giles. When Buffy’s friend Kendra tells her that “it’s procedure” for Buffy to check in with Mr. Giles, Buffy responds, “It’s brainless, if we don’t go known he could die”. Buffy does what she feels is best and breaks away from the controlling restrictions that Mr. Giles puts on