>Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>> The only perfect bodies under late capitalism are
>> those of teenagers, male or female. (Does this in part explain the
>> popularity of Buffy?)
>
Paul then wrote:
>Nope. WB has oodles of teen shows. All but "Buffy" suck bigtime.
You're absolutely right that all the WB teen shows except Buffy suck the pud, BUT I wouldn't dismiss Yoshie's question so hastily. The popularity of teen shows in *general* has got a LOT to do with the eroticization of teen bodies by adults. "Buffy" gets to be on the WB not because it's brilliant -- which of course it is -- but because it is a teen show, and it's popular also not ONLY because it's brilliant but for a lot of the same reasons other teen shows are popular. the abominable teen shows (Dawson's Creek, Felicity) are also *popular*; adults like to project all sorts of fantasies onto teenagers, sexual and otherwise.
Paul also wrote:
>
>Yet another pseudo-hip-left reductionist attack on "Buffy" bites the
>dust.
get a grip!!! pointing to one of the *many* psycho-sexual-marketplace underpinnings of a TV show's popularity is not an "attack" on it. how fabulous the show is or isn't is always only a small part of that picture, as you know. and this particular show BOTH exploits and subverts that erotic dynamic.
Liza