Saturday musings

I haven’t said much about the whole LJ fiasco, because I’m generally on the outside of it all except as it impacts people on my flist. But I am curious where the line is. I think of Season 2 of BtVS, for example, where 16-turning-17 year-old Buffy is showing sleeping with Angel, who of course is an adult in every sense of the world. Or on Deep Space Nine, where the 16-year old Jake Sisko dates a 20-year old dabo girl.

There are underage-older relationships on TV all the time, many of them explicitly sexual, and that’s not illegal, depicting that. So what’s the line, anyway?

Oooh, free stuff!

“In January 2008 the Duke University Press will publish “Undead TV: Essays on Buffy the Vampire Slayer” edited by Elana Levine and Lisa Parks. The collection of essays come from media studies scholars, who tackle the Buffy phenomenon and its many afterlives in popular culture, the television industry, the Internet, and academic criticism. The writers engage with Sarah Michelle Gellar’s celebrity image, science-fiction fanzines, international and youth audiences, Buffy pulp fiction, and Angel’s body, showing how this primetime drama became a blockbuster that stands out from much entertainment television by offering sharp, provocative commentaries on gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and youth.

Recognizing that you run a Buffy fansite devoted to philosophical studies, we are very excited to offer you the chance to receive a free advance copy of this upcoming book. Please email me your current mailing address, and I will send a copy of “Undead TV” your way promptly.”