The Sexual Politics of Blood: Theorizing an Ecology of Gendered Animality and Posthuman Possibilities Through Buffy the Vampire Slayer

First airing at the turn of the millennium, Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) held primetime slots on the WB Television Network for the first five seasons and the United Paramount Network for the final two. The show has since sustained a significant following among fans and scholarly audiences through its recent migration to online streaming services like Netflix. The considerable media attention garnered by the 20th anniversary of the series premiere demonstrates this continued cultural relevance.¹ Yet the eponymous heroine is—to borrow Buffy’s own words—“carbon dated” (“Welcome to the Hellmouth”). She remains an icon of Girl Power, embodying the distinctive aesthetics and politics of 1990s mainstream feminism—an evident counterweight to the patriarchal hegemony of preceding young-adult supernatural dramas.