Other entries in the Femslash Friday series can be found here. Most recently: Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. This post is sponsored in honor of Catherine Backus‘ birthday, because she is her sister’s favorite lesbian/human.
If you are a lesbian of a certain age, you know that nothing on television has ever been as formative to nascent girl-on-girl feelings as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And I am not talking about Willow and Tara. Willow and Tara are lovely; they are attractive and accomplished and their relationship is nuanced and interesting and one time they sang to each other while dressed up for the Renaissance Faire (for reasons which will forever remain shrouded in brocade and mystery). And all of that is great. But when I speak of the one true sapphic couple of Buffy and also my heart, I’m referring to the hot Slayer-on-Slayer subtext of Buffy and Faith.
(As an aside: No, I haven’t read the Season 8 comics. Yes, I’m aware that Buffy gets her lesbian on temporarily. Yes, my heart broke into a thousand pieces when I found out that it isn’t with Faith. I don’t want to talk about it.)
Faith made way more sense than any other romantic pairing the show offered up for its perpetually-crossed-in-love heroine. Angel was stilted, Spike was overwrought, and when I try to remember Riley’s face, all I can see is the word “bland” written in Helvetica. Faith combined all of their most appealing qualities: Spike’s complicated-yet-theoretically-intriguing emotional darkness, Angel’s leather pants, Riley’s ability to punch a hole through a fake rock wall. On top of all that, she had Eliza Dushku’s face, which is among the most perfect faces ever crafted by angels and was gifted to the human race as compensation for Eliza Dushku’s acting skills.
But more than anything else, Faith was perfect for Buffy because she understood Buffy. Better than her true love Angel, better than her best friend Willow, better than her fake sister or her mother or the vampire shrink who psychoanalyzed her that one time right before she killed him. This isn’t just about the burden of having superpowers, either; Buffy and Faith’s bond went deeper than that. Sure, Buffy was the “good slayer,” and Faith was the “bad slayer,” but after only a few weeks of fighting side-by-side, their roles as opposites, which had never been much more than arbitrary anyway, started to melt away. They were starting to synchronize, to move in unison, to fight in unison, to predict each other’s movements. They were, in short, showing classic symptoms of the Lesbian Merge, and as is always the case when it’s happening to you instead of someone else, they were finding it pretty wonderful.
Sure.
The thing about “Bad Girls” that breaks my heart is how amazing things are just before they all go bad. When Faith breathes on the windowpane and draws that heart with her fingers, then ushers Buffy out the window, all soft-butch gentleman swagger – I die every time. When they dance together at the Bronze, the chemistry is so overwhelmingly, perfectly right.
If you were never an awkward teenage girl with a nearly life-threatening crush on another girl and zero idea what to do about it, I don’t know if there’s any way to convey to you how bitterly poignant Faith actually is. She comes off all bravado and feigned sexual confidence and stories about fighting vampires in the nude, but it’s largely sleight of hand. She talks about her loser ex-boyfriends, and she asks a lot of questions about Buffy’s sex life and how she feels when she looks at Scott Hope (remember Scott Hope?) and how she felt when she slept with Angel and whether she’s ever been attracted to Xander, and you can feel in your gut that the only thing she wants more than to know how Buffy feels when she looks at her is for Buffy to never ever ever guess that that’s what she wants.
After things go bad between the two of them – after Faith “goes evil” because things get scary and she doesn’t trust Buffy to stand by her – that chemistry from the Bronze isn’t gone. You can see it when they fight, when they exchange bitter barbs and hold knives to each other’s throats. You can see it in their shared dreams. You can see it when the time comes for their final showdown, when Faith says “Give us a kiss,” when you know that if Buffy would just kiss her already, goddammit, this whole charade would be over and everything would be fine.
Because really, everything that’s wrong with Faith, everything that’s pain and rage and panic and lonely and the blind urge to make ‘them’ all pay – it’s so clear that what she needs isn’t a weird, evil-yet-delightfully-folksy father figure. What she needs is the love of a good woman. Faith is the classic anti-hero, rebellious and sexy and guided by an unorthodox moral compass, tormented by a past filled with loss that’s too cliché for her to ever admit how much it hurts. Buffy is the girl who can make it right by believing in her. (Ed. note — please do not try fixing murderous, tormented, closeted lesbian Slayers by loving them; this should be tried only on Joss Whedon shows.)
When Faith goes bad, she becomes a caricature of every lovestruck, rejected, miserable, obsessive lesbian that every one of us has ever known (or been). She’s always around, reminding Buffy that all this is her fault, with the unspoken subtext being, “You could fix all this if you’d just take me back.” She tries to hurt and/or fuck Buffy’s friends. She tries to hurt and/or fuck Buffy’s boyfriend. This, above all, makes a terrible sort of sense: If Faith can’t have Buffy, she’s not going to let Buffy have Angel.
And, real talk, why else would she try to get with Angel? Faith and Angel have about as much chemistry as my coffee table has with my couch: they’re both attractive, and they look nice in proximity to each other, but picturing them getting in union with one another is just weird. It doesn’t even make enough sense to be disconcerting. You can tell the whole time she’s trying to put her Serious Vulnerable Slayer Face on his Concerned Responsible Vampire Face that her heart/vagina isn’t truly in it, because Buffy is the only one for her.
Look, as emotionally invested as I am in this pairing, I can be honest about it. Would Buffy and Faith make a healthy couple in the long term? Probably not. They’re young and confused and drawn to all the qualities in each other that they hate in themselves, and that is a recipe for a really fucked-up toxic friendship/star-crossed romance/hate-sex marathon. There is a lot of darkness in this pairing, but what Buffy relationship isn’t fraught with tension, resentment, lies, betrayal, infidelity, and uncertainty? I’m not saying I need them to live happily ever after, but I wish they’d gotten the chance to knock down a few houses together. I think they could have taken out the high school all on their own – no explosives required.
Tags: buffy the vampire slayer, femslash friday, lindsay king-miller
FUFFY ALWAYS
I used to be really into femmeslash youtube montages (sigh) and there were a couple of really goog Fuffy ones. My favorite was to the song “Scotty Doesn’t Know” and it was set up to look like Spike was Buffy’s cuckholded boyfriend while she cheated with Faith.
Spikey doesn’t know! Spikey doesn’t know!
aaaaaaaaaaand now it’s stuck in my head forever
That. Sounds. AMAZING.
TO THE YOUTUBES! GOOGLE POWERS ACTIVATE!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYhXaEx9as4
There’s another one, I think to a NICKLEBACK song, that I liked–it was just a series of Faith flirting with people, and then Buffy beating them up. That’s the next one I wanted to track down…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aAYfYtJHW4&fe…
PS–there are WAY too many results for “buffy nickelback” on youtube and I feel really ashamed.
I am even more into this if I imagine them staking him at some point. Admittedly, I’m super-into imagining Spike getting staked in general.
This comment caused me to google intensely for the F/B fanvid I was really into, set to Tegan and Sara’s “Superstar”. It’s still good. Thank you for this reminder.
http://heresluck.tumblr.com/post/65686853781/vid-…
THIS IS NOT OKAY. REPEAT: NOT OKAY.
Not the idea of Faith and Buffy – I’m FINE with that. What is awful is that my cousins call my grandmother “Fuffy”. *shudder*
OH HELLO YES THANK YOU
As a baby goth bi, I used to style myself after faith (as a flat-chested younger teen that wasn’t especially successful) and I was way more into fuffy than bangel or, ugh, spuffy.
oh dear, the couple-names are AWFUL! haha.
Smushnames for pairings are one of the few things I hate most in fandom.
For some reason BTVS is the only fandom I like the portmanteaus for, maybe because it was the fandom in which I first heard them used? All other ship names can go DIAF tho
“Buffy” is already kind of a silly name (I forget sometimes) and using it in ship names just makes it a million times worse. They could be Baith! That’s at least kind of respectable.
Ohhh this was great. Torn on whether I should forward it to Mr. Iceberg as he loves BTVS.
This is perfect, and exactly what I needed today.
(Off topic: why can’t I log in when I’m away from home? Is it because I’m always logged in on my home computer?)
“Angel was stilted, Spike was overwrought, and when I try to remember Riley’s face, all I can see is the word “bland” written in Helvetica.”
THIS x ELEVENTY.
x INFINITY, even!
“Eliza Dushku’s face, which is among the most perfect faces ever crafted by angels and was gifted to the human race as compensation for Eliza Dushku’s acting skills” BWAHAHAHAHAHA
I wanted to stick up for hot, hot Eliza Dushku, but I realized LKM was preaching the truth.
SHE IS SO AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL. But yes. (Is she still with Rick Fox? That is a pair of ridiculously attractive human beings.)
She is! They are very very pretty.
The Friday Femslash I did not even know I was waiting for. THANK YOU.
That said, I think this is incomplete without even a little mention of the insane goodness of This Year’s Girl/Who Are You? C’mon — the double betrayal of Faith waking up to find Buffy has “moved on” — the bubble bath scene in which Faith finally “possesses” Buffy — the agony of finding out that it isn’t enough, and seeing the world through Buffy’s eyes does not heal her but only makes her hate herself more. So good! So sad!
The ship to end all ships! Fuck Bangel, fuck Spuffy (though it is second in my heart), fuck Briley, fuck anything but FUFFY. Though I will also accept Spangel and Spander because Spike basically has chemistry with anything that moves.
“Angel and me haven’t been intimate, well, except that one time.”
SPANGEL4EVER
“Spike basically has chemistry with anything that moves.”
That’s the damn truth.
REAL TALK: I think the main problem I always had with fandom’s take on this pairing was how Buffy was always on the bottom? A friend and I ended up yelling at each other in relieved exasperation at finally finding someone who understood the other on this; as she said, “Faith is the ultimate bratty bottom”.
Also I should admit that that I do the pairing/fandom/everything in my life completely wrong all around, because I am not really all that into hatesex in general, and I am only into it during those rare, magical times in S3 and S7 when they are actually getting along and it is not all misery and angst and hatefucking, but are instead working together and complementing each other and ribbing one another. I JUST WANT BUFFY TO HAVE A HAPPY RELATIONSHIP. I get why that cannot happen, because conflict is essential to storytelling, blah blah blah, but also I JUST WANT NICE THINGS FOR BUFFY.
(This is probably why most of my ‘ships for Buffy involve crossovers. Toasters who were discussing Buffy/Mal with me a few weeks ago, in the comments of the Kaylee/Inara post, where are you? That was great. You know what else would be great, actually? Buffy/Kaylee/Inara, I bet that would be great, too.)
oh for heaven’s sake why do I even go near the computer what is this comment I’m sorry Nicole & Mallory
I remember! Buffy/Mal is perfect.
THANKS FOR THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT, EM! i have never seen buffy, but i am a huge fan of ladies loving ladies. <3 u, toast
I had not thought of this before, but YES.
(Although I have to disagree with your first sentence, because Tipping the Velvet was on TV when I was 14, and that most certainly wins over Buffy in being formative of nascent feelings.)
yes oh yes a thousand times yes you beautiful people
this is why i love this website
i think i had already seen Bring It On when i started watching Buffy, so i was gay for Eliza Dushku anyway and that may have affected my reading of Faith. but yeah. yeah.
Oh yeah, editors? Can Missy/Torrance be a Femslash Friday pairing at some point?
Please please please!
“I’m strong and I’m loud, / I’m gonna make you proud, / I’m T-T-T-Torrance, / Your captain Torrance.”
I think I need to watch season three again…
(also: do we remember the Buffy-Faith bodyswap episode?)
“Giles, Faith has taken my body, and for all I know, she’s taken it to Mexico by now. I don’t have time for bondage fun!”
Who on earth wouldn’t have time for bondage fun with Faith? Madness, I tell you.
…is this a safe space to admit that I ship the original Scooby gang Core Four? As in, B/W/G/X?
*hides*
Love that kind of action.
Can we talk about the closeted queer girl moments where you invite your “friend” over to “casually watch Buffy” all the while secretly giving her sidelong glances during particularly fraught scenes to SEE IF SHE NOTICES. Also the inevitable moment where she says something like “omg Angel is so hot” and you’re heart totally breaks, but you’re forced to be like “yeah…he is” and then spend the rest of the Buffy marathon feeling like an idiot. Because that was my high school/college experience…..
This is EVERYTHING.
Not gonna lie, baby queer me was SUPER into BtVS and jilled it to printed out B/F fanfic all the time in 8th grade.
Also had some good Faith/Willow and Glory/Harmony stuff. Oh god that was so long ago.
GLORY AND HARMONY
WOW
OK
I can't tell if I approve but I am certainly feeling something.
There is a really fantastic fic with Buffy/Harry Dresden which is pretty much the same as Buffy/Mal except Mal has magical powers and is almost a foot taller.
I loved this essay. It truly gets at the heart of the Buffy/Faith pairing. I do think however that all the evidence you laid out proving Faiths feelings for Buffy could also prove just how much Faith wants to *be* Buffy. Sleeping with Xander, trying to sleep with Angel, sleeping with Riley… She’s always wanted her life, she even tried to take it in This Year’s Girl. And she said it to Buffy herself. I can’t figure quote but it was about how Buffy got the mom, the friends, the watcher, and the hot boyfriend, while she Faith had no-one and nothing. It was heartbreaking.