Buffy Slays Church Attendence

So, what do you do on Sunday morning? Sleep in after a night of slaying vampyres?...no, I know, you still have to get up after a night of changing dirty diapers, dealing with the pain of teething and stripping wet sheets!

I am tackling this subject because it drives me crazy that someone would blame Buffy for women not going to church! It's just so utterly ridiculous! And, of course, every parent has to make a decision whether you are going to raise your children in a religious environment or not.

Being a stay-at-home mom, I talk to God a lot more often than when I was single! You know the prayers: "God, please give me patience so that I don't lose my mind." "God, please protect my children............from me" "God, so far today I haven't lost my temper, but I'm getting out of bed soon and I'll need a lot more help then!" etc.

Anyway, the University of Derby has released a study made by Dr Kristin Aune, a sociologist, saying that the church (all Christian denominations) has been losing at least 50,000 women worshippers every year since 1989. Furthermore, she adds, because of its focus on female empowerment, young women are attracted by Wicca, popularised by the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So, in actuality, she never really says that it's Buffy's fault - besides, Buffy didn't air until 1997 (8 years after women started leaving the church in such large numbers) ...but, as usual, the press finds a spin and runs with it.

There is no doubt that Buffy is a phenomenon. Did you know that there is actually a thing called Buffyology!? I am soooo not kidding. Scholars are studying Buffy.

But if we are going to talk about girl power affecting the church, that began long before Buffy was around. The Feminist Movement has come in 3 waves thus far: Sufferage in 1920, inequality in the 1960's-1980's and lastly, the 1990's until now which deals with the failures of the second wave.

In pop culture there was Star Trek which seemed to advocate Pantheism rather than a belief in God and gave women and men a more equal footing - even moreso in the 70's and 80's films and tv. Then in the 70's there was Wonder Woman and the Bionic Woman.

In the 80's we had Rosanne to look to for strength in the woman at home and Murphy Brown at work. In the early 90's there was Ellen (who can forget her coming out?) and the phrase "grrrl power" was initially associated with the band Riot Grrrl. "Girl power" was later utilized by other bands including the indie band Helen Love and the pop-punk duo Shampoo and later, of course made commonplace by the Spice Girls. The late 90's received an upsurge of "girl power" on tv with the airing of popular woman-based shows like Xena, Warrior Princess (1995), Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996) and Charmed (1998) - all of which included the practice of Wicca . "Girl power" was also incarnated for children in the cartoons: Powerpuff Girls in the late 90's and Kim Possible in 2002.

So, I guess I don't understand the crucification (so to speak) of Buffy for a movement that's been going on for years.

* * *