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Frohard-Dourlent, Hélène. "When the heterosexual script goes flexible: Public reactions to female heteroflexibility in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic books." Sexualities 15. (2012): 718–38. Added by: joachim (28/08/2025, 20:33) Last edited by: joachim (28/08/2025, 23:12) |
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| Resource type: Journal Article Language: en: English Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1177/1363460712446281 BibTeX citation key: FrohardDourlent2012 Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: "Buffy", Gender, Horror, Reception, Sexuality, USA, Whedon. Joss Creators: Frohard-Dourlent Collection: Sexualities |
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The phenomenon of heteroflexibility, wherein a heterosexual character engages in same-sex intimacy, provides a good example of how modern narratives of sexuality can contain promises of subversion yet also shore up heteronormative schemas. To fully understand how the notion of heteroflexibility functions to broaden and/or restrict our understandings of (female) sexuality, we need to examine how these narratives are taken up by the audience. This article explores this tension by analysing how readers reacted to a heteroflexible storyline featured in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic books. By examining how this story was interpreted, rejected and/or embraced by readers, I show that readers who disliked the heteroflexible storyline as well as those who enjoyed it draw on liberal discourses that obscure how heteronormativity operates. This in turn limits heteroflexibility’s potential for disrupting dominant heteronormative discourses.
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