Maybe it's because humans with souls rape.

Cindy: Sorry which post are you refering to?

I think I was tossing out a reason why I think an attempted siring would have worked better than the attempted rape (for me) since they were going to have Buffy continue to have an emotional attachment to Spike, and continue to call him a hottie.

It might have been in response to the following, but I'm not sure now.

But aren't you left with the same problem? If it's a metaphor for rape, how can Buffy forgive him? Or is it a metaphor for something else? Or is it just better to dress the rape up as something else?

Given that the all-nat-sound attempted rape was in the same episode as Warren-with-a-gun, I think they were really pushing the "not all monsters are demons" message in SR. I doubt if attempted vamping even occured to them.

I think they'd mostly dumped the idea of metaphor by S6 - heck, I think they'd mostly dumped it by the end of S4. Party of Five with monsters, yada yada.

all-nat-sound

What does this bit mean, Jess?

(I agree with the rest of your post, but it's sad it didn't occur to them.)

nat = natural. No music or sfx. (I mean, there probably were some effects, but they were mixed to sound as natural and dogme-esque as possible.)

[edit: Like The Body]

Okay. I should have gotten that from the context. Sorry. Now what's dogme-esque - or at least dogme.

Hmmm... Now I want a hotdog. Dogme.

Dogme 95 was a movement to make films without the use of artificial lighting, props, costumes, or sound. Or tripods. Lars Von Trier is probably the best-known Dogme filmmaker, at least in this country. (Though only The Idiots qualifies, of his, and Thomas Vinterberg's Celebration is a much, much, much better film.)

Buffistas know everything. When I was new, I would have googled Dogme. I've become complacent, these days.

Article:

Why "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" will be the next Star Trek

"...With series creator Joss Whedon maintaining firm control over Buffy (and its spin-off, Angel), much like Gene Roddenberry did for Star Trek until his death, its unlikely that Buffy The Vampire Slayer will be tainted by the money masters at 20th Century Fox anytime soon.

So, the signs are there. An innovative show, building an audience in repeats, with fan clubs the world over, is poised to take the mantle from Star Trek and create a new version of that old phenomenon. "

In my opinion, the attempted rape and the beating in the alley are equally bad and equally requiring of forgiveness.

And when you add up everything that happened in the S/B relationship, I think she has more to be forgiven for. And not just because she's the heroine and is supposed to KNOW what good behaviour is.

But the attempted rape becomes this huge thing, and the alley beating is just forgotten. Spike turns up at Buffy's birthday sporting a massive shiner after that incident, but nothing is said about it by anyone. It's like it meant nothing. Buffy even acted flirtatiously with Spike. And then people wonder why she could ever forgive him for his actions. I was so pleased in CwDP when Buffy finally confessed to shrink!vamp: ``I behaved like a monster to him.'' And conversely, he behaved like a (very flawed, insecure, screwed up) man to her. The thing that bothers me the most about her behaviour was her total denial of him, as in: I am going to use your body for my purposes, but I totally deny your worth on any level, except for when I want your help, which you will give to me without question.

If someone asked me, as a woman and one who is not afraid of asserting herself, whether a relationship I was in could recover from a brutal beating or an attempted rape, my answer would be: Maybe, and it depends. It would depend on whole lots of complicated things, including very visceral, gut reactions to things like force and power.

I am currently having to decide whether to take back a husband who left me and our two small children six months ago for another woman. I consider that betrayal to be a lot worse than a one-off incident of violence or sexual violence. But that's me. We all react differently. The only time my husband ever tried to use force on me -- he was trying very hard to stop me leaving a room during an argument, and he's a lot stronger than me -- I was very angry but also quite exhilarated by the confrontation. But that's my issue. Relationship heartaches for me in the past have always involved the other person withdrawing from me, so I fear that much more than physical confrontation.

That's what I meant when I said in my long post last night that reactions to S/B can be very very personal ones. As mine are.