Santorum versus the Slayer

(NB: If you are reading Buffy Season 9 or plan on it, avoid this post. There are spoilers. If you do not care about Buffy and are turned off by this, keep reading, because it makes a larger point.)

"Into every generation a slayer is born: one girl in all the world, a chosen one. She alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their number. She is the Slayer."*

So, here we have Buffy.

As most recently seen on the cover of the most recent issue.

The Slayer. The Slayer of Slayers. Bad ass. Saved the world countless times (or in the show, one of her tombstones said, "She saved the world...a lot.") and even though she is extraordinarily powerful, she is a hot mess. She cannot hold a job, she dropped out of college...she is a women in need.

She, Buffy made a mistake. Buffy is pregnant. Buffy needs to make a choice.

Now, Senator Santorum would say that Buffy does not deserve a choice. That Buffy made her choice when she decided to have unprotected sex and now must live with the consequences.

Well, what are those consequences?

Buffy is the SLAYER. Yes, there are the Slayerettes and the Scooby Gang and the various other groups that fight the things that go bump in the night, but Buffy is their leader, and the best of the best. In all of recorded history, Buffy has no equal and she cannot be the Slayer and a mother at the same time. They are mutually exclusive. One is founded in love and the other founded in rage and fear. There is no overlap in that Venn.

Buffy can put her effort into being a badass or she can put her efforts into being a mother. (Yes, I know that second wave feminism says that you can have it all but when trying to have it all, sometimes things suffer.) If she fails to put her efforts into being a Slayer, we know what could happen. Another rotation in the cycle of poverty and early motherhood, even with the support system that Buffy has built around her. If she puts all her effort into being a mother, the world could end again.

In things like parenthood or saving the world, half efforts are bad.

Now, Senator Santorum will argue that the choice is not hers. The choice belongs to society where the life of Buffy's unborn child outweighs the almost-literal weight of the world that Buffy carries on her shoulders. Buffy's career does not matter.

But, much like Buffy, Senator Santorum does not exist in the real world.

Buffy does make her choice.

I know that Senator Santorum will disagree with this choice, but then again, that just proves that the Senator is on the side of the demons, vampires and things that go bump in the night. The strong young women of America deserve better.

(See io9 for better images from the comic.)

*Quote via Wikipedia