The correlation between the vampire, a figure that is usually the subject of social ostracism, and the New Woman, the advent of which was feared by the majority of the Victorian patriarchy, was a prominent aspect of much mid-to-late Victorian era literature.

Evidence to support the compelling Victorian era connection between the vampire and the New Woman can be deemed from the unique gender role standards during that socially complex era. As Catherine Siemann suggests in her essay, “Darkness Falls on the Endless Summer: Buffy as Gidget for the Fin de Siecle,” the Victorian New Woman’s “personal autonomy, economic independence and sexual self-determination led [her] to be seen as a threat, undermining the social order” (Wilcox and Lavery 124).  Thus, literature offered the Victorian patriarchy a psychological defense against this perceived cultural “threat.”  In transforming aggressive or transgressive New Woman-like literary characters into vampires, their punishment or destruction could be interpreted as a culturally acceptable way to metaphorically control the New Woman, thereby keeping the existing patriarchal domination unblemished and intact.

In sharp contrast, I will demonstrate, using Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that in late twentieth century popular media, the New Woman is no longer considered a threat to the social order. On the contrary, Buffy the Vampire Slayer features a stellar cast of female characters, many of whom possess the traits for which the Victorian era New Woman was condemned.  However, today, in the case of some of the characters, instead of being damned to a vampiric existence, they are regarded as heroines. This is especially true for Buffy herself, as her character in particular brings the New Woman into a whole new culturally modified evolutionary stage. As a result, Buffy the Vampire Slayer can be viewed as a feminist response to the literal destruction of the Victorian era New Woman. The innovative television series impressively challenges long established gender role standards, marking a return of the repressed and effectively allowing the feminine to bite back.