There have been several female Watchers seen on screen and mentioned on the show. Faith’s Watcher was a woman and Giles’ grandmother (mentioned in 1.05 Never Kill A Boy On The First Date) was one. In 3.07 Revelations we met a rogue female Watcher - Gwendolyn Post, and in 5.12 Checkpoint we meet another female Watcher called Lydia. All this shows that though they’re stuffy in every way possible, the Watcher’s Council aren’t sexist at all.
Related episodes: 3.03 Faith, Hope And Trick, 3.07 Revelations, 5.12 Checkpoint
Comments on this trivia
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mairceridwen on May 18th, 2005 at 9:58 pm
i imagine that being around super strong chicks after so many years would tend to errode notions of gender inequality. that doesn’t mean they couldn’t try to impose a symbolic hierarchy (having only male watchers look after their young charges).
nivcharayahel on June 5th, 2005 at 7:40 am
I agree with the comment above, but would also suggest that sexism isn’t merely individual behavior, but institutional as well, and not something that men do to women, but something that all people “do”. I think it’s pretty clear from episodes such as “Helpless” and “Checkpoint” (and also from references to the Council made by Wesley at various points in both series) that the Watcher’s Council is a patriarchal (and sexist) institution. Also, I think we’re supposed to wonder if the creation of the First Slayer was a sexist act itself–the wise men of the tribe can’t fight the demons, so they “infect” a girl with demonic power and send her out to do it for them.
One of the things I really like about the series is how complex a portrait of sexism it establishes. On the one hand, you’ve got a kick-ass chick who can take care of herself in a dark alley. On the other hand, she’s still struggling in a world of sexist institutions and individuals, even “on the job”–and struggles with her own gender identity as a result.
James on June 5th, 2005 at 5:40 pm
I’m not quite sure how people can say the Council is sexist. We’ve not seen enough of it to see a clear hierarchy. We’ve only seen Quentin (and his group) and maybe he earned his position.
However, I do agree with the first slayer bit but my interpretation of it was one of role reversal. Traditionally it is the woman who has the man fight for her and defend her even above his own life.
outforawalkbitch on August 18th, 2006 at 3:26 am
I have always been embarrassed to ask, but why are there so many watchers..and one slayer.
Wynter on May 17th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
There’s only one slayer because that’s the way it’s always been, as demonstrated by the Shadow Men in Get It Done. They took one girl, imbued her with demon essences to fight evil, and their magicks ensured that whenever she died, another would take her place. That’s just the way it goes, there’s no other answer to that really.
As for why there were so many watchers in comparison, I guess we couldn’t really have guessed a likely answer until season 7. We found out that there’s hundreds of potentials all over the world, and each has her own Watcher that they train with, but of course, only one can be chosen.
Until the end, obviously :-)
Mike on May 18th, 2007 at 10:24 am
One problem is that we simply haven’t been given enough history by Joss. Like all writers, this story developed when he had one seminal idea and started examining the conclusions to which it leads. In the case of Buffy, it was, “Hey, what if the blond cheerleader type who always gets killed in horror movies turns around and kicks the demon’s ass?”
I would suggest that the role of women as “bringers of life,” considered in much more mystical terms of power in primitive and ancient societies, however complexly that was interwoven with their day to day subjugation, had to to with the choice of a girl to battle the demons. Remember that in the movie, Buffy was alerted to the presence of a vampire by cramps identical to those during menstruation (good thing he dropped that idea - it would not have helped her relationship with Angel: “Hi, honey, I’m home!”, “I know, dammit!”).
Probably the shamans (shamen?) who started it became the first watchers: “What will happen?”, “I don’t know - let’s watch.” How it became a formalized council headquartered in England is lost in the mists of time, or at least in the mists of Joss, but, being a scholarly and organized society (with some sort of governmental standing, it would, neccessarily, have originally been wholly male and the feminine role of the Slayer a traditional absolute that could not change; although certainly in Georgian and Victorian times the idea must have been quite uncomfortable to them and probably futile attempts would have been made to change it.
The breaking of the gender barrier of the council would have been something that had occured, even if laging behind the rest of society and government, as part of the global evolution of women’s rights, with some exceptions, such as Giles’ grandmother; as some women throughout history have found a way into male dominated fields.
It has been a long time since I saw the movie, but I believe there was some mention of a break in knowledge or unusual difficulty in locating Buffy. Of course, potentials weren’t explored and one is easily led, until the entrance of Kendra, to the assumption that the identity of the new Slayer is unknowable until she is mystically chosen upon the death of the previous Slayer. Even if that were so, what with research, training, a human love of bureaucracy and a British love of layers of tradition and formality (which I, even though Irish American, share, just count the subclauses), the council would still number quite a few, even with only one Slayer. Add what always felt like a spur-of-the-moment idea for funny culture-clash between Buffy and Kendra of having watchers for the potentials (now known) and you have enough watchers to effect the price of tea stock when they got wiped out.
Jet on April 12th, 2008 at 10:10 am
I think it has always been one slayer because the men didn’t want too many women to have so much power.