Wasserman is also beginning to regret her hair colour

"When I was finishing my Masters in Gender Studies, critical engagement with Buffy was all the rage," said the 29-year-old industrial music enthusiast. "But I'm going to finish just in time for it to be completely passé. All the important, exciting work now is being done on Angel."

Five years ago, Wasserman believed that Buffy was a "uniquely nuanced cultural text", a view she now believes was prompted solely by her enthusiasm for the popular TV show. "I thought that Buffy was a new type of cultural apparatus that could establish the co-ordinates of a more fluid, less repressive form of gendered indentity," she says. "But looking back, I think I just had the hots for Giles."

Studying Buffy for a doctoral thesis, an idea she once found politically progressive, now seems both cliched and rather childish, particularly now that the show is no longer on TV. "My central – and really only – idea was to look at how Buffy subverts gender norms by shifting the co-ordinates of received modes of performative gender construction. To be honest it's just stuff cribbed from Judith Butler," she admits.

"Worst of all, it's only good for about 20,000 words, and the rest is just repeating the same idea with different examples. Strengthening my case, or 'padding' if you want to be more accurate."

Attending a conference on Buffy successfully destroyed her remaining faith in academia. "It was all goths, repressed gays and punnind session titles. After Fangs for the Mammaries, how could I go on?" And her love for what was once her favourite TV is set to be the next victim. "I was naïve enough to think that I could never get sick of Buffy," she says. "Boy, was I wrong about that." 

Chastened by her experience, Wasserman hopes her mistake can serve as a lesson to others. "I'd say now that if someone wants to waste their time with on an exhaustive treatment of a flash-in-the-pan pop-culture phenomenon, they shouldn't do it at University," she says. "That's what Wikipedia is for."

Re: [Article]PhD student regrets choosing Buffy The Vampire Slayer as thesis topic This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it     February 27th, 2007 - 8:42 AM Meanwhile, academics at Charlie Sturt University Bathurst have expressed their disappointment. "We're in our third year of studying the effect of the cancellation of Firefly on the common household nerd. We believe Miss Wasserman's thesis will be of great value to the community. Atleast three people could read it. Two of them not even by accident!" Milford Cubicle, who is studying the Beating of Dead Horses (minoring in post modern feminism), has declared it a win for people who wish Josh Whedon fans would shut the hell up. "So Firefly was a decent show, now it's gone. These same people let go grandmothers and pets in moments, but spend years posting in internet forums about how their lives will never be the same without Buffy, Angel, Mal, Wash and Wonder Woman. Get over it." Asked to comment, officials from the university denied there was any tension between the two courses. "So the nerds get the shit kicked out of them from time to time. So what? It's Bathurst. There's not much else to do here except watch re-runs of axed TV shows and beat the shit out of nerds." Man walks 20kms to knock on wood.          Screw driver gets done DUI.          Marijuana shortage cripples O-week servo sales.

[Article]PhD student regrets choosing Buffy The Vampire Slayer as thesis topic Amii    February 27th, 2007 - 5:47 PM HA

Re: [Article]PhD student regrets choosing Buffy The Vampire Slayer as thesis topic dorme    February 27th, 2007 - 6:32 PM whats wrong with buffy?

[Article]PhD student regrets choosing Buffy The Vampire Slayer as thesis topic slackarse    February 28th, 2007 - 12:40 AM "whats wrong with buffy?" There's a thesis in itself, and probably one that could easily be covered in 100,000 words. Hubert Cumberdale can write that one.

Re: [Article]PhD student regrets choosing Buffy The Vampire Slayer as thesis top blue    February 28th, 2007 - 2:25 AM   There are some scary things going on at Universities...

Re: [Article]PhD student regrets choosing Buffy The Vampire Slayer as thesis topic dorme    February 28th, 2007 - 7:09 AM Quote from: slackarse on February 28, 2007, 04:40:45 PM "whats wrong with buffy?" There's a thesis in itself, and probably one that could easily be covered in 100,000 words. Hubert Cumberdale can write that one.

[Article]PhD student regrets choosing Buffy The Vampire Slayer as thesis topic Alarm Duck of Awesomeness    March 9th, 2007 - 3:46 AM Heh...and now SMG can't even get "run round get your tits out" roles...

Re: [Article]PhD student regrets choosing Buffy The Vampire Slayer as thesis top meeli    April 1st, 2007 - 8:35 AM This is more true than funny, sadly. I know someone like this.

Re: [Article]PhD student regrets choosing Buffy The Vampire Slayer as thesis topic Erubadhriel    April 1st, 2007 - 10:39 PM They're making another series of Firefly apparently. w0000t.