shadowkat | Men Don't Leave - Meta on the theme of paternalism in BTVS (Angel, Riley, Spike, Anya, Darla, Walsh)

The title of this post is taken from a film entitled Men Don't Leave starring Jessica Lang, the film is about a single mother with two sons coping with the death of her husband. The film's title is meant to be taken ironically. Because of course men do leave. It is also to a degree a comment the mother makes to her sons - don't leave me, men don't leave.This meta was inspired by a comment made in a post/essay by [livejournal.com profile] bilixi (at least I think it is bilixi) about how men keep leaving Buffy, and why the character of Spike seemed to stay by her side. In addition, I just finished watching the Buffy episodes Family and Fool for Love, along with the Angel episode Darla. All three episodes deal with the theme of paternalism as well as the somewhat contradictory theme of men leaving their wives, mothers, daughters and girlfriends - but from different points of view and in different ways.