I was a young girl growing up during the era that this show originally aired. The indoctrination that Buffy displays, the bias that a girl/woman must be skinny to be attractive and to have friends, was intense for a significant proportion of young girls and women like her (i.e., white, middle class;media then rarely showed any diversity, of course, without 'difference' of some sort being the point). I well remember comparing myself to "Twiggy" and coming up short, for e.g. Prevailing influences ensured that females knew they almost always will be on s diet to lose weight (and certainly not gain it, for sure, so starve yourself if you must!), to be socially acceptable.
So, this show demonstrates well what we see now as so wrong back then, via the stereotypes played out so painfully in this 1970 script, which maybehelps puts the progress, standards and attitudes of today, into perspective. That's excellent, IMO; 50 years later should be more evolved, and hopefully better generally, too.
That said, the episode just doesn't have the writing or acting to make it terribly believable, even accepting the premise of one little girl apparently unrestrainedly bullying and shaming another girl, getting her to skip food to lose weight. How would Buffy not get brought up short by adults in the picture, let alone the child Angela herself just kowtowing because Buffy said so. Multiple things don't scan properly, seems to me, rendering it a very mediocre episode indeed..
So, this show demonstrates well what we see now as so wrong back then, via the stereotypes played out so painfully in this 1970 script, which maybehelps puts the progress, standards and attitudes of today, into perspective. That's excellent, IMO; 50 years later should be more evolved, and hopefully better generally, too.
That said, the episode just doesn't have the writing or acting to make it terribly believable, even accepting the premise of one little girl apparently unrestrainedly bullying and shaming another girl, getting her to skip food to lose weight. How would Buffy not get brought up short by adults in the picture, let alone the child Angela herself just kowtowing because Buffy said so. Multiple things don't scan properly, seems to me, rendering it a very mediocre episode indeed..
