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Pop culture hit shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) and its spin-off series Angel (1999-2004) were considered ground breaking TV when they first graced our screens. The TV-series quickly gained a cult following and the main character Buffy was hailed as a feminist icon that reversed gender stereotypes. But was the character really more male than female just because she was a girl who could fight? - This and more is explored in Femininity & Masculinity, which is a book about how gender is constructed in four relationships on the TV-series Buffy and Angel. The aim is to find out if the characters have a traditional gender construction, a hybrid or reversed one. This was done by conducting a semiotic text analysis and a qualitative interview study with 16 fans. The book also offers an in depth look at how the selected relationships are perceived by a particular group of fans, namely the shippers. The pairings chosen for the analysis are: Buffy & Angel, Willow & Tara, Buffy & Spike and Angel & Cordelia.

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Karin Schill has a Master of Arts in Media and Communication Studies with film studies as a major field of research. She is focused on Reception Studies. Her research is mainly about fan culture, gender, stars and media. She has done semiotic analysis of TV-series and cinema. She is currently working as a journalist.

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