To tangent: I think Buffy is a hero and the sort of figure a feminist world needs, but I don't think Buffy was a specifically feminist show. That we had a hero who was a woman was a feminist concept, and I was glad to see these issues being worked out with a female protagonist, but otherwise I didn't find the plotlines that were supposed to be about feminist triumph that triumphant, and too many other plotlines fell into dodgy territory.

This exactly. There have been several conversations/posts going on lately about whether Buffy is a feminist icon, and I keep saying, "I know maybe she's supposed to be but...I can't. No. Maybe?" And this exactly encapsulates my ambivalence. Buffy, as a feminine hero, represents a feminist concept, but there are so many things I found dodgy about BtVS and Ats that I can't quite make myself believe in Buffy as a feminist icon. It's not that I don't understand why people do see her that way, but that I can't quite.