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Teen and young-adult television has had a preoccupation with sex for as long as the genre has existed. In it, we got to see what sex with the bad boy actually looked like after being merely titillated with the archetype by our favorite teen dramas for so long. ” This infamous episode aired 20 years ago today, during Buffy’s sixth and most divisive season. No episode captured the potency of this trifecta more than “ Smashed. It was about the kind of anxious, teenaged naivety that made me a little bit scared of Buffy because of its proximity to violence, death, and sex.
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I was in high school for the majority of its original run-from 1997 to 2003-and would tell myself the show wasn’t for me because the girl my 9th grade boyfriend had not-so-secretly hooked up with adored it (she even wore a replica of Buffy’s crucifix necklace to class.) Looking back, I realize that it wasn’t about my heartbroken vitriol at all. I’ll admit it: I didn’t watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer until I was in my twenties.