Ironic. No not the Alanis Morrissette song, whose lack of understanding of irony is a bit ironic. Rather what’s ironic is modern society’s demands on people. On one part, modern society demands us to be individuals, but at the same time any person who takes that advice is quickly admonished for their actions. Thus, it has become a taboo in modern society to stand out from the crowd, while remaining another face in an endless horde is deemed fit and normal and what is to be expected of a regular person. The only ones who are not admonished for standing out for the most part are celebrities whose bold and daring acts cause a vast and all-knowing desire in the average person, but despite this, a regular person who tried the same bold or radical acts, who desired to be like the people who stand out, would quickly receive scorn and hatred from those around them. So there now exists this desire to stand out with the knowing that this will never be accomplished. So, what people have done to find some semblance of standing out is to reach out to characters in television that embody their ideas of individuality. In these characters people can find not only a sense of meaning, but also the means to stand against the ever-flowing demands of monotony. In Buffy Summers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, people learn how to overcome any obstacle, stand against stereotypes, and what is expected of them to become their own person. In Omar from The Wire people further learn how to stand against society and show how rewarding it can be to stand on the fringes of society. Veronica Mars from Veronica Mars further shows how rewarding it can be to be on the fringes of society, and also furthers the idea that any obstacle can be overcome. Altogether, these characters, and a plethora of others, can teach people how to escape the monotony of everyday life to become an individual.

Rushing through a graveyard a ditzy, full-chested blonde tries to escape the creep in a mask or monster nipping at her heels, completely defenseless the girl trips over nothing and crawls slowly away instead of getting back up and running again and all of a sudden bam the monster got her and at that point the audience let’s out a collective moan because they’ve seen it time and time again. It’s a stereotype that is constantly perpetuated in horror movies; some monster is hunting a ditzy, not-all-there cheerleader, who’s screaming in terror all the way. But in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there’s nothing to fear because Buffy is here, and with one fell swoop of an axe, or thrust of a stake, the monster is vanquished and along with it the stereotype of weak, defenseless women in horror movies. Throughout her seven-year tenure on our television screens, Buffy decimated all kinds of monsters and gender stereotypes. She showed that you don’t need to be some brute to take down the bad guy. She showed up every man on that show with her raw power, wit, and hilarious one-liners, all while standing a very menacing five feet four inches. Buffy is constantly taking on all sorts of dangerous creatures from vampires, to trolls, to the SAT, even to gods, and guess what happens every time? Buffy prevails. Often times the monsters and situations she faces are embodiments of real life problems people face every day ranging from depression to relationship problems to drug abuse, all of which are problems that may seem inescapable and impervious. But what Buffy shows through her constant prevalence is that anything that plagues a person can be overcome because no matter what stands in that person’s way they can find a way to defeat it. What Buffy also constantly shows is a rejection of traditions in favor of doing it her own way, which would suit her. She rejects a centuries old group that is suppose to support her because she found that her goals and their goals didn’t meet eye to eye, she rejected them because the group had lost sight of what they were suppose to do in the first place protect the lives of the innocent. And she proved to everyone that she didn’t need them at all she proved herself effective without the assistance of a guiding force. In her final battle in the series she is pitted against an evil that knows no bounds that existed before life itself, and she makes the decision not to go at this evil alone, she makes her power everyone’s power, through the use of magic she shares all her strength, and speed and agility to everyone she can. And that evil, that evil that fed off of all creatures’ fears was defeated, defeated because it could not stand up to the power Buffy had. Thus, in blatant form is the connection Buffy is meant to have to modern society she shows that it doesn’t matter who a person is or what society says about them, anyone has the power to make a difference in society. Buffy shows that through the use of what are special and unique about a person can be used to make society better and stronger against the forces that seek to demoralize it.

Not unlike Buffy’s stand against stereotypes Omar stands above what society tells us about black and gay characters to truly stand as his own person. Up until The Wire’s release in 2002 gay and lesbian characters for the most part were either flamboyant gays or butch lesbians, of course there were shows that were exceptions to this, but for the most part all LGBTQ characters were blatant stereotypes. But then here comes Omar standing on the outside of the warring factions in the drug war that envelopes Baltimore, he is a man truly acting as his own person. A Robin Hood-like character he robs the drug dealers of Baltimore for their money and product for his own benefit. Unlike most other gay characters at the time Omar doesn’t let his sexuality define him, moreover if we did not see and hear it mentioned no one would know that Omar was gay. Throughout his time on the show Omar gets attacked verbally for his homosexuality, but it doesn’t get to him he just plays it off with a laugh. Omar also acts as a keen observer of the distinct situations and conflicts that go on in Baltimore; he is always able to point out the ironies and contradictions that exist within the city and its factions. Within Baltimore he seems to be the constant, no matter his fate, he or people like him will exist to deviate from the standard lines of good and evil and to serve as a voice to point out the problems with the system. Thus, Omar embodies why it is important to act as an individual, he shows that if a person is too heavily involved with a group they will end up to caught up in what they are doing to fully realize what their actions and the actions of those they surround themselves with have on the world around them. Furthermore he shows through his dealings with those that discriminate against him that we do not need to take the criticism of others into account, their attacks against us are from a place of their own insecurities and what they say doesn’t and shouldn’t matter.

As it is with Omar when we meet him when we meet Veronica she is on the frays of society, on her own and caught in the middle of a growing hatred between the haves and the have-nots. At the beginning of the series we learn months before the first episode Veronica’s best friend and daughter of the richest man in town was murdered. Immediately Veronica’s father, the town’s sheriff, turns his investigation towards the girl’s father, the backlash from the community makes Veronica and her family social pariahs, causing her father to be run out of office. Two months after her best friend’s murder in an attempt to show that she still has it altogether she goes to an end of the year party where she ends up being drugged and raped. Unable to tell her story to the newly elected and incompetent sheriff, she walks away defeated. But she does not go out defeated when the series begins we see Veronica in full beast mode while attending high school she works for her father’s private eye company and is working on figuring out both who really murdered her best friend and who raped her. And as the series progresses she solves an increasing variety of mysteries including figuring out just who murdered her best friend and who raped her. Most importantly she does this with such passion and shows that nothing can get in her way. She also does it with such a wonderful attitude and when people try to verbally spar her she runs circles around them with equal parts hilariousness and wit. While the achievements Buffy has seem monolithic in stature, Veronica’s are of equal importance and in some cases give much more reachable goals for the average person. Showing that a person can over come any hardship they may face with a smile on their face. She makes evident that nothing can stop a person with a goal in mind and nothing can hold her back, not pain, not loss, not anything can stop her from succeeding. Thus, Veronica embodies the average person’s ability to overcome any obstacle showing that people can overcome any adversity if they set their mind and body to it.

From Buffy’s stand against stereotypes and adversity to show us that using things that make us special and unique can end up bettering society, to Omar’s defiance of society’s contradictions, and to Veronica’s embodiment of a person’s ability to overcome any obstacle have all given the average person ideals to look up to become their own person. What all these characters have in common is an ability to inspire people to be better through each thing they taught us they can show us how to become better members of the world as a whole. The individuality and the self-awareness they teach us is not meant to separate us into separate factions rather to show us that a diverse members of society can come together to create a greater good. By fighting till they die, by being true to themselves, by overcoming adversities they have taught us to be stronger and better people. What characters like Buffy, Omar, and Veronica tell us is that we can correct the contradiction that exists in society today, they teach us that by bringing our own skills to the table and ignoring those who wish to derail us we can improve and build a new society built on working as one and accepting people no matter what or who they are. They teach us what it means to be human, that humanity is not a shade of gray, but a vast, colorful spectrum filled with new and amazing ideas.