Anti-Feminist Interpretation of Spike's Redemption Arc and Buffy/Spike

I've been read reading posts in gabrielleabelle's livejournal. I've had a particular interest lately in her feminist posts, such as The Feminist Filter, wherein gabrielleabelle and her friends analyze each episode of Buffy from a feminist perspective (unfortunately, it only gets as far as the S7 episode Homecoming, since gabs has left the fandom). These posts are absolutely awesome, and you should check them out if you haven't before.

However, when I read the comments on the posts, there is a definite Spike bias. Spike gets a lot of praise, Xander and Angel get a lot of criticism. This is understandable. The vast majority of the posters on gab's lj are/were Spike fans, and Buffy/Spike shippers. We all have our biases. Furthermore, there was some very intelligent criticism of Spike from Spike fans, and there were some very vocal fans who stepped in to defend Xander and Angel. Sometimes to the point of distracting from the feminist intention of the series. Still, the overall bias was there.

This got me thinking. What are the feminist aspects of Angel and Xander and their arcs? What are the anti-feminist aspects of Spike and his arcs?

This post isn't about Angel and Xander. It's about Spike. It's basically an anti-feminist interpretation of his redemption arc and relationship with Buffy. This has been done before, of course--there are plenty of fans out there who hate that Spike was redeemed, and can't stand Buffy/Spike. Nonetheless, I wanted to do it myself as a thought experiment.

( Spike as the dogged nice guy )