Subject: Re: Is Twin Peaks anti-woman? Are Twin Peaks fans?
From: jym@remarque.berkeley.edu (Jym Dyer)
Date: 1990-11-15, 22:30
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

[F> = "Fiona Oceanstar"   M> = "Michael Kaufman"   D> = " Diane Hume George"]

F> Ben Horne, on the other hand, is such a jerk that I wouldn't
F> hesitate to call *him* a slut.
.-.
|Y|ou might not, and I've heard people refer to some men as sluts
`-' (or, more commonly, as "male sluts"), but it seems always to
    be less pejorative when applied to men.  Ben Horne can be a
    "slut" and still (as you say) charming.

M> Face it folks, she was acting slutty.  She was not showing a
M> "healthy" or "positive" attitude toward sex, she wanted to do
M> it on the floor in the jail with James.
.-.
|U|h, we don't know that for sure.  James felt as if she wanted
`-' to do it through the bars or something, but we really don't
    know that Donna wanted to do that!

M> Just as, if James had made this suggestion to Donna we would
M> call him (oh, I don't know), an asshole.
.-.
|Y|ou've underscored my point.  "Asshole" is a generic insult!  It
`-' doesn't carry with it any particular sex-is-bad-and-wrong-for-
    a-member-of-this-sex connotations like "slut" does.

D> [From a _Ms._ article:]  I, we, the trendy, twenty-thirty-and-
D> forty-something audience, are getting off on the sexually
D> tortured, brutally murdered, mutilated body of an adolescnet
D> girl. 
.-.
|G|etting off?  Is this serious?  One of the things I like most
`-' about _Twin_Peaks_ is that the things that happened to these
    women aren't about exploiting them.  They help us to feel
    real pain, rather than the numbness that typical TV violence
    engenders.

D> Laura is an active participant in her own corruption, and the
D> cause of fall in others. 
.-.
|T|his is a vast oversimplification.  Laura's "corruption" was one
`-' part of her; and it was always at odds with the other half.

D> Donna's mother, Mrs. Hayward, has no damned first name that I
D> know of.
.-.
|E|ileen, I believe.
`-'
D> We get treated to vividly suggestive scenes of Shelley's
D> beating and bondage.
.-.
|S|uggestive?  If Shelley's beating suggests anything, it's that
`-' men who beat women are bad news.  I found the Leo/Shelley
    storyline very valuable in that it shows some dynamics of
    an abusive relationship in a realistic way.  (The misogyn-
    istic salesrep was also a nice touch.)

D> There is Maddie, Laura's cousin/double, who is so much a parody
D> of innocence that you want to puke on her shoes . . .
.-.
|I| have a completely different view of Maddy, but I got it from
`-' the diary.  After all, she gave Laura her first cigarette
    (*gasp!*) and told her about French kissing.  And I think
    recent episodes show her as not so innocent, but rather
    wise about relationships.
.-.
|A|s a footnote, note that BOB/Leland's attack on Maddy has
`-' nothing to do with her being corrupt or promiscuous.

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