Subject: Re: Sexism?
From: golchowy@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (Gerald Olchowy)
Date: 1991-01-21, 10:19
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <87707001@bfmny0.BFM.COM> tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff) writes:
> >
> >We may never figure out how and why people think :-) but we can
> >at least investigate whether Twin Peaks is in fact sexist.
> >
>> >>Male characters predominate, but that is fair enough I think for
>> >>a cop show with a 50's feel.  
> >
> >What this overlooks it that it is a CHOICE on the creators' part to go
> >for that "50's feel," including any potentially sexist subtext.
> >
> >The inescapable fact is that almost everything in TWIN PEAKS reinforces
> >traditional sex roles and attitudes.  The girls may skulk around at
> >night hunting for clues, but when the school bell rings they're demure
> >bobbysoxers gushing over cute guys once again.  Tough, laconic men tote
> >the guns, ride the Harleys, pump the gas and fix the engines.  Strong
> >women are scheming bitches.  Bad women are slit-skirted hussies.
> >Mothers are mostly submissive housewives if they're not actually
> >drugged, crippled, zombied or worse.  Women kill with sex! but are
> >themselves raped, beaten and tortured to death, while the men mostly go
> >out in a blaze of gunfire or flashing knives.  
> >

Is it the purpose of Art to teach or to hold a mirror?
What I think Twin Peaks does better than most everything on TV and
many movies is show how human weaknesses or character flaws lead
to dependencies or co-dependencies.  

My impression of Twin Peaks is that the men tend to appear less
intelligent than the women in general, and that the women are
trapped in relationships or by society sometimes through their
own fault and sometimes through no fault of their own.  In the
latter case, I believe that is holding up a pretty good mirror,
even though it is unsettling because it lacks the escapism 
of most TV and movies in the realm of interpersonal relationships.
The heros and heroines are not as heroic as we are used too.

Gerald