Subject: Re: Sexism?
From: alternat@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Ann Hodgins)
Date: 1991-01-22, 09:12
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <1991Jan21.234326.12774@alembic.acs.com> csu@alembic.acs.com (Dave Mack) writes:
> >In article <1991Jan21.192859.22362@watserv1.waterloo.edu> alternat@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Ann Hodgins) writes:
>> >>I find the male characters in Twin Peaks, the heros at least, very 
>> >>conventional and conforming while the women are more rebellious.
> >
> >You mean like Coop, the Tibetan baseball pitcher?

Yes, especially Coop - one oddity does not a non-conformist make.
He seems odd to 90's consciousness, but he is confroming to his
upbringing and his FBI code totally.
 
> >
> >Dennis/Denise?
 
Especially Dennis because he needs to dress up in order to feel able
to be a bit different. I admire his guts in that it is clearly very
hard for him to break his sex role training, but that the fact that he
can't 'relax' in pants and a shirt shows that he is not role-free.

> >
> >Hawk, writing poetry to his girlfriend, Diane Shapiro, PhD, Brandeis?
> >
Hawk is an exception. I think he is his own man.
 

> >Harry Truman, sheriff and leader of a secret vigilante society
> >that fights the Evil in the Woods (and lover of Ms. Fu Manchu.)
 
That is all very standard stuff - his love for the dragon lady is an
example of "opposite's attract" or may show that his heart is not
as straight as his image.
Harry Truman is an overgrown boy scout still conforming to the rules he
was taught in Cubs.
 

> >
> >Major Briggs, Air Force Major, clandestine UFO researcher and
> >psychic/time traveler?
 
Despite all that, his values and personal definitions
of good and evil behaviour are absolutely standard. He talks like a
book. He stick to these standards and for this I have to admire him,
but he is no non-conformist.
He likes the unusual but expects to find it outside of himself and
outside of his usual reality. He uses standard tools to look for it
and in the last episode seems to realize for the first time that the white
lodge might be a spiritual rather than a material reality, referring to his
soul rather than his body.
> >
> >Dr. Jacoby, inventor of the prestidigitation cure?
> >
Everything that Jacoby does is reasonably common practice among psychologists.
even the glasses are part of an experiment I learned about in Psych classes.

> >Albert, the sarcastic pacifist?
> >
Albert follows strict procedures in his work (no improvisions) and his 
philosophy of life seems to be standard pacifism.
He shows creativity in his insults but his choice of targets is not original.

Dick is a very conventional dresser but he has more imagination that than
most. Andy is very traditional mentally and emotionally.

So I stand by what I said. 
I like the male characters (most of them) and find them rich in variety
but not in any way original thinkers or non-conformists. 

a.h.