Examining Reactions to Feminism Within “Twin Peaks”

Examining Reactions to Feminism Within “Twin Peaks”

In David Lynch’s 1989-1991 exploration into the television world of Twin Peaks there is much disagreement about whether the show itself had feminist undertones or a more masochistic take against women. Feminism is defined as “the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.” So the question that falls on Twin Peaks shoulders is, does the storytelling exploit women and the violence against women in order to further a storyline or does it fall into a common trend in which women are treated as secondary characters who must be accompanied by males in order to succeed? With the revival of the show making its return in 2017, it is interesting to examine how the show was originally perceived by many different types of critics and fans. Due to Lynch’s cinematic background the show itself has many cinematic traits, such as intense symbolism, foreshadowing and the use of and inversion of popular character archetypes and tropes and due to this there are consistent arguments about the content that is produced within the show.

             In the senior thesis blogspot page, the idea of rape culture specifically regarding Laura Palmer is discussed.  The argument that this blog states, is despite the many female characters that seem to have their own autonomy, ultimately their biggest tool is their own sexuality and nothing else.  Even within the spectrum of using their sexuality for their own gain, which when recognized, like the character of Audrey, can be considered a feminist ideal – ultimately “Within this discourse of gender, the female-identified characters in Twin Peaks are required to surrender power in exchange for sexuality. Men, regardless of physical capacities, are still more powerful and given more option to choose than are women. The only power that women hold within this discourse is the power of their sexuality. Even their power of sexual consent is robbed from them in many cases. All female characters (except the Log Lady, and even that is unclear with the gender identity of the log) are at some point in relation to a male character.” The blogger states that this use of female characters helps to reinforce the hegemonic state within the fictional universe of Twin Peaks. It is then argued that by with the inclusion of the character of Bob, who is incorporeal in form and ultimately can not be held accountable for the multiple accounts of sexual abuse and assault committed that “By keeping the rapist as an imaginary figure, this also places the rapist (and the rape) purely in certain characters’ heads. By not giving him a stable form, at least immediately, he – and the rape he committed – is merely an apparition, something that isn’t real . . .By constructing Bob as some beast from another world, the links between rape, hegemony, patriarchy, and misogyny are completely cut off.” The only male figure to ever encounter Bob visually is Agent Cooper, whereas anyone else who seems him is female.  As the author says, this tactic distinctly correlates to the idea of females claiming rape falsely within our own culture.

            Unlike the thesis, the article “The Knowing Spectator of Twin Peaks: Culture, Feminism, and Family Violence” takes the point to argue that Lynch’s show does not excuse the misogyny and abuse against women “By holding the incestuous father responsible for activities that it explicitly defines as criminal, Twin Peaks actively displaces the image of the Seductive Daughter. The series can therefore not be classified as a male erotic fantasy whose pornographic central romance, the father-daughter incest narrative, relies on the trope of the Seductive Daughter to appeal and titillate its audience. By radically disrupting the central narrative which the Seductive Daughter signifies, the series fails to either excuse or glamorize sexual violence against women, though it has been misread by some critics as doing both.” The authors of this piece both argue that the admission by Leland, that while under the influence of Bob he committed these acts, shows that Lynch was in fact not excusing the acts themselves, and Leland who is then violently murdered by Bob is held responsible and meets his demise. The Seductive Daughter trope, which is clear within many literary references such as Nabokov’s Lolita and even the Bible with Lot is thus inverted within Twin Peaks.

            Similar to the senior thesis blog, an article on the website Bustle, called “Is ‘Twin Peaks’ a Feminist Show? With its Reboot on the Way, The Series Needs to Up the Ante” by Michael Arbeiter, he argues that despite the show’s and Lynch’s attempts at a progressive theme, the show itself still fell short in some aspects – particularly in the later season “Even the most diehard fans of Twin Peaks’ original run will recall a few choices that never felt quite up to speed with the show’s decidedly progressive edge, especially in the latter chapters. Devolution into stories about Cooper’s extramarital affairs, Audrey’s wide-eyed ploys for moral reform, and (shudder) Miss Twin Peaks Beauty Contests marked more than isolate travesty; these turns felt like a betrayal to everything Twin Peaks instituted in its earlier episodes.”  Similary, Arbeiter talks about how while Twin Peaks premiering in the early 1990s was a time where a “show (like Lynch’s) could get away with some more regrettable antics,” the reboot nearly 26 years later would need to progressive with the times and not return to its mindset of the early 90s. His article argues that while the show was clear with its feminism, often shown through the characters of Audrey and Donna – it ultimately relied on the men to further said feminism.  For example, when Audrey, the notable Femme Fatale figure of the series, decides to take the investigation into her own hands, for whatever reason, she is reduced to a Damsel in Distress character once captured and forcibly drugged at One Eyed Jack’s and “Cooper and the Bookhouse Boys, a band of vigilantes, must rescue her from the brothel. Audrey’s efforts are hardly celebrated and are more or less ignored.” Arbeiter, decidedly wants some sort of forward progression beyond what was shown in the 90s with the original airing of the show.

            Ultimately, it is not agreed upon what the original intentions of the Lynch and Frost show was.  It is clear that there are many female characters that display their own sexual autonomy, albeit in a sexual manner, but is this enough for the show to be considered feminist in nature when the fate and lives of these characters are ultimately in the hands of the male leads? With the upcoming reboot set to air, as Arbeiter states in his article “The mere sight of young women taking on danger and command won’t be quite enough to stand above this generation’s output of progressive material; let’s hope that Lynch and company might be able to up the ante on the past 20 years of social liberation, just as his show did way back when.” These three sources, while in agreement on some aspects of Lynch’s exploration into television ultimately how the show to vastly different standards in terms of whether it can be classified as a proper feminist portrayal.

Works Cited

Arbeiter, Michael. “Is ‘Twin Peaks’ a Feminist Show?” Bustle. Web.

Davenport, Randi and Smith, Hobart. “The Knowing Spectator of Twin Peaks: Culture, Feminism, and Family Violence.” Communication and Mass Media Complete. Print.

“She’s dead – wrapped in plastic”: Unwrapping Rape Culture in Twin Peaks. Blogspot. Web.