When will women in Twin Peaks be more than objects of pleasure and pain?
Kimberley Ballard
writes... Twin Peaks is a show that famously hinges on sexual violence, the first two seasons centring on the rape and murder of a teenage girl. But while David lynch and co-creator mark Frost have elevated Twin Peaks: The Return from its soap-opera origins, its portrayal of women remains rooted in abuse.
the new series dismisses the idea of women as worthwhile characters while propping men up as beautifully damaged and doomed. Kyle maclachlan plays the traumatised Cooper, who is by turns humorous and complex and layered. the brilliant naomi Watts, meanwhile, is stuck playing his nagging wife. this even affects the younger generation of characters. Whereas michael Cera plays a wayward son on a mythic journey across america, shelly’s daughter is dating a sly loser whose nostrils are caked in cocaine.
then there is the sexual violence, lashed across the series like a pistol whip. in episode two, a woman lies coyly across a motel bed in just her underwear. she’s there to seduce Cooper’s doppelgänger, but the encounter ends in her being beaten and shot in the head, the sight of her blood-streaked skin against her girly underwear making us recoil. another woman is brutally killed by a supernatural force, but not before stripping off in front of the camera and riding her boyfriend.
in Twin Peaks, the female body is presented as a dual object of admiration and abuse; a relic to be adored before being destroyed. there is no space for women that is uniquely theirs. they are men’s wives, sisters and daughters; on the flipside, they are their victims and playthings. even a female FBi agent is admired for her backside just as much as her intellect.
lynch and Frost have either failed to break down these female stereotypes, or are simply uninterested in doing so. it’s disappointing to see in 2017 but more importantly, it’s alienating. Will women ever have a place in lynch’s world other than for pleasure, than to be conquered and consumed?
Twin Peaks: The Return will be reviewed in full next issue.