I have already disclosed on these pages my penchant for American soap opera Knots Landing which ran from 1980 to 1993 and followed the improbably eventful lives of the residents of a fictional upper middle class suburb in southern California. It was a terribly interesting show, renowned for its wit, clever plots and more “realistic” characters (in comparison to shows like Dynasty which chronicled the lives of the super-rich), as well as its famous end-of-season cliffhangers. It’s been called “the original Desperate Housewives", a comparison that I cannot comment on as I’ve never watched Desperate Housewives. I have started watching Knots again recently on DVD and I am really struck by the underlying sexual politics, and the way in which the rise of 1980s feminism, characterised by the increase of women in the workplace, was so sharply, and sometimes brutally, reflected in this deceptively innocuous little soap opera. So I thought darn it, if it's good enough for Camille Paglia (a noted fan of the melodrama genre), then it's good enough for me!
The show initially revolves around four married couples living in a cul-de-sac. Three of the women are housewives, and the one that works is a school teacher. All of the women are dependent upon men and their stories revolve around domestic concerns, their children and fretting over their husbands. But there is trouble brewing: intelligent Laura is frustrated with her arrogant yet strangely lovable and deluded husband Richard and decides to start working, eventually becoming a successful real estate agent and the primary household breadwinner, much to Richard's chagrin. She is forced to apologise for her success because it has offended his masculine pride, which even takes violent form when he has a breakdown and takes her hostage. His constant attempts to pull her back into his orderly patriarchal existence also extended to accusing her of a lesbian affair with her friend ill-fated Ciji (an affair the program was clever enough to leave ambiguous; Laura may well have been exploring her sexuality as part of her prolonged emancipation). Laura does not give in to Rochard though: she continues to work and her character evolves into a strong, smart and very witty independent woman. Meanwhile, naive but kind country girl Val plays the good wife to her philandering alcoholic husband Gary, but when she finds him in bed with her supposed friend Val finally draws the line, loses her grating Southern accent, throws Gary out, develops some self-respect and becomes a bestselling novelist and a woman of independent means. Val is the program's long-suffering heroine, perhaps the least easily read as a feminist to any extent, enduring many of the staples of soap opera (amneisa, being kidnapped, having her children kidnapped, unfaithful husbands, disappearing husbands, abusive husbands, mental illness, being the victim of stalking, being the victim of attempted murder etc), but she was certainly resilient and refused to compromise her values for anyone. Her best friend, housewife Karen, is probably the character that most reflects the 1980s American zeitgeist: she progresses from storylines in which she is constantly worrying about her brood of children and unpacking groceries, to negotiating the dating world after the surprise death of her first husband, and later becomes a businesswoman, taking over her late husband's business, then, as the 1980s/Trump/Greed is Good era progresses, she became a property developer, and in the 1990s, during the talk show craze, she became a talk show host and an environmental campaigner often involved in politics - although of course Karen's list of maladies was nearly as long as her neighbour Val's (difficult children, pregnancy, miscarriage, prescription drug addiction, paralysis, being widowed, being kidnapped, being shot, being stalked etc). Laura, Val and Karen were all heroines that in different ways reflected the move of women generally out of the kitchens and into the public sphere. As friends, the three of them also depicted something rarely shown on television: female friendships untainted by competition for men or careers. These pals drew their strength from each other and the "girlfriends" aspect was an important part of the storyline.
Just as interesting as the "girlfriends" aspect though was the recurrent theme of mother/daughter conflict: Karen's relationship with her teenage daughter Diana was constantly fraught and they were eventually estranged; Val was estranged from her adult daughter and had a difficult relationship with her own mother, Lilimae, who had abandoned her as a child (they later reconciled as adults). Business tycoon Abby (more of her in a moment) also had a challenging relationship with her rebellious daughter Olivia. So if Knots emphasised the strength of female friendships on the one hand, it also emphasised the fragility of the mother/daughter relationship on the other.
An interesting contrast to the other female characters is, of course, the character of Abby, the conniving, unfaithful, ambitious blonde bombshell unafraid to use sex as a means to getting the money, power and influence she wanted. Glamorous and always heavily made-up (the show even made an in joke of her eye make-up, with one of her husbands joking to her that he would finally see her without make-up the morning after the way were married; he entered the steamy bathroom to find her in a towel and full eye make-up). Abby had no female friends and was openly aggressive with Laura, Val and Karen, even "stealing" Val's husband (deliciously announcing to him after the wedding: "I've wanted you from the first moment I saw you. I love getting what I want"). An "unlikely feminist icon" (Interview magazine), Abby embezzled money from her various husbands, defrauded her business partners, was compulsively unfaithful, a constant liar, frequently involved in shady business dealings and political skulduggery, and yet she had her ethics: the "how far will she go?" aspect was what made her interesting. Would she allow her love rival Val's children to be kidnapped and say nothing about it, even though it suited her for the children to disappear? No, she would not. Would she bury a body in cement to protect her daughter from a possible murder charge, or would she coerce lovers into taking the rap for her shonky business deals when they blew up on her, sometimes framing them as well? Yes, she would. Through it all, Abby almost always kept her cool and her sense of humour - an admirable trait.
Abby was also a single mother, one of the first working single mothers portrayed on TV. When her teenage daughter developed a drug addiction in the middle of her own scheming and conniving, Abby put aside her business ambitions and devoted herself to getting her daughter clean again. Abby was constantly shown juggling the demands of her work life and her home life in a realistic manner that was not often shown on television, where women tended to either be stay at home mums or effortless superwomen. Unlike those unrealistic women, Abby had to do a lot of juggling.
Camille Paglia's interview with Donna Mills, who played Abby, is quite revealing in that it explains how the character was constructed. Mills had played many blonde victims in her career and was determined to play Abby as strong and unapologetic, characteristics that reverberated with the female audience. Mills famously declared of early attempts by producers to soften the character that "the last thing this show needs is another sympathetic woman!", and refused to allow Abby to ever cry or show weakness in public situations.
The feminist jury is out on whether Abby was a role model or part of the problem for women. In her book Prime Time Feminism, Bonnie Dow criticises the "competitive individualism" of the "bitch" characters of soap operas such as Abby in Knots or Alexis in Dynasty, who accepted the need to make peace with the patriarchy and learn how to fit in, competing with men and with women to achieve their feminist aspirations. Women such as Abby were powerful figures, but their power came via men (husbands, etc). Dow rejects the potential subversive reading that soaps such as Knots and powerful female characters like Abby undermine the stability of patriarchy; with their aggressive rejection of sisterhood in their pursuit of money and power, these sorts of characters, Dow argues, instead represent backlash thinking.
It's true that Abby's money, and power, came to her via men, but she was always the one with the brains and, as Mills observes in the Paglia interview, no matter what the obstacles, Abby always won. She operated in a male dominated business world, and she played by the men's rules, but she was always victorious. To me, that makes her a feminist role model, even though we may not approve of her methods, especially her casualness about mixing sex and business. On the other hand, JR on Dallas unapologeticly and ruthlessly mixed sex and business.
In conclusion, let's let the lady speak for herself. Here are some wonderful words of wisdom from Abby, the unlikely feminist:
- Episode 24: “A State of Mind” (1981) Abby establishes herself as an independently-minded woman who works as much for personal fulfillment as for money, telling her ex-husband that she likes being single and defending her decision to her earn her own money rather than living off his alimony because “this is the 1980s”. She rejects his assertion that she cannot be a good mother if she’s working.
- Episode 36: “The Surprise” (1981) When Abby’s ex-husband Jeff kidnaps their children in an attempt to force a reconciliation with her. Tricking him into believing she has consented to his demand and that she will remarry him, she leaves him at the altar and has him served with a restraining order preventing him from seeing her or his children again. Asked by Karen why she did this so cruelly, Abby replies simply: “He hurt me – nobody gets away with that.”
- Episode 48: “Shadow Waltz” (1982) Abby sleeps with a senator to get a bill favourable to her business approved and then justifies it on feminist grounds to shocked friend Val, telling Val she could learn from her.
- Episode 82: “Sacred Vows” (1982) Abby marries Val’s ex-husband Gary, telling him after the wedding “I’ve wanted you from the first time I saw you. I love getting what I want.”
- Episode 84: “Money Talks” (1983) Abby, newly married to Gary, tells Senator Sumner she wants him to assist her in getting a planning variance for a shady real estate development she is secretly undertaking with Gary’s inheritance, in exchange for her directing Gary’s contributions to Sumner’s reelection campaign. She refers to the contributions as an investment she expects to pay off. Sumner says he’s not for sale. She seduces him instead. She later tells him that he is a politician on the rise and she is a businesswoman on the rise and they can help each other and enjoy an affair with no threat to either of their marriages: “I like my marriage, and I assume you like yours. Our lovemaking has nothing to do with that, because if I have to make a choice between love and money, money’s going to win every time.”
- Episode 96: “No Trumpets, No Drums” (1984) Abby explains to her pre-teen daughter Olivia why people judge her so harshly: “Listen to this, because it’s important. If a man were conducting his business the way I’ve conducted mine, he’d be admired for his aggressiveness. But if a woman does it then she’s a shrew.” Olivia replies that she does not understand. “Neither do I”, says Abby. “But it’s so. But I’ve never let it hold me back and, when the time comes, I really hope you don’t let it hold you back, because a career is just as important for a woman as it is for a man.”
- Episode 98: “Finishing Touches” (1984) Abby, thinking her husband Gary murdered as a result of her business dealings, explains her grief to those who might call her hypocritical: “I loved my husband. You may find that hard to believe. I had my affairs, skimmed profits and other things, but I did those things for me, not to hurt him. He counted in my life.”
- Episode 189: “Don Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate” (1987) When younger rival Paige theorizes that Abby dislikes her because she feels threatened, Abby wastes no time putting Paige in her place: “I’m so flattered that you want to be like me, but don’t flatter yourself into thinking we’re at all alike. Everything I have, I’ve earned. Everything you have, you were given. I know it galls you, it galls people of your class, to see a woman like me who’s earned what you think should be yours by birth. People like you are threatened by people like me because, deep down, you’re afraid you wouldn’t be able to cut it without your trust fund. You know something? You’re right.”
