The point of having Nathan (throughout much of season 1) and Meredith as deadbeat parents was to make Noah look better. A lot of the fathers are reprehensible - and their failures and fates are coded in classist and racist ways - yet the narrative provided justification for Nathan (with his self-sacrificing decision at the end of season 1, and he even manages to survive – no coincidence that he’s a white guy) and Noah’s actions as fathers-of-a-daughter (the same daughter, even!) in ways it hasn't for, say, Jessicaniki or Angela. From coffeeandink, plus a few of my comments on coffeeandink’s entries:
In S1, Claire's plot was self-discovery, leading to a questioning of the family order--explicitly the patriarchal order, in which her father was controlling the entire family and everyone in it in unacceptably coercive ways, disguising it behind a mask of benevolence and affection--a mask that was all the more effective for being true. She eventually forgave and rejoined her father, but only after establishing that she was herself an actor and not simply an instrument of others' power, that she had a right to plan her own future and create her own identity, and that her father's unilateral control not only of herself but of the entire family, particularly of her mother, was unacceptable.
I am not surprised Noah is backsliding with Sandra and with Claire, given his lifetime of manipulation and secrecy. However, the ways in which the show is depicting this backslide and Claire's necessary rebellion are gendered and also, let's be blunt, creepy. In two episodes, Claire's rebellion has been reconfigured as not primarily about self-discovery, but about romance; the threat to the family and the father is not the external Company, or Claire's powers or will, but the possibility of Claire's romance with another man. The daughter's sexual maturity is the death of the father. And the father strikes back with extreme and inappropriate control of the daughter's sexuality, aided and supported by the mother. West was Claire's stalker in Eps 1-3; Noah is Claire's stalker in Ep 4 [and onwards]. In both cases, Claire is the object of interest not because of what she is herself, but because of the role she plays in the men's stories. In the space of two episodes, Claire's major conflict with her father has shifted from being his control of her behavior and personality to his control of her sexuality and his past malfeasance in the life of her new boyfriend. The conflict is no longer about who she wants to be; it's just about who she wants to fuck. [Or rather, as vaznetti comments, who gets to decide who Claire fucks.]
In 2x04, it is possible to read him as paralleled with Matt, whose use of his adopted daughter Molly for his own personal and professional ends is clearly set up as selfish and mistaken. But I am not so sure the show means it as a parallel; it seems more like a compare and contrast. Noah isn't wrong about the dangers of Claire's maturity: the show offers him an objective correlation of his patriarchal desire for domination and control. "The father dies when the daughter matures" is a description of the passage of time; "The father dies because the daughter matures" is one of the fears at the heart of the patriarchy and patriarchal control of female sexuality.
The effect of his self-sacrifice and resurrection is to wipe the slate clean: Noah reaches for the duct tape, but Bob uses it; Noah abducts West, but is willing to pass his daughter along to him; Noah kidnaps Elle, but in reaction to Bob kidnapping Claire, and Noah's mind-wiping of Sandra -- clearly referenced by Claire, with a significant shot of Sandra -- is wiped away by Bob's alleged and more sinister mind-wiping of Elle's happy memories. [2x09] acknowledges and erases Noah's crimes at the same time.
Meanwhile, Kaito has to die and stay dead for *his* crimes to be forgiven.
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branchandroot
Bad father, good father, bad mother
Date: 2008-06-28 08:37 am (UTC)In S1, Claire's plot was self-discovery, leading to a questioning of the family order--explicitly the patriarchal order, in which her father was controlling the entire family and everyone in it in unacceptably coercive ways, disguising it behind a mask of benevolence and affection--a mask that was all the more effective for being true. She eventually forgave and rejoined her father, but only after establishing that she was herself an actor and not simply an instrument of others' power, that she had a right to plan her own future and create her own identity, and that her father's unilateral control not only of herself but of the entire family, particularly of her mother, was unacceptable.
I am not surprised Noah is backsliding with Sandra and with Claire, given his lifetime of manipulation and secrecy. However, the ways in which the show is depicting this backslide and Claire's necessary rebellion are gendered and also, let's be blunt, creepy. In two episodes, Claire's rebellion has been reconfigured as not primarily about self-discovery, but about romance; the threat to the family and the father is not the external Company, or Claire's powers or will, but the possibility of Claire's romance with another man. The daughter's sexual maturity is the death of the father. And the father strikes back with extreme and inappropriate control of the daughter's sexuality, aided and supported by the mother. West was Claire's stalker in Eps 1-3; Noah is Claire's stalker in Ep 4 [and onwards]. In both cases, Claire is the object of interest not because of what she is herself, but because of the role she plays in the men's stories. In the space of two episodes, Claire's major conflict with her father has shifted from being his control of her behavior and personality to his control of her sexuality and his past malfeasance in the life of her new boyfriend. The conflict is no longer about who she wants to be; it's just about who she wants to fuck. [Or rather, as vaznetti comments, who gets to decide who Claire fucks.]
In 2x04, it is possible to read him as paralleled with Matt, whose use of his adopted daughter Molly for his own personal and professional ends is clearly set up as selfish and mistaken. But I am not so sure the show means it as a parallel; it seems more like a compare and contrast. Noah isn't wrong about the dangers of Claire's maturity: the show offers him an objective correlation of his patriarchal desire for domination and control. "The father dies when the daughter matures" is a description of the passage of time; "The father dies because the daughter matures" is one of the fears at the heart of the patriarchy and patriarchal control of female sexuality.
The effect of his self-sacrifice and resurrection is to wipe the slate clean: Noah reaches for the duct tape, but Bob uses it; Noah abducts West, but is willing to pass his daughter along to him; Noah kidnaps Elle, but in reaction to Bob kidnapping Claire, and Noah's mind-wiping of Sandra -- clearly referenced by Claire, with a significant shot of Sandra -- is wiped away by Bob's alleged and more sinister mind-wiping of Elle's happy memories. [2x09] acknowledges and erases Noah's crimes at the same time.
Meanwhile, Kaito has to die and stay dead for *his* crimes to be forgiven.