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Analyzing Shiv’s Decision on ‘Succession’ With a Feminist Text


Did you watch the final episode of “Succession” on HBO this week? If so, does the last shot of Tom and Shiv in their car remind you of “Negotiating with the patriarchy,” Deniz Kandiyoti’s 1988 article is the cornerstone text of Indian feminist thought?

Me too! And not just because “Negotiating with the Patriarchy” would make for an incredibly accurate three-word summary of the entire series. While “Succession” is not public about the patriarchy, definitely about One head.

“Succession,” for the uninitiated, follows the feats of the Roy family: the literal patriarch Logan, an aging media mogul modeled on Rupert Murdoch, and his grown children. your. Much of the show’s plot is fueled by various failed attempts by his son Kendall to dethrone or succeed him, some of which involve Kendall’s sister Shiv and/or his brother. he is Roman.

That brings me to Kandiyoti, the feminist theorist whose groundbreaking work is surprisingly helpful in understanding today’s HBO hit.

The “bargain” in her article’s title refers to the side-deal that patriarchal systems offer women: If they help protect men’s rights by serving their husbands and sons, fellow When they adhere to conventions of etiquette to protect their family’s reputation, they may also enjoy certain privileges – and even exercise limited power over other less fortunate women.

For example, the traditional bargain for many Indian women is that they will not own their own property or inherit family property, but will be supported by their husbands in their youth and sons in their old age.

But the benefits of those bargains always depended on women’s relationships with men, Kandiyoti wrote. After a man involved divorces, dies or is estranged, the protection and power afforded to him will collapse, with no guarantee that another man will take his place. .

(Now a mandatory warning: “Success” disclosures appear below.)

One way to view the events of “The Succession” is the story of Kendall’s tragic misunderstanding of his place in the family under his father’s patriarchy. He thinks that as the son – “the eldest”, as he yelled angrily (and incorrectly) in the final episode – he inherited everything. But in reality, in terms of power and patriarchal status despite not actual gender, he’s actually as vulnerable as his wife or daughter trapped in Logan’s orbit.

It’s one of the oldest political stories in the world: Someone supports an oppressive system thinking they’ll one day come out on top, only to discover that they’ve been playing in the oppressive mechanism. theirs.

The mistake of the Roy children was that they didn’t realize that they were only entitled to privileges through Logan. If the children follow the rules of that patriarchy, he grants them money and power and even sometimes authority over people outside the family.

But it all depends on their relationship with him, a horribly abusive relationship. Over the course of four seasons, he insulted, belittled, manipulated, assaulted, and even assaulted his children. He controls their money, sabotages their relationships, and demands absolute loyalty. He cuts off escape routes, promises them the whole world but never delivers.

So no kid has an independent power base that can come from building their own company or from doing real jobs in their father’s empire. (Interestingly speaking, the show rarely depicts the real Roy kids Working for the Waystar Royco empire.) The patriarchal deal is all they have.

In particular, Kendall had no skills that would be useful to the rest of the world. As he correctly told his sister when begging her to support his CEO run in the final episode, he is a cog that was built to fit only a machine. Except that the machine in question was not, as he thought, the Waystar Royco corporation. The machine is his relationship with his father. And that died with Logan.

This is the dirty secret of patriarchal systems, Kandiyoti writes: Once women have agreed to relinquish power, they are incapable of enforcing the agreement that drew them into the situation in the first place, especially especially when men are in control.

“For the generation of women caught in the middle, this transformation can represent real personal tragedy, as they paid a heavy price for an earlier patriarchal agreement, but,” she wrote. could not earn the promised benefits.”

For Kendall, tragedy not only comes when he loses the corporate power he craves, but also when his siblings abandon him.

But perhaps a lifetime of deviance all around means that Shiv Roy, the family’s only real daughter, is the best person to realize what the situation is like. That might explain why she ended up backing her husband as the new CEO: At the last minute, she may have realized that her old patriarchal deal was worthless, but not like her brothers, she managed to strike a new deal.



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