B i g L o v e : Rewriting the Modern Man
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consecutive nights in the same marital bed), annuls the possibility of relieving
the pressure which continues to build among the wives. In the pilot episode of
the series, Margene, the third wife, goads Bill to admit that his love is not
equally divided, but he must deny her this pleasure to maintain equality between
the three wives:
MARGENE: I missed you so much. Sometimes three days can
feel like such an eternity. And I hate it when family
dinner falls on our night. Do you think I’m dirtyminded ’cause I think of you so much?
BILL: Honey, I miss you too. If I don’t say so, it’s ’cause I
don’t want Nicki and Barb to feel like I miss them
any less.
MARGENE: So does that mean you miss me more?
BILL: Officially, I miss you guys all the same. (“Pilot”)
The act of satisfying one wife is in itself depriving the other two wives of this
same satisfaction. In this case, the creation of the stereotype depends upon the
observed behavior of the female to establish the male’s placement, vis-a-vis the
masculine ideal, with the assumption that the most masculine man will leave his
wife with the highest level of satisfaction. Bill, being put in the impossible
situation of trying to satisfy three women, can never truly satisfy any of them.
This failure can be seen as being symptomatic of the man who is portrayed as
lacking masculinity, but in fac а