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Popular Culture Review
domination. ... The manifestations of virility, whether
legitimate or illegitimate, belong to the logic of prowess, the
exploit, which confers honour. And although the extreme
gravity of the slightest sexual transgression forbids open
expression of this, the indirect challenge to the masculinity of
other men that is implied in every assertion of virility contains
the principle of the agonistic vision of male
sexuality.. . . (Bourdieu 19)
Not only can the man penetrate the woman, but he can choose which woman he
will penetrate. The modem polygamous system, as it is represented in the series,
does not allow for this freedom of choice. The wives agree on a cyclical
schedule, without consulting the husband, which will allow each woman to
spend every third night with him. This contract can only be breached at the
discretion of the wives, as a wife must agree to sacrifice or trade her night, but
the husband can never unilaterally choose to disregard the established schedule.
In one episode, the wives trade nights, and Bill runs from one house to another
wrapped in only a blanket and finally resorts to spending the night on the couch.
Bill’s lack of choice is equated with a lack of power through emasculation by
the females. On another level, Bill’s lack of choice would be in opposition to the
popular icon of the “player,” or the historic one of the Casanova, who acquires
sexual capital by choosing and then seducing a variety of different women. At
first glance, the polygamous system would seem to be just another example of
the man acquiring sexual capital through the taking of multiple wives, but within
the series, the polygamous system is more a denial of this freedom than an
elevation of it. Even when taking a new wife, the husband must seek the
approval of all of his wives and attain a unanimous vote before bringing a new
woman into the union. Seemingly then, the choice of polygamy is, in and of
itself, a sort of castration, and therefore to bind oneself to three women in a
polygamous union, like that represented in Big Love, is the utter destruction of
free choice and, in turn, masculine virility.
These situations only aggravate the problem that makes up the final aspect
of the category of sexual virility: Bill’s inability to perform. Impotence is seen
as a shameful failure of male masculinity, because it is the loss of sexual power
over the female, in the inability to penetrate. It is thus the representation of
Bourdieu’s conception of Masculine Domination in reverse. Bourdieu’s direct
link between sexual virility and the masculine male is maintained through the
turbulent reaction of Bill’s masculinity to his inability to perform.
The impotent man can no longer dominate or satisfy his partner without
pharmaceutical aids, and this leads to a destruction of the male ego in that he
cannot live up to the mark that the societal ideal has convinced him that he
should. Having three wives only increases the demands on Bill’s virility and
therefore his inability to perform is focused upon because of the tension it
creates amongst the wives. Each wife expects sexual favors on her night with