The CW’s One Tree Hill network show is more than a major teen hit soap opera. Many may find this series to be just another teen drama, but to fans it is an entirely different story. The relationships are complex and yet they still seem real. Unlike those who used to watch the soap opera Passions which involved a lot of science fiction throughout the series. The show was created in 2003 by Mark Schwahn. The idea was to captivate the nature of teens and their daily lives as once was said in a paraphrased television interview. However, the show gained its most popularity as the teens grew up into college students, lovers, mothers, and fathers etc. Each character’s history created the future that would lie ahead for them in up and coming episodes. The tangled webs the characters weaved to the love and adornment that they received is what One Tree Hill is all about. This response is to breach from the ideas of sex, identity, and how that is represented.
Take the character Brooke Davis for instance. She has always been a beauty who is completely selfless yet incredibly sexual when it comes to her relationship with her male counterparts. However, as Davis grows she utilizes her strengths and suppresses her weakness in men to become more of a figure of business like qualities. She has her own multi-million dollar fashion company at the age of 22. Not bad. She often feels lonely because she has been neglected by a mother who is verbally abusive towards her and tries to steal her company right under her feet. Since Brooke is missing the emotional attachment she wishes she had with her mother she gains more mother like qualities and cares for others. She also expressed the need for wanting a baby of her own to love and to nurture. According to Chris
The character Nathan Scott was always known as a handsome athlete who is scouted to play for the NBA. He marries his high school sweetheart now know as Haley Scott. Haley gets pregnant in high school with Nathan’s baby. Once the child is born and is old enough to have a nanny trouble begins to brew. The nanny is a physically beautiful woman by the name of Carrie who becomes completely infatuated with Nathan. She would use her understanding of sexual power (Barker, pg. 284) in order to wield in her prey. She was a live-in nanny and takes advantage of the fact that the pool is right outside of Nathan’s window. Late at night she would swim without her clothes on so that he would see her as sexually devourable. Nathan would watch sometimes and she knew it. However, Nathan loves his wife Haley a lot but does not feel the love that he is so desperately wanting. In one scene Carrie get the wrong idea and while Nathan is showering and kisses him. He didn’t see her at first and thought it was his wife. When he opened his eyes he was shocked and left the room immediately. I brought up this situation because it contradicts what is said in Barker’s book. Barker says that due to greater levels of testosterone and lower levels of serotonin men appear to be greater risk takers, have a higher propensity to find multiple partners, and are less likely to verbalize emotions (p.287). However, Nathan seems to be the opposite and Carrie fit these qualities, but she is the woman. Carrie does not care that Haley is in the house while she kisses Nathan proving that she is a risk taker, and she most certainly does not mind the fact that is married with a family. Carrie does not verbalize emotions toward Nathan she only shows them sexually. Nathan is a good man and does not want anything to do with Carrie, but here is an example of what happens to people when they are in the wrong place at at the wrong time:
One of the most interesting relationships in the series would be the one between Lucas Scott and Peyton Sawyer. They fell in love when they were in high school and as they grew older they remained a couple. One night Lucas decided to surprise Peyton with an engagement ring, but she felt they were too young to get married and no ready to take that step. After being emotionally upset Lucas leaves Peyton and finds another lover named Lindsey, who is the editor for Lucas’ self proclaimed novel. Peyton is heartbroken and never gets over the love she had for Lucas. War arises when Lucas asks Lindsey to marry him and Peyton does everything in her power to prevent that from happening, but that is only the beginning. When Lindsey and Lucas are about to say their “I Dos” Lindsey says “I Don’t.” She felt that Lucas was not over Peyton and she didn’t want to marry someone whose heart belonged to someone else. After this saga is over Peyton and Lucas get back together and now they are engaged to be married ( as of today’s storyline). Freudian theories suggest that sexual identity is formed through a developmental process in the context of our first relationships (Barker 294). To me, this means that the relationships that humans create in the beginning are what we will continue to subject ourselves to in hopes to maintain our sexual identity. Lucas’ first true relationship was with Peyton and therefore he developed his sexual identity while he was with her. Their love did not end because of a lack of adoration, but because of lack of communication. Some men have a tendency not to communicate as well as women do. There is evidence that woman are more verbal, co-operative and organized than men are (Barker 286). Maybe if Lucas did not hide from him emotions by investing his time in another woman and communicated with Peyton the two could have fashioned a mutual agreement. As I have said before, men are greater risk takers. I find that sometimes people forget what comes with risks; the ability to lose what you already have (which is a more negative thought) or potentially gain more than expected (a more positive outlook). In this case, Lucas had done both by losing his true love, but then she returns when he is ready to let her in once again. Here is a series of videos: The first one is Peyton asking Lucas not to marry Lindsey, and the next is Lindsey turning down Lucas at the alter, and finally Lucas and Peyton reunited happily again:
Another example of an intricate relationship is the three way triangle between Nathan Scott, Lucas Scott and their father Dan Scott. Dan Scott is a very aggressive man who is constantly having behavioral mood swings and he takes them out on anyone who is around; especially his sons. Dan is a prime example of a man who is more disposed to anger and less to empathy (Barker 287). He has always favored his son Nathan over Lucas, but he is still not loving towards either of them. The final straw is pulled when Dan murders his own brother and the uncle of the two boys, Keith Scott. Dan was found guilty of the murder and was placed into prison for many years. When he finally gets out he does everything to get the love of his family back, but they do not want anything to do with him. Nathan, who has a son named Jamie, wants Dan to have nothing to do with his grandson. Even though Jamie wishes he could be around his grandfather more often than not. The background of these characters lives is important to know so we can determine why they function the way they do. The relationship being described her is between men and their problematic masculinity. “The view that men are problems is a result of the apparent destructiveness of the contemporary men- the move from being naughty boys to being bad men. However, bad men often turn out to be better described as ‘sad men,’ the damaged goods of industrial society (Barker 304). Dan is a prime example of someone who would be considered a sad man. The reason he wanted to kill his brother in the first place was because he was jealous of him. Dan expressed his sadness in an evil and violent way because he did not know what else to do with his bottled up emotions. Here is the scene were Dan kills his brother:
In class readings Simone Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949) quoted what Aristotle once said, “The female is a female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities…we should regard the female nature as afflicted with a natural defectiveness.” I thought Aristotle was regarded a smart man, but after I heard this I questioned his abilities. Many of the female characters in this television show produce qualities that are considered to attain high standards in society without needing a relationship with a man to accomplish them. For example, I had mentioned Brooke Davis earlier before. She is a high powered career woman and she didn’t need the benefit of a man to tell her how to run her own multi-million dollar company. Sex has nothing to do with who you are as a person. Sure, men and women have distinct characteristics as Barker has mentioned, but it doesn’t mean humans, relationships, and lives don’t evolve. What is a woman? What is a man? Will we ever really know? As people, we can always deconstruct our ideas as to what “we” are. We can even deconstruct television shows to find the meanings. However, I believe the answer to each question is inside an individual’s self. One cannot tell you how you feel because you are the only one who can feel it. Nobody in Dan Scott’s family understood why he killed Keith, but he did it anyways because he let his anger take control of common deep sensibility. Therefore, through our emotions and actions we express what makes us who we are or what we are like when we live in the moment, even if we indeed may live in a soap opera like fictional characters seen on television.
Works Cited
Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies Theory and Practice. SAGE Publications,2008
De Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. (in class readings),1949
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