When The Bear 🐻 Succeeds MASKulinity

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EPISODE SUMMARY

Just to clarify, we’re not talking about a bear succeeding at being chosen over a man in the woods. We mean the show! The Bear continues to be a favorite at TV award shows, and this year is no different. Naturally, your hosts talked about it. But first, they took a look at the show that rivalled it last year with just as many Enny wins. Succession. Your favorite hosts are joined by Professor of Race, Gender and Sexuality at Simmons University, Suzanne Leonard.

What draws us in about watching (miserable) rich people ?

Did Succession glamorize all-powerful MASKulinity?

Now, in a second Trump term, is this too close to reality?

We talked about it all this episode.

The crew takes a moment to acknowledge the SAG nominees. We love when deserving people get their flowers.

• With The Bear being nominated, the crew decides to talk MASKulinity in the show, but first, they talk about a previous winner that reminds us all a bit too much of real life: Succession.

• Samantha takes us through some interesting facts about the family that Succession is based on.

• Suzanne lets us know what attracts her about the show. Are you a bit voyeuristic like her and Samantha are when it comes to this show? What is it about miserable rich people that draws our attention?

• With a quick synopsis of Succession, Samantha breaks down the similarities between the Fox News Murdochs and their fictional counterparts.. 

• A power struggle between a father and his children for the head seat of the company, something that provides a particular comment on fatherhood, power, and MASKulinity in our current social and political moment.

• Why are we talking about this show? Suzanne and Samantha apprise Remoy of why it’s helpful for us to dissect this type of patriarchal leadership.

• Suzanne makes an important note on mourning traditional media, which feels like it might be dying out, but is it?

• So much political, economic, and social power is concentrated in families with Murdochs, Trumps, and Maxwells, it’s worth examining the BTS of these powerful families through this show.

• Exactly how powerful are these nepotistic families? The crew runs down the list of the Murdochs’ empire and their impactful media (and legal) history and MASKulinity.

• SPOILER ALERT: Samantha presents some scenes from Succession for Remoy to react to. Suzanne weighs in.

We dissect the Roys’ MASKulinity

• The fatherhood that Logan Roy displays can be mapped onto Trump’s leadership of both his family and the US as a country: we sustain his legacy.

• Wielding real power and setting the tone for men’s MASKulinity both in their families and in our larger society are staples of the all-powerful patriarchs.

• Suzanne highlights the ruthlessness of the powerful masculinity in the fatherhood displayed and how damaging it is to people around the folks who perform that masculinity. It is reflected in all these clips. 

• Remoy makes a poignant point about America’s need for a father figure running the country.

• The crew continues on to discuss crowd favorite, The Bear. Remoy points out that if Shrinking is the best way to deal with MASKulinity’s woes, and Succession is the most toxic, The Bear falls somewhere in the middle.

• Remoy provides a great synopsis of the show, highlighting how differently it deals with masculinity compared to Succession.

• We examine the relationships stemming from Carmy’s newfound leadership.

• Carmy and Syd’s relationship represents a great mixed-gender leadership collaboration for this show. 

• Richie’s evolution as a person as well as the rest of the cast’s reflected the power of a connected leadership.

• The Bear deals with mental health in an immensely different way from Succession. Carmy relies on those around him to get better while Kendall schemes while wielding power as his father does.

• The Bear chronicles changing dynamics in a workplace as does Succession. The three draw out the differences and few similarities between masculinities in the two shows.

• Suzanne highlights how class creates a different landscape than the opulent Succession

• In our deep dive, Suzanne shares some great nuggets in her research on gender in powerful structures.

• We dive into questions about how family structures impacted our recent election of an all-powerful patriarch.

• We get into how women hold up these power structures. Suzanne’s research has looked at how women’s own power is garnered through all-powerful couples.

• Suzanne makes points on whiteness and how racial hierarchies impact this all-powerful dynamic.

  Thoughts? Rants? Hit us up.

OK, now we’re really outta here! See you soonish! 👋🏾👋🏿

Referenced on this episode:

• The Murdochs’ own family power struggle

• HBO’s Succession and our reckoning with male monsters - referenced article by BBC’s Hugh Montgomery

• When we talked about Shrinking, the nominated show that got mental health right

• When we talked about some very different TV Dads

• How American Politics REALLY Sees Men & MASKulinity - our episode dissecting the PEW report

• How Americans See Men and Masculinity - Pew Research Center report that continues to be relevant

• Perhaps it’d be helpful to see how men maintain social connections; we talked about it

COMPANION PIECES:

• On The Bear and MASKulinity

OUR GUEST THIS WEEK:

Suzanne Leonard

Work

Suzanne Leonard is Professor of Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Director of the Graduate Program in Gender and Cultural Studies, and co-coordinator of the university’s interdisciplinary minor in Cinema and Media Studies. She is also co-chair of the board that oversees the Graduate Consortium in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality.