Did you watch the “Succession” finale on HBO this week? If so, did the last shot of Tom and Shiv in their car remind you of “Bargain with the patriarchy”, Deniz Kandiyoti’s 1988 article which is a foundational text of Indian feminist thought?
Me, too! And not just because “Bargaining With Patriarchy” would be an extremely literal three-word summary of the entire series. Because while “Succession” was not overtly about the patriarchy, that’s what it’s all about, no doubt a patriarchy.
“Succession,” for those unfamiliar, follows the exploits of the Roy family: literal patriarch Logan, an aging media baron in the guise of Rupert Murdoch, and his grown children. Most of the show’s plot was driven by his son Kendall’s various failed attempts to dethrone or succeed him, some of which involved Kendall’s sister, Shiv, and/or his brother, Roman.
Which brings me to Kandiyoti, the feminist theorist whose seminal work is surprisingly helpful in understanding the current HBO hit.
The “bargain” in the title of her article refers to the side deal that patriarchal systems offer women: if they help protect men’s interests by serving their husbands and sons and conforming to the conventions of decency that protect their reputations. protecting family, they can also enjoy some privileges – and even exercise limited power over other, less fortunate women.
For example, the traditional understanding for many Indian women was that they would not own property or inherit family property, but would be supported by their husbands while young and by sons in old age.
But the benefits of those bargains always depended on women’s relationship with men, Kandiyoti wrote. In the aftermath of the divorce, death or estrangement of any relevant man, the protection and power vested in him would crumble, with no guarantee that another man would take his place.
(Now for the required warning: “Succession” spoilers appear below.)
One way to think of the events of “Succession” is as the story of Kendall’s tragic misconception about his position in the family under his father’s patriarchy. He thought that as a son – the “oldest boy,” as he angrily (and incorrectly) shrieked in the last episode – he would inherit everything. But actually, in patriarchal terms of power and position, though not actual gender, he was in fact as vulnerable as a wife or daughter trapped in Logan’s job.
It is one of the oldest political stories in the world: someone supports an oppressive system and thinks he will be at the top one day, only to discover that he has played into the mechanisms of his own oppression.
The Roy children’s mistake was not realizing that they only enjoyed privileges through Logan. If the children lived up to the rules of that patriarchy, he gave them money and sinecures and sometimes even authority over those outside the family.
But it all depended on their relationship with him, which was horribly abusive. Over the course of four seasons, he has insulted, belittled, manipulated, gassed and even physically assaulted his children. He controlled their money, undermined their relationships and demanded absolute loyalty. He cut off escape routes, promised them the world but never delivered it.
So none of the kids had independent power bases that could come from, say, setting up their own businesses or doing real jobs within their father’s empire. (Significantly, the show rarely depicted the Roy kids to work for the Waystar Royco empire.) The patriarchal agreement was all they had.
Kendall, in particular, had no skills that were useful to the rest of the world. As he rightly told his sister when he begged her to back his bid for CEO in the last episode, he was a cog made to fit only one machine. Except that the machine in question was not, as he had thought, the Waystar Royco company. The machine was his relationship with his father. And that died with Logan.
This is the dirty secret of patriarchal systems, Kandiyoti wrote: Once women are co-opted to relinquish power, they are no longer able to enforce the agreement that got them into that situation in the first place, especially not when new men take control.
“For the generation of women caught in the middle,” she wrote, “this transformation can be a real personal tragedy, as they have paid the high price of a previous patriarchal agreement but are unable to recoup the benefits promised.”
For Kendall, tragedy came not only when he lost power from the company he so longed for, but also when his siblings abandoned him.
But perhaps a life of surrounding misogyny meant that Shiv Roy, the one and only daughter of the family, was best placed to acknowledge that situation for what it was. That might explain why she ended up supporting her husband as the new CEO: At the last minute, she may have realized her old patriarchal agreement was worthless, but unlike her brothers, she managed to negotiate a new one.