Exploring the Matriarchal Myth in Quebec's Television Narrative
Since the inception of television in Quebec, fictional works—ranging from soap operas to series—have played a pivotal role in solidifying, transforming, or challenging various myths in the social imagination. Jessie Morin, a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Media, has embarked on an ambitious project to investigate the enduring myth of matriarchy within popular discourse. Her research focuses on analyzing the narratives of television productions from the 1950s to the present day, aiming to decode the complex representations of authority and female power as portrayed on screen.
This research builds upon her doctoral dissertation completed a year ago at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, which examined the representation of the body in historical television fictions in Quebec from 1990 to the present. “I was particularly interested in the discourse suggesting that these historical fictions portrayed men as victims of especially strong female characters,” explains Morin. “Moreover, I noticed a resurgence of the concept of matriarchy in populist discourse and media spaces, implying that women were occupying too much space and wielding excessive power in Quebec. For all these reasons, I wanted to delve deeper into this topic as part of my postdoctoral research.”
Prior to her doctoral studies, Morin completed her bachelor's and master's degrees in history at the Université du Québec à Rimouski, along with a bachelor's in education from the University of Ottawa. Her research interests encompass Quebec's history, media—particularly television—and the history of women from a feminist perspective.
A Persistent Myth and Its Evolution
Morin emphasizes that a wealth of anthropological, historical, and sociological studies have demonstrated the non-existence of matriarchal societies—social systems where authority and power are held by women. “I don't think this is necessarily the idea that people have in mind when they describe Quebec as a matriarchal society, as they recognize that women are not predominantly at the helm of major social institutions. Yet, the expression continues to be used, and I am interested in understanding why.”
In recent years, certain social movements such as ecofeminism and masculinism have reinterpreted the concept of matriarchy. “A current within ecofeminism attempts to demonstrate the existence of a matriarchal society in Quebec that was destroyed by colonization. For this perspective, matriarchy is seen as a source of female power and agency. Conversely, the masculinist movement appropriates the concept of matriarchy to justify what they perceive as a crisis of masculinity and to denounce the alleged dominance of women as well as feminism in general.”
As part of her postdoctoral project, Morin aims to achieve three objectives: to illuminate the diversity of narratives surrounding the representation of female authority on screen, to study the hegemonic narratives that accompany them, and to showcase the evolution of the matriarchal myth in relation to societal changes, while also reflecting on its instrumentalization in popular culture. Furthermore, she will analyze the technical television processes—such as music, silences, voices, and types of shots—employed to accentuate specific traits and emotions.
The researcher seeks to uncover the interactions between social discourse and cultural narratives, particularly in television, regarding women and matriarchy. For a long time, the matriarchal myth was embodied by the family matriarch, who ruled over her children and husband, a character exemplified by Mama Plouffe in one of Quebec's earliest soap operas, _La famille Plouffe_. “This type of character was already present in early 20th-century Canadian literature and later in radio dramas, which subsequently influenced the television fictions of the 1950s,” observes Morin.
Morin points out that the matriarchy myth is notably illustrated by the Quebec expression “être une Germaine,” a play on words combining the verbs _gérer_ and _mener_ (to manage and to lead), which describes an authoritative, controlling, inflexible, and stifling woman. This type of female character frequently confronts male characters depicted as weak, tortured, or relegated to the role of losers. “The notion that women lead in Quebec has always been present in Quebec television,” asserts Morin. In her research, she intends to trace the evolution of this character from the beginnings of television to the present across a range of productions, including _Les belles histoires des pays d’en haut_, its remake _Les pays d’en haut_, _Quelle famille_, _Moi et l’autre_, _Chez Denise_, _Lance et compte_, _Un gars, une fille_, _Les invincibles_, _La galère_, and many more.
“This character takes on various forms depending on the eras and the evolution of power dynamics between men and women in society, as well as in the realm of intimacy,” Morin explains. For instance, the housewife of the 1950s and 1960s bears little resemblance to the independent woman of subsequent decades, who works and pursues a career. For each female character, the postdoctoral researcher will focus on the vocabulary used to describe her and the individuals over whom she exerts authority: partners, children, and peers. She will also consider different television genres, such as drama, sitcom, and historical series.
Morin hypothesizes that the figure of the controlling woman has become more complex, if not transformed, over the past decade. “This phenomenon is closely linked to the increasing presence of women screenwriters and directors in television, who create more nuanced female characters. They associate the idea of control with the mental load or anxiety felt by women who often have to juggle their careers and motherhood.”
According to Morin, the emergence of this new generation of creators, particularly in web series, has contributed to deconstructing the matriarchal myth. “The way characters evolve generally corresponds to social discourse on matriarchy, except in recent years, where we are witnessing a sort of reversal: the matriarchal discourse is hardening elsewhere in society while it is becoming more nuanced on television. Consider, for instance, the recent series _Les pays d’en haut_, which features strong female characters alongside more substantial male characters, such as Séraphin and Alexis.”
Affiliated with the Quebec Network for Feminist Studies (RéQEF), the Interuniversity Research Centre on Quebec Literature and Culture (CRILCQ), and the Research Laboratory on Consumer Culture and Media Culture in Quebec (LaboPop), Jessie Morin is poised for a career as a professor-researcher. She recently contributed to organizing two conferences: the first, “Women, Feminism, and Humor: A Really Serious Question,” took place during the Acfas congress last May, and the second, “Reality Television: Formats, Mutations, and New Mediation,” was held at UQAM in early June.
As reported by actualites.uqam.ca.
