All of the women in Twin Peaks play a vital role in the story, and help create one of the most deeply-rooted themes of the piece: the struggle between feminism and patriarchy – which are themselves opposites in the concept of duality. Twin Peaks is depicted as a notably patriarchal community, where every authority figure and senior crime boss is male, and the majority of women are the subject of overt, often violent oppression.
Shelly Johnson is regularly beaten and controlled by her husband, Leo; Audrey Horne is emotionally neglected by her father, Ben, leading to her kidnap and abuse at the hands of Jean Renault; Norma Jennings is emotionally abused by her convicted felon husband, Hank (Chris Mulkey); Josie Packard was sold to a British man named Thomas Eckhardt (David Warner) as a young girl in Hong Kong, and was forced into a life of crime – including conning Eckhardt’s former business partner, Andrew Packard (Dan O’Herlihy), in order to gain control of the Packard Mill; Sarah Palmer is regularly drugged by her husband, Leland (albeit, while possessed by Bob) to facilitate his abuse of their daughter; Sylvia Horne (wife of Ben) is trapped in a marriage with a serial adulterer and abuser of women; Eileen Hayward (Mary Jo Deschanel) has previously been manipulated by Ben Horne; Annie Blackburn (Heather Graham) is brutalized by Windom Earle for the sole purpose of upsetting Agent Cooper and gaining access to the Black Lodge; and Ronette Pulaski and many other teenage girls are coerced into prostitution and drug addiction for the financial benefit and sexual gratification of men.
There are exceptions, of course. Betty Briggs (Charlotte Stewart) – wife of Major Briggs, and mother of Bobby – appears to enjoy a strong partnership with her husband, and is steadfast during his sometimes difficult investigations into the White Lodge. The Log Lady (Catherine E. Coulson) functions in her own way – providing assistance to Agent Cooper when needed – largely by remaining on the periphery of the community, and observing the actions of others. Nadine Hurley (Wendy Robie) – wife of Ed, and Aunt of James – is a woman given to experiencing some emotional difficulty, until she attempts suicide and wakes up with near-superhuman strength. Believing herself to be a teenager again, she embraces life with gusto, refusing to be constrained in any way.
Exceptional in a different way are Laura Palmer and Catherine Martell. These are women facing misogyny in their everyday lives – Laura by way of abuse from her father, and Catherine in the business world – and so they push back in their own ways. Laura becomes manipulative of others to the point of cruelty (which is explored in greater detail in the prequel movie, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me), while Catherine works to surpass Benjamin Horne in terms of corruption and fraud. Overtly abused or not, each woman is working against the patriarchal structure in her own way – from Shelly meeting her husband’s violence with violence, to Norma eventually divorcing Hank; from Josie killing her captors, to Audrey choosing to learn the family business so she can eventually take it from her father – all of which makes Twin Peaks an epic tale underpinned by the battle against misogyny, in all its forms.
This theme ties neatly into that of colonization, which is also threaded throughout the show. Just as the men in the town seek to colonize the lives of the women, so Twin Peaks makes continued reference to the colonization of land, and the cultural appropriation that goes along with it. Twin Peaks is a town that remains closely tied to the land on which it sits, with the main industries being logging and hospitality. The Packard Saw Mill employs a great deal of the local population in logging, trucking, and operation of the mill itself. This brings to the fore the issue of the effect of industrialization on a once unspoilt environment.
As the largely white population has colonized the area and founded the town, so their impact on the land has caused irreparable damage. At the same time, the town is filled with physical references to Native American cultures – largely through the use of totem poles as decoration – with The Great Northern Hotel in particular using these items to create a décor that will appeal to tourists and turn a profit. These themes combine late in season 2, when Ben Horne experiences a crisis of conscience (during which he literally re-writes the American Civil War to suit his own, privileged needs) and launches a campaign to save the endangered Pine Weasel from the extinction threatened by property development he himself initiated. He does this from a stage in The Great Northern Hotel, surrounded by totem poles draped in fairy lights, asking a largely white crowd to donate money to his cause.