Drawing on linguistics, psychoanalytic theory, and feminist film criticism, Nochimson explores the ways in which soap opera has inverted the typical male-centered narrative characterized by a power-driven, almost sacred, Oedipal father-son relationship that serves to control female energy. Instead, soap operas present strong women who resist their stabilizing roles in exclusive, either/or male hierarchies. In breaking the linearity and closure of traditional narrative, daytime serials decenter patriarchal power strategies and articulate instead a feminine politics of freedom.