Admittedly, I haven't been the most faithful 'The Bold and The Beautiful' (B&B) fan. There are times when they refer to a past event where I need to hit Wikipedia or soapnet or something like that to be brought up to speed about something. A case in point was the situation with Rick's son who was in fact Deacon Sharpe's son and not by Amber Moore. I did not see all of the episodes of that period. I just really remembered that CJ was more husky than fat and that he loved Becky and that Bridget ran away from home and that at some point she became the actress Jennifer Finnigan (the only Bridget as far as I'm concerned) and she takes up with Deacon.
However, I tend to watch the episodes where Ridge seems to think that he can control all of the elements of the lives of his family-especially the women in his life- and yet don't abide by the strictures that he sets up. Heaven forbid when someone either does the same thing or calls him on it, he wants to cry foul. Now a psychologist would look at his parents' behaviour as the likely reason for it, what with their anointing him the "chosen one" in the family and the tendency of both to engage in what I call "conditional love" with their children.
The most recent example of Ridge's obnoxious controlling tendencies has to do with his daughter Steffy, usually characterized as being the sober and smart one, and her decision to have a relationship with Marcus, the son of Donna Logan, his current enemy who happens to be the sister of his love interest/soulmate Brooke Logan.
Ridge heavy hands and engages in the "conditional love" practice that his parents established by stating that while he found Marcus to be all right, he loathes Marcus' mother and does not want Steffy to have anything to do with him because of that (meanwhile ignoring the fact that he can't seem to live without Donna's older sister Brooke, who cause a lot more turmoil and pain in the lives of the Forresters than Donna and Marcus could have ever done on a good day and who still at times causes trouble from time to time). Instead of trusting Steffy's common sense and maturity, he talks down to her and makes this about family loyalty. Now sure, Marcus will not put up with Ridge and his siblings malignment of Donna, no matter how well deserved at times, though not as much lately as Donna has cobbled together some maturity on her part. Nor will Marcus sit idly by and let them scheme and strong arm her out of the company when their father set her up fair and square. Marcus has a unique perspective in that unlike most of the players of this little drama, he is new to the family, having been given up by a teenage Donna for adoption. They recently reunited and he sees the Forresters not as the gods that others do. A good guy, he gives people a chance and accepts that his mother and her siblings save Katie have had pitchforks in their rears at times.
Now another thing that occurred to me about why Ridge may find the Marcus-Steffy pairing so distateful is the fact that Marcus is Black and "ain't no doubt about it" Black. There were times during some of the kissing scenes between them that I thought the Klan was going to ride in and take care of business. Of course, this is LA-more to the point, Beverly Hills. They won't say it, but I know that the Black viewers and others are thinking it, especially given B&B's mostly "lily-white" history. There were very few main cast characters of color period. One wasn't really a main cast member as we have hardly seen him-he is the adopted son of the now seldom seen except for funerals (though she has not shown up for the current medical crisis of Eric) Kristen, who was an African boy with AIDS. The other was a character played by Lark Voohries of "Saved By the Bell" fame and once her crazy boyfriend was gone, so was she. Any other people of color were "drive-bys" with the most recent being the father and son team of detectives who worked on the Stephanie Forrester shooting. Now, I would have loved to see more of them and stories about them, but B&B are good for dangling storylines and characters. Oh and did I mention the storyline with the supposed Latina daughter of Stephanie's maid who was an illegal and that the actress who played her was in "brown face?"
I suppose it could be argued that the racial thing is a subconscious thing and that honestly the more plausible reason for Ridge's hatred of Marcus is that he is Donna's son. That's the theory I am working with.
Whatever the reason of his disapproval, I hate that this man treats his daughter so. He does not respect her at all. He very easily will go after his mother for the same behaviour, but does not see it in himself.
I often wonder what women could possibly see in him and more importantly, why they put up with it.
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