Now that the promoting-my-work part of my blog is out of the way, it's on to the vampire, supernatural, and writing-related topics. For this entry, I am going to share my thoughts about the first season of the FX series, American Horror Story.
DISCLAIMER: If you haven't seen American Horror Story, and want to find out how it ends for yourself, stop reading now. It's a show that's totally worth watching, so you won't hurt my feelings if you leave. While you're waiting for the episodes to finish downloading, you can read my story, "Love is a Battlefield." If you've already seen it, or your surprise gene is impervious to ruin, well...
American Horror Story is easily one of the most unsettling things I've seen on TV. It's chock full of vicious ghosts, basement abortions, rape, and low moral denominators. But in the end, what bothers me most is what it seems to say about our society, especially regarding our views of women.
On the surface, American Horror Story is a morality tale about the importance of family and the dangers of reckless behavior. In the beginning, the Harmon family moves from Boston to Los Angeles after the mother, Vivien, has a miscarriage and her husband Ben, a psychiatrist, cheats on her with one of his students. Their teenage daughter, Violet, is caught in the middle of their marital strife, and left isolated by the move.
Several gruesome ghost stories intertwine with the unraveling threads of the Harmon's marriage. Their house, it turns out, is the site of some of Los Angeles's most famous murders, as well as a share of lesser-known ones. When someone dies in the house, their spirit can't leave, and every spirit is motivated by the circumstances of their death. On top of that, there is the Harmon’s menacing neighbor, Constance, and her officious ex, Larry, who is burned on over seventy percent of his body.
Ben is selfish and narcissistic, and some of the ghosts seem to bedevil him as a moral price. He was unfaithful to Vivien, continues to lie to her about it, and ignores his behavior’s affect on his daughter. It often seems like the ghosts are a supernatural manifestation of his deceit and betrayal of his family. Moira, a salacious maid who Constance murdered because of her husband's forceful advances, constantly attempts to seduce Ben. He is harassed by Hayden, the ghost of his mistress, who Larry murders in an attempt to blackmail him. Another malevolent spirit, Tate (a teenage psychopath), poses as a patient and says obscene things about Violet. In the end, Hayden arranges Ben’s death, so he is destroyed by the direct symbol of the harm he inflicted on his family.
This morality tale would be fairly cut and dry if Ben got the worst of it, but he doesn't. To the show’s credit, most characters occupy a grey space between good and evil. Still, of all the members of the Harmon family, Ben is by far the biggest threat to their stability, and his wife and daughter bear the worst burdens.
Violet is sullen and a little rebellious, but struggles to do the right thing. For her efforts, she is tormented by visions of spirits, commits suicide, and doesn't realize she is a ghost for months. But the worst fate is reserved for Vivien.
Vivien haltingly struggles to restore her trust in Ben, an endeavor which is rewarded by Ben's continued deceit and violent harassment from Hayden's ghost. Tate also rapes her, and then attempts to rape her again at Hayden's behest. While Ben is surreptitiously visiting Hayden in Boston, Vivien and Violet are attacked by a cult that wishes to copy famous serial killers. She becomes pregnant— with twins from two fathers, Ben and Tate— and not only does she die in childbirth, but one child is stillborn and the other is the freaking antichrist! And this is not even a complete list of the harm done to Vivien.
The majority of other women in show occupy a moral spectrum ranging from deep gray to black, but none are truly evil. Moira is a ghost with a deep grudge, a flash-frozen trauma who acts out her rage toward the man who assaulted her by tempting other men into indiscretion. Nora Montgomery, another harmful ghost, is driven by the loss of her infant son. Hayden is unstable and manipulative, but Ben’s treatment of her makes somewhat sympathetic. Constance actively plots against the Harmon family, emotionally abuses her Down syndrome daughter, and pressures Larry to murder her son, Beauregard. Though her actions are sometimes cruel enough to make empathy difficult, her behavior stems from a life perpetual tragedy, .
The show’s creators, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, are also responsible for Nip/Tuck and Glee, and I am not the first person to raise questions about his shows' portrayal of women. As to whether these two men are personally misogynistic, it is easy to speculate but harder to say for certain. A lot of people worked on American Horror Story, including Tim Minear, a veteran of the decidedly un-misogynistic Joss Whedon creations, Angel and Firefly. But the question of what the show's creators think about women is actually a part of a bigger question of what the show says about our society's attitudes toward them.
It is telling that the show is set in Los Angeles, a city known for chewing people up and spitting them out, especially young women. It may thus be no coincidence that one side plot of American Horror Story features the infamous Black Dahlia murder, which another side plot replicates with Constance’s young, dim-witted lover, Travis, as victim. Like the Black Dahlia, Travis had big dreams. These two deaths could be a commentary on the commoditization of sex. Both men and women are objectified, though the latter supply the larger share of meat for the grinder.
So, I don’t think that American Horror Story is sexist so much as it reflects broader misogynistic strains in our society. I mean, you don’t have to listen to lots of Ani Difranco to admit that we are living in a patriarchy. But, as American Horror Story shows, the debasement of one sex debases us all. The women in the show suffer mainly because of the selfishness of men. Nora lost her child as an indirect result of her husband’s failures. Ben Harmon’s reckless behavior destroys the lives of the two women closest to him. I can’t help but wonder what Constance would have become had she lived in a society that had valued her more.
If a morality tale about the value of family forms the thematic rind of American Horror Story, then it’s meat warns us against the devaluation and abuse of women.
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