Author: Rachel Silver
Billboards for “American Horror Story” feature two faceless characters, one in a pleather fetish suit with his arms outstretched to the other figure, a pregnant woman in lingerie. They are in a claustrophobic red room evocative of a horrific sex dungeon. FX promotes the show as a “psycho-sexual thriller.” Given this promotion, the prominence of sex and gore is anticipated, but the unexpected portrayal of conservative social values is not. Instead, the unsettling depictions alienate viewers who want their entertainment free of strong social-political biases.
The plot centers around the Harmon family who moves from Boston to Los Angeles in an attempt to put their family back together. Vivien, the mother, had previously miscarried, and her husband Ben, a psychiatrist, had had an affair with his student from the university. Their teenage daughter Violet is sarcastic, dark and fearless. She encourages her parents to purchase the infamous house, knowing the previous owners died in a murder-suicide. As soon as the Harmons’ furniture is moved in, vengeful ghosts from the house’s bloody past show up in flesh and blood, no transparent skin or hovering feet, and they constantly harass and torment the new owners. Through non-chronological flashbacks, a gory history of the inhabitants in relation to the haunted house unfolds.
The house’s violent history began in 1922, when Dr. Charles Montgomery built it for his wife Nora. The couple finds themselves in a difficult financial position after putting too much money into the house’s construction. Charles and Nora collaborate on an underground operation in their basement providing illegal abortions to stage girls whose careers are threatened by “untimely pregnancies.” The violent, graphic and disturbing portrayal of the abortions condemns the act.
The abortions are shown from the social-conservative view: as the murder of babies. Disturbed and ether-addicted, Dr. Montgomery collects the fetuses in jars in his basement laboratory. Though the girls enter the house looking slender, these fetuses appear well past their sixth month of development. The visuals don’t match up. The resulting graphic is that of murder, not the removal of a fetus or embryo, since the aborted fetuses inaccurately resemble almost fully developed babies rather than earlier term fetuses.
The extreme representation of abortion continues in character stereotypes. The starlets who come in are “loose women” who get abortions to save their superficial careers. Similarly, the doctor who performs the abortions is mentally-damaged by ether-abuse and greedy for money and success. The stereotypes imply that women today who get abortions are sexually irresponsible and selfish, and their doctors are even more evil.
Additionally, the portrayal of the gay characters on the show is alienating. The two owners of the “murder house” before the Harmons, Chad and Patrick, are in a disintegrating relationship when they are murdered on Halloween. Though all murders in “American Horror Story” are extremely gory, Patrick’s takes a perverse turn. His pants are torn down and he is sodomized with a firebrand. A glimpse shows the blood on his body. The act is sexual humiliation.
The crude picture of the gay characters is surprising. “American Horror Story” is the latest project of “Glee” creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. Murphy is openly gay, and “Glee” is known for its gay characters confronting stereotypes and challenging barriers. Even if Patrick’s death was not meant as anything more than another shock in the psycho-sexual thriller, it can be interpreted as a conservative condemnation of homosexuality.
The portrayals of abortion and homosexuality on “American Horror Story” are inaccurate, disgusting and offensive. There is no reason the show should be dependent on them to propel the plot or shock the audience. It has enough gripping action, bloody violence and twisted story lines to thrive without the controversial images that taint the entertainment. The psycho-sexual thriller doesn’t need to rely on sexual violence in order to have psychological thrills and sexual themes. For a viewer already more entranced by the weird and fascinating history, the sexual gore is blood spilled on otherwise exceptional material.
“American Horror Story” airs on FX, Wednesdays at 10pm.
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