Hello all, this is ElFeministo here to tell you this post comes with a trigger warning: this post will talk about rape and rape culture. Please do not open the jump if you do not wish to read. Thank you.
This time of year always brings happiness and glee. I love Fall, and I especially love Halloween season! Last year Wednesday’s were special because they brought new episodes of a favorite TV show of mine, American Horror Story. The shows the perfect mix of classic horror folklore and modern social critiques or insights. Last week debuted a new season that I eagerly awaited since the end of last season. I never imagined I’d feel so distraught and confused after that first episode. That episode has been festering, eating at me for the past week as I try to dissect it, and I hope you all here at ShoutOut can help me out.
So if you missed it, the season opens up to Taissa Farmiga’s character having sex with her boyfriend; what a way to start a show.
A minute later the boyfriend dies and the Taissa learns she’s a witch who apparently has the power to kill anyone she has sex with, that’s American Horror Story for you. Creator and producer Ryan Murphy has always had a tendency to push the envelope for shock and terror, something I’ve admired him for, but I could never have imagined what would take place later in the episode.
As the story progresses the woman is taken to live in New Orleans and be apart of a sort of boarding school for witches. She meets the other young witches including newcomer to the series Emma Roberts’ character. They fast become friends and decide to go to a frat party and have a good time, and this is when the horror story hits a too close to home.
Emma Roberts is soon fed a roofie, dazed into a vegetative state and carried into a room. We then are shown quick flashes of multiple men raping her as Taissa frantically searches to find her. The scene escalates as Taissa stumbles into the room to see the group of frat brothers filming the whole thing on their phones as their ringleader slides away from Emma. The brothers run out and onto their bus almost ensured an escape until Emma appears in the frame and we dramatically learn her power is telekinesis as she overturns the bus, killing everyone inside.
Or so we think.
Apparently one brother lived through the horrific accident. The audience, and Taissa are led to hope that it’s one frat brother who tried to stop his other brothers from raping Emma. Taissa sneaks into the ER, pulls back the curtains blocking the survivor only learn it was the ringleader, the one who fed Emma the roofie in the first place.
Looking at the comatose man in front of her, we visibly see her evaluating her options until she realizes she carries an ace. As an act of revenge, Taissa decides to use her power to kill the man, by in effect, raping him.
The episode ends.
I’m left in a hanging silence as I try to comprehend what the hell just happened.
While it’s not the first time Murphy has introduced social commentary in his show, this time was significantly different. Not only was the graphic nature of the rape shocking, it provided no justification for being added. There was no mention that 1:3 women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. It evaluated the emotional state of the victim; in fact, Emma for the most part just walked it off.
On top of that, as an act of resolution, Murphy includes an additional rape scene of a man. Again, rather than mentioning the social implications of her actions or the fact that 1:8 men will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime, Taissa’s split-second decision is counted as an act of morbid vigilante justice.
I was horrified to confirm this when I took to twitter and tumblr shortly after watching the episode and continuously finding comments like, “He got what he deserved.” Only a handful of people talked about the lack of a trigger warning for the episode’s content, and even then only 3 or 4 of the posts I read questioned the moral and social implications of the episode.
I’m not saying every TV show has to include some stance on a social issue, but don’t make light of truly horrific acts violence in a mass media format. Don’t turn a real issue like rape culture into a hero’s story. In light of recent current events like Maryville and Steubenville, I don’t think it’s fair or beneficial to make rape a sensationalized story arc (I’m looking at you too Downton Abbey!) especially when you aren’t going to address the real events that occur behind what the media and other figures distort and hide.
In summary, I’m torn to whether I can look forward to Wednesdays any longer and continue watching this show. Ryan Murphy, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you meant to bring to light yet another social issue, however I’m questionable whether or not your motives were to provide real-life context to this shocking part of our culture or to simply provide shock-value to your show.
Please help me ShoutOut readers, how should I digest and process this information? What do you think about perpetuations of rape culture in the media? What are your thoughts on how the media “treats” rape and rape culture?
ShoutOut! James Madison University 
Thanks for saying this. I was also shocked – and not in the awesome way that American Horror Story usually delivers. I’m going to keep watching to see how it plays out, but whether or not it’s a social issue, there should have been a trigger warning.
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I always think that these sorts of episodes wouldn’t be as bad as they are if they lead to thoughtful discussion about the issues that they bring up, unfortunately, this is rarely this case. I’ve noticed recently, that there have been more and more instances of violence against men in the media from Sammi “Sweetheart” punching her then boyfriend in the face, to the devil rape scene in This Is The End, to this episode. I think that we, as feminists, need to be talking about these cases just as much as we do about acts of violence against women. Yes, one happens more often than the other, but that doesn’t make it any less valid or concerning. Great post!
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