In my opinion, American Horror Story has always tried to
tackle hard-hitting issues such as gender and sexuality (just as Ryan Murphy
tries to tackle them in his other show Glee). However, the past two seasons, while
no doubt attempting to tackle some feminist issues, have seemed to fall flat in
favor of storyline. No matter how much strength and ingenuity the female
characters have, they always seem to fall victim to men. Lana Winters, for
example, in season two was an eager reporter doing anything she could (like
breaking into an asylum) to get a good scoop. She also happened to be gay.
Instead of rewarding her for her ambitions, she was punished – raped,
impregnated and almost murdered by a serial killer. Sister Jude also began as a
strong character, running an asylum and looked up to as a figure of authority.
She too fell fast, landing herself in the very same asylum that she ran placed
there by the devil himself. Of course, the key message here is that these women
were ahead of their time, being punished for their strength and authority.
However, nowhere in the show does it indicate that we are now at that point
where woman can be strong, where patriarchy is a thing of the past.
This season of the show, however, has a different take on
women. In fact, almost all the lead characters are women, witches who each have
unique powers far superior to men. Zoe, the newest witch to discover her
powers, has the ability to kill men just by having sex with them. And while
Emma Roberts’ character fell victim to men and was drugged and raped at a frat
party, she quickly evened the score and flipped the bus her rapists were riding
in, killing them all. In just two episodes, the show has ventured into the
motifs of female sexuality, mother-daughter relationships, fertility, aging and
other themes that deal with women’s identity and their relationships with one
another. In my opinion, the show has had a very feminist take so far and time
will only tell if these characters will remain strong or fall victim to
patriarchy.
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