To continue my journalistic theme of morbid parallels between female oppression and quarantine, I’ve decided to address instances of symbolic female imprisonment in “American Horror Story: Murder House” and the show’s attempts to condemn socially-normalized misogyny.
If it wasn’t already clear by my choice of topic, being bored in my own house forced me to re-binge “American Horror Story”; a show that continues to intrigue, repulse and confuse me with its mixed messages. Spoilers ahead, and since this show is not particularly sensitive with its content, trigger warning here for mentions of rape, gore and murder.
“American Horror Story: Murder House” follows the story of a woman named Vivian, her husband Ben and their daughter Violet. After Vivian caught Ben cheating on her, she decided to give him a second chance by moving the family to an old house for a fresh start.
Predictably, the house is haunted—worse, it’s the site of dozens of murders, is nicknamed ‘Murder House’ by true crime fanatics and all the people who have died on the property are inexplicably condemned to an eternity within its walls. Vivian may be alive for most of the season, but she remains just as trapped as the ghosts around her.
A kind ghost befriends Vivian, pretending to need employment in order to have a logical reason for staying in the house. This ghost, Moira, appears to the women of the family as an elderly housekeeper—the age that she should actually be according to her time of death. To Ben, however, Moira looks to be around 24 years old and stunningly beautiful. She winks sensually, whispers sexual innuendos in Ben’s ears and begs him to touch her.
What could this possibly mean? It’s never exactly clear whether Violet and Vivian can hear Moira saying what Ben hears. We know that Moira is trapped inside Murder house, and we know that she desperately wishes to leave. We later learn that Moira was murdered unjustly; she was raped and when her rapist’s wife found them together the wife killed them both.
Moira was imprisoned in the house for eternity by a woman who sided with Moira’s rapist. Ben sees Moira from the perspective that Moira’s murderer and rapist would have seen her—a “slut,” as they called her, begging married men to have sex with her. More than anything, this shows the audience that Ben does not respect women as human beings. Vivian and Violet recognize that Moira is simply a sad, old woman—lonely and longing for freedom. For crying out loud, she even quotes “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. How much more obvious could she be?
It seems like Vivian never leaves the house, either. She’s busy redecorating, trying to get her moody daughter to talk to her and gently denying Ben’s incessant, pressuring pleas for sex. Then, right after the move, Vivian is raped and impregnated by a ghost.
Once Vivian is pregnant, she gets violently sick every time she tries walking out the door. She’s chained to the house like the rest of the spirits, and when the ghosts begin to play tricks on her, Ben gaslights Vivian and sends her to a mental hospital where she is imprisoned once more.
Vivian dies in the Murder House giving birth to a baby created through rape. The symbolism here is painfully affecting; Ben physically holds Vivian inside the Murder House as her life leaves her. By calling Vivian insane, denying that she could possibly have been raped and lying to Vivian until she doubts her own sanity, Ben worked together with Vivian’s rapist to entomb her spirit forever.
Two innocent women, Moira and Vivian, become permanently trapped in an unforgiving hell as a result of the decisions of hateful men and internally misogynistic women. “American Horror Story: Murder House” declares that the problem is not only rapists and murderers, but also any person who villainizes women for their gender and who chooses not to believe survivors.
Now that we’re all locked in our respective houses, it’s time for us to try to open our own minds. Let’s make sure we’re never like Ben and that we never entrap anybody in a creepy old house for all eternity because it sucks being stuck somewhere with no way to escape. And if you’re bored, like me, maybe watch some “American Horror Story” to pass the time. Better yet, read “The Yellow Wallpaper”—much less problematic, and maybe just as poignant.