"Blondes make the best victims. They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody footprints.”
To what extent have gender roles in horror remakes like 'Bates Motel' been adapted for contemporary audiences?
Throughout history, the horror genre has reflected the zeitgeist, this includes the way that men and women are represented. In particular, we have seen a strong focus on gender roles. In Hollywood, many successful horror films adhere strongly to typical gender roles in order to carry their narrative. One brazen example of this, is seen in the almost 60 year old, "sensationalist slasher movie", 'Psycho'. Hitchcock's 1960s masterpiece remains “one of the key works of our age” and inevitably has been subject to incessant debate and commentary on its female and male character portrayals. However, in more recent times there has undeniably been a reversal or deviation of gender roles, which arguably began due to Hitchcockian influence and can be seen in contemporary media texts. ‘Bates Motel’ is a prequel to Hitchcock's 'Psycho', continuing “the legacy of a beloved classic”, yet has “challenged the notions of exactly what a reboot can be”. It has tried to challenge the fixed, prototypical gender roles within the 1960s. This contemporary text provides an ideal way of investigating how changes in society have impacted the way gender is used in Hollywood, because of the side by side comparisons we can make to its origin text. This essay will explore gender roles in Hollywood productions and how they have been adapted as time goes on.
‘Bates Motel’ was produced in 2013; “It was developed by Carlton Cuse, Kerry Ehrin, and Anthony Cipriano, and is produced by Universal Television and American Genre for the cable network A&E.”. The principal antagonist and protagonist is a young man named Norman Bates, played by Freddie Highmore. He is suffering from a number of mental disorders and runs an off-highway motel with his mother, Norma, played by Vera Farmiga. Other characters in the series include Max Theriot who plays Norman’s older brother Dylan Massett, Nestor Carbonell who plays Romero, Norma’s main love interest, Samuel Myron who plays Sam Loomis and most notably, the fashionable singer, song-writer “Rihanna takes on the role of Marion Crane”. The depiction of these characters is all set prior to the events portrayed in the film, ‘Psycho', but instead in a twenty first century, modern day setting. The relationship between Norma and Norman is the “central relationship” that the show focuses on. In particular, their relationship revolves around how Norman is “simultaneously in love with and repulsed by his mother and his feelings for her”. In other words, their relationship is highly dysfunctional and abnormal.
Norma is typically represented in the role of “Wife, mother, daughter,” “career woman, femme fatale”, and most often the victim. Professor of Cinema Studies, Barbara Creed notes that “these are the most popular stereotypes of woman that have been addressed by.” In addition, Norma Bates is represented as particularly sensitive to stress; she is both temperamental and irrational, yet prepossessing and naive. Her character attributes heavily reinforce typical female gender roles because of her fragile mental state, the domestic roles she adopts and her innocent, playful disposition. Many horror critics believe “women are increasingly punished for the threatening nature of their sexuality.” These characters simply “die because they are female.” Norma perfectly demonstrates this; Norman cannot cope with Norma being intimate with Romero so he attempts to murder them both by carbon monoxide poisoning, conveniently only killing her. This reinforces the typical gender roles because the male character came out alive whereas Norma, “rendered weak and helpless by castration” was unable to survive. Feminists may interpret this “as a reflection of the fact that women within society are still perceived (or preferred) to be oppressed, weak and in need of a man to protect” them. As we unravel Norma’s history, we discover how her history with men is extremely poor; Almost all her partners have had malicious intentions towards her. A brazen example of the sexism Norma faces is when after she has just moved in. Keith Summers, the former owner of the motel, threatens both Norma and Norman. He claims “they are incapable of running the motel by themselves, for knowing nothing about the town and being inexperienced about motels.” Later that evening, he breaks in and brutally rapes her. Norman comes to her rescue and strikes him unconscious. However, Norma, in a fit of rage, continually stabs him well after she has killed him. This scene demonstrates stereotypes of women being illogical in comparison to men. Despite Norma standing up for herself, it is constructed to be seen as neurotic and a male character still ultimately came to her rescue, reinforcing the damsel in distress trope. Furthermore, of the numerous horrifying, shocking revelations we discover, the worst is that Norma was victim to her own brother regularly raping her and that she became pregnant with Norman's brother, Dylan, as a result of these incestuous acts. With Norma’s demoralising and degrading past, her over-sexualised appearance and her generally being a liability, she embodies the typical gender roles a woman has in the horror genre.
Norman Bates is far more dimensional of a character. He is represented in a somewhat multi faced, conflicted character which intelligibly reflects on his personality disorder(s). From his exterior, we can gather that he is polite, unwieldy yet endearing. However, beneath this façade, he is deluded, neurotic and above all severely mentally ill; He appears to be “desperately” trying “to cling onto the reality he has carefully constructed for himself”. He is a dangerously “marginalized character”. Perhaps the reason his mother is such a maladjusted and neurotic character is to suggest it is due to her influence largely that Norman is such a detached character. This is point is reinforced by who Norman's second persona is - Norma. This compromises of Norman dressing up like her, adopting her mentality, speaking like her and even envisioning himself as her. Norman’s brother, Dylan, acts as a literary foil, emphasising Norman's insanity with his composed demeanour. He is much more socially competent in comparison to Norman, despite being a child conceived from incestuous acts.
The character of Marion Crane, played by Rihanna, reinforces gender roles at certain points but primarily completely disestablishes them with a “fresh twist” in her story. The leading lady of the show only appears for 2 episodes, yet leaves the most lasting impression and turnabout to the series. Marion Crane does not adhere to the typical image of a woman. Instead she puts a unique spin on the typical behaviours associated with females, specifically those associated with Marion Cranes character. This is expected as the actress, Rihanna is known for being one that never “adhere [s] to tradition.” Her character completely undermines the audiences expectations and “subverting everything that was expected from” her. Sam Loomis strongly reinforces male gender roles with his manipulative actions. He engages in cheating and lying to women as well as being aggressive towards other males such as Norman. However, his fate subverts typical gender roles.
Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, “hailed as the first 'modern' horror film”, ‘Psycho’ “may be known for its suspense, mystery, and famous shower murder scene, but it also is full of male and female role commentary.” The character’s in the film, specifically Marion Crane, are much more explicitly constructed to adhere to gender roles. It is clear that “Marion's sexual behaviour is drawn attention to from the very beginning of the film.” On the other hand, the men “are shown as damaged and needing help”. They are represented as conflicted, violent, and merciless “while women are shown as care-givers.” The extent of use of gender roles in ‘Psycho’ is blatant enough that “one doesn’t have to dig very deep into Hitchcock’s work to see the director’s views of men and women.” The characters may have been subverting the typical gender roles at the time, especially considering “the sexual liberation movement of the 60s,” but a contemporary audience would interpret their roles as relatively rigid.
Firstly, is the fact that Norma isn’t represented at all and that we only see her corpse implies she is Norman’s ‘framework’. Norma’s character simply serves to his safety needs and acts as a coping mechanism; this is a very literal example of objectification. Laura Mulvey’s claims that “women on screen exist therefore only as objects” applies heavily here. Superficially, Norman is represented as a very polite man yet beneath his peripheral, he is fundamentally corrupt and deranged. Norman’s deceptive nature is widely associated with men; this trait is also true for Sam Loomis because he engages in adultery and deception. Marion Crane, needless to say, plays the most archetypal female role. Her actions and situational factors are all synchronous with the typical female gender role. Even at the very beginning of the film, “Marion and her co-worker Caroline work under a male boss”. “This scene also features an aggressive male, Mr. Cassidy, attempting to flirt with Marion in a rather patronizing way. Mr. Cassidy's flirtation is significant in that rather than complimenting Marion, he attempts to woo her by demonstrating his financial superiority and power. Marion plays her predetermined female part well, acting shy and demure.” Within the first ten minutes of the film, gender roles have already been established.
The shower scene is a intense reinforcer of the gender roles between Norman and Marion. The scene initiates with a medium shot of Marion and follows her. This is an example of the popular “recurrence of the theme of voyeurism” for women in horror. Marion “is never really out of the gaze of the power of men including the director himself, the enunciator.” Marion soon enters the shower, most of the shots utilised are to position her as inferior and defenceless. Also, the primarily high key lighting symbolises her purity and over-trusting attributes. The camera then cuts to a high angle shot of Marion facing the camera for two purposes. Not only does it make Marion look small but it also allows the audience to see an intruder. It reveals that there is someone behind the shower approaching Marion. She remains blissfully unaware of their advancements towards her. Then, a sudden slashing, abrupt sound when the killer pulls back the shower curtain along with loud and fast paced pleonastic sound can be heard. A quick cut montage is used and the different angles used when she is being stabbed, disorientates the audience as the 180 degree rule is not being followed. This is used to make the audience identify with Marion’s confusion. Using the rule of thirds to make her appear even more unimportant, Marion is placed at edge of the screen, where she is represented as powerless over her body and fate. The fact that Marion is naked throughout this whole scene mirrors her vulnerability and exposure and positions her killer as dominant. Her "violent death can be read as the patriarchal holly system's extreme reaction to the threat of feminist at a time when women were being freed from the constraints of childbirth by new methods of contraception, and were thus taking on a more active role - both sexually and in terms of employment - within society.”
It is undeniable that gender roles have significantly changed; from a time where it was unheard of to see a woman in lingerie, we have come a long way. This is mainly due to how “the social attitudes towards sex and violence that have changed over the years.” The easiest comparison demonstrating this is the differences seen within the iconic shower scene. In Bates Motel, their “latest and boldest source-material detour to date,” is the “very clever twist on the Norman Bates mythos”. Marion Crane is played by Rihanna who “has never been one to adhere to tradition when it comes to her music or fashion. So it’s fitting that the pop singer’s two-episode arc on A&E’s “Bates Motel” would buck convention.” Co-creator of Bates Motel explained the importance of her casting. They wanted someone who "really embraced our idea of redefining the character.” However, they still wanted for “the character’s background” to “remain similar”. Executive producer Kerry Ehrin commented on this, saying, “We’re taking threads of that story and definitely using them so it’s recognisable, it’s just where we go with it is very different.” Despite the fact that Marion Crane still committed a crime, checked into Bates Motel and got into the shower, all of which “a nod to “Psycho”,” “the camera zoomed in on the translucent shower curtain, which Marion pulled back to reveal … nothing.” Instead, “Kerry Ehrin orchestrated a story that ended with Marion’s cheating beau, Sam Loomis, stabbed to death instead.”
Another key factor here is the killer - who was still Norman Bates. However, he was not seen sporting his mother’s clothes but rather he was seen as himself. This was said to be “about protecting that and not letting it slip or slide into anything transphobic” according to producers. Naturally, this came under harsh criticism. Many viewers felt that Norman’s dual personality disorder had nothing to do with being transgender to be perceived as demonising transgender people was a huge leap to be making. One viewer exclaimed that “If you feel like being offended by it, why even investigate the Psycho universe at all?” Perhaps this choice reflects on the overly sensitive generation of the Twenty First Century. In 1967, a book called The Society of the Spectacle was written by Debord “in which he commented on a trend in Western society, that began in the late 1920s, where we are increasingly driven by image rather than actuality. Debord commented that the emergence of advertising and mass media affected people in such a way that finely crafted images of wealth or success began to take precedence in our collective consciousness over the actual, living reality of such things.” This can be applied to today’s society whereby “people are far more sensitive to an attack on their self-image than they were, say, 50 years ago, because the image is more socially and economically salient. The more a society deals in appearances rather than actualities, the more valuable appearances become.”
However, despite ‘Bates Motel’ being created almost 60 years after ‘Psycho’, its elements are still the same “the killer is the psychotic product of a sick family but still recognisably human; the victim is a beautiful, sexually active woman”. Even with the “fresh twist”, “The positioning of woman as victim” remains the same. From this, we can argue “that little has changed over the centuries; in a male dominated world, where directors are conventionally and overwhelmingly male, women are supporting characters or victims.” and that in fact “traditional patriarchal culture” is still strongly pervasive even in our current day and age. Furthermore, the fact that Vera Farmiga fits “Hitchcock's blonde-directed sadism”, supports this further. It demonstrates how ultimately directors of the past with an arguably “patriarchal ideology of Hollywood”have an “imprint [that] lingers on today.”
To conclude, it is evident that gender roles in the media have changed, and there is no doubt society’s attitudes towards them have also changed. However, the horror genre still depends original gender stereotypes and gender roles at times in order to carry their narrative - even if they avoid making this exploitation of gender subdued.
Bibliography
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Žižek, S. (2010). Everything you always wanted to know about Lacan: (but were afraid to ask Hitchcock). London: Verso.
Wells, A. S. (2001). Psycho: Director Alfred Hitchcock. York Press.
Durgnat, R. (2010). A long hard look at psycho. S.l.: BFI.
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A&E Network Orders 'Bates Motel' to Series". A&E. July 2, 2012. Archived from the original on October 6, 2013. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
Bates Motel: how the Psycho prequel went from good to great. (2016, May 18). Retrieved November 21, 2017, from http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/tv/bates-motel/40736/bates-motel-how-the-psycho-prequel-went-from-good-to-great
Gender Variance in the Arts. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2017, from http://gvarts.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/psycho.html
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Hudson, J. (2010, June 16). How Hitchcock's 'Psycho' Changed Cinema and Society. Retrieved November 21, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/06/how-hitchcock-s-psycho-changed-cinema-and-society/345186/
Johnson, B. D. (2010, February 11). The Psycho Effect. Retrieved November 21, 2017, from http://www.macleans.ca/culture/the-psycho-effect/
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Kulski, K. (2015, October 22). Psycho: The Sociology of Gender and Psychology of Abuse. Retrieved November 21, 2017, from https://kpkulski.wordpress.com/2015/09/03/psycho-the-sociology-of-gender-and-psychology-of-abuse/
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Patterson, J. (2013, August 01). Vera Farmiga on The Conjuring, Bates Motel, maternal angst ... and knitting. Retrieved November 21, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/aug/01/vera-farmiga-conjuring-bates-motel-interview
Psycho Feminism: From Hitchcock to Hollaback and Back. (2017, October 06). Retrieved November 21, 2017, from http://www.cultureontheoffensive.com/psycho-feminism/
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Staff, G. (2017, January 31). First look at Rihanna as Marion Crane in new Bates Motel trailer. Retrieved November 21, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jan/31/rihanna-bates-motel-trailer
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Butler, B. (2017, March 28). Why everyone is talking about Rihanna on ‘Bates Motel’. Retrieved January 02, 2018, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2017/03/28/why-everyone-is-talking-about-rihanna-on-bates-motel/?utm_term=.d69b2f27fa10
Ausiello, M. (2017, March 27). Bates Motel EPs Talk 'Empowering' Shower-Scene Twist: 'We Were Not Throwing Shade at Psycho'. Retrieved January 02, 2018, from http://tvline.com/2017/03/27/bates-motel-recap-season-5-episode-6-shower-scene-rihanna/
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Works cited
Books:
Cook, P. (1999). The cinema book. London: BFI.
Grant, B. K. (2015). The dread of difference: gender and the horror film. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Creed, B. (1993). The monstrous-feminine film, feminism, psychoanalysis. London: Routledge.
Hein, C. (2006). Laura Mulvey, visual pleasure and narrative cinema: "woman as image, man as bearer of the look". München: GRIN Verlag.
Žižek, S. (2010). Everything you always wanted to know about Lacan: (but were afraid to ask Hitchcock). London: Verso.
Wells, A. S. (2001). Psycho: Director Alfred Hitchcock. York Press.
Durgnat, R. (2010). A long hard look at psycho. S.l.: BFI.
Websites
A&E Network Orders 'Bates Motel' to Series". A&E. July 2, 2012. Archived from the original on October 6, 2013. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
Bates Motel: how the Psycho prequel went from good to great. (2016, May 18). Retrieved November 21, 2017, from http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/tv/bates-motel/40736/bates-motel-how-the-psycho-prequel-went-from-good-to-great
Gender Variance in the Arts. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2017, from http://gvarts.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/psycho.html
Kulski, K. (2015, October 22). Psycho: The Sociology of Gender and Psychology of Abuse. Retrieved November 21, 2017, from https://kpkulski.wordpress.com/2015/09/03/psycho-the-sociology-of-gender-and-psychology-of-abuse/
Past Recipients. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2017, from https://stuff.mit.edu/afs/athena.mit.edu/org/w/wgs/prize/mc09.html
Patterson, J. (2013, August 01). Vera Farmiga on The Conjuring, Bates Motel, maternal angst ... and knitting. Retrieved November 21, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/aug/01/vera-farmiga-conjuring-bates-motel-interview
Psycho Feminism: From Hitchcock to Hollaback and Back. (2017, October 06). Retrieved November 21, 2017, from http://www.cultureontheoffensive.com/psycho-feminism/
Psycho: Queering Hitchcock's Classic. (2014, November 30). Retrieved November 21, 2017, from http://brightlightsfilm.com/psychoqueering-hitchcocks-classic-queering-hitchcocks-classic/#.WhTDZhicaRt
Staff, G. (2017, January 31). First look at Rihanna as Marion Crane in new Bates Motel trailer. Retrieved November 21, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jan/31/rihanna-bates-motel-trailer
The Death-Mother in Psycho: Hitchcock, Femininity, and Queer Desire. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2017, from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15240657.2014.939005
The Male Gaze in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. (2013, October 17). Retrieved November 21, 2017, from https://engl245umd.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/the-male-gaze-in-alfred-hitchcocks-psycho/
The Parlor Scene: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in Psycho. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2017, from http://www.washleestone.com/the-parlor-scene-exploring-gender-and-sexuality-in-psycho/
B. (2010, October 21). What's wrong with Hitchcock's women. Retrieved November 21, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/21/alfred-hitchcock-women-psycho-the-birds-bidisha
