American Horror Story is a TV show that has recently announced its seventh season, titled “Cult”. The producers of the show have decided to take a political twist this season. The new season follows a white lesbian woman from Michigan as the main character. The show starts on election night of 2016, following Trump’s win by electoral vote. She is distraught by his presidency, and the trailer shows clues of a cult devoted to terrorizing this woman through her phobia of clowns. While the entire LGBTQ community has been affected by hate from Trump as well as his followers, a white woman should not be the focus this season. Communities of color, especially the LGBTQ members of those communities, are the ones who have been most affected by Trump’s presidency. While women and the LGBTQ have both been fetishized and condemned by Trump, the focus on white-supremacy makes it so that people of color have gotten the worst of it.
On his campaign trail, Trump openly condemned tons of groups. There was the time he labeled Mexican immigrants as “Rapists…Drug Dealers…Murderers”. There were the many times he referred to the “good ol’ days” when Black protesters are present at his rallies by reminiscing when “they used to be carried out on a stretcher”. There was the time he tried to implement the Muslim Ban. The time he tried to deny Transgender people in the military. The numerous times he has fetishized and objectified women on national television. In fact, it almost feels like he’s condemned every group except straight white-supremacists, weird. My point is, there have been a lot of marginalized groups that have been targeted by Trump. But, with the course of history, and the suffering of Black people in this country, it would make sense that the lead character would be a woman of color. Since the new season includes political stance. When speaking about intersectionality, and giving the floor to people of color, that of which has taken centuries of suffering to receive, American Horror Story fails to do the right thing.
As far as the cult aspect, American Horror Story is walking on a tightrope. We all know that Trump’s cult is the white-supremacists. In the trailer for season 7, it juxtaposes reactions in Trump’s electoral win between the white woman and a white male. The white male (played by Chris Evans) celebrates Trump’s electoral win by screaming in joy and humping trumps paper lips on his television. With recent events in Charlottesville and the huge uncovering of white-supremacists that were once in hiding, it is clear that if there was cult it would be the Nazis and KKK members that have planning rallies across the United States.
There are literally so many other actresses that could have fit this role. Actresses such as RuPaul Charles, Meshell Ndegeocello, Robin Roberts, Azealia Banks, or Tracy Chaplin. American Horror Story did feature a trans gendered character in a positive lighting as one of the lead supporting characters in season six. Of course, the season has yet to be released, so maybe they will address issues regarding racism towards people of color. But then again, it will probably another white-washed excuse for liberalism. American Horror Story: Cult, debuts September 5 on FX.
