Nasty Woman (Arts and Culture)

During the COVID-19 pandemic I have been trapped in my house with nothing to do, so I started binge watching Netflix (as one does). I decided to binge American Horror Story: Cult. This season is based upon the 2016 presidential election when Trump and Clinton were in a close race. The season was very complex, so I will try my best to explain simply and concisely. In this season, there are many main characters and each of them have their own political views (some are for Hilary and some are for Trump). The main characters that start the show off are a lesbian couple---Aly and Ivy and their son. After Trump won, the couple starts seeing violence around their town and after each murder there is a smiley face symbol left behind. Long story short, these violent attacks were being carried out by a cult. The cult leader was the councilman of the town and his leaders consisted of many people of different political backgrounds. Kai Anderson the leader of the cult taught his followers that radical acts would be the only way for him to rule the country. Kai was a very misogynistic character which is important to the part of the season I want to talk about. Aly joined Kai's cult just so she could get information on him, and she eventually sent a S.W.A.T team to his house. Anderson plead guilty to all of his crimes and was sentenced life in prison. After this, Aly was idolized as a strong woman and she even wrote a book about her experience in this cult. She eventually ran for city council, and the part I want to talk about is based on her debate with her opponent. During the middle of her debate, someone in the audience wanted to ask her a question, and it was Kai Anderson---he had escaped from prison. He pointed a gun at her and started to go off on how women should have no power and they should be cooking in the kitchen. When he put his hand on the trigger, the gun didn't work and Aly said, "You were wrong. There is something more dangerous in this world than a humiliated man: A nasty woman". This use of the word "nasty" also showed up in a presidential debate when Trump called Hillary a "nasty" woman. I think that the use of nasty woman in American Horror Story comes straight from the use of nasty in the 2016 presidential debate.

I think that these two uses of nasty are related because as I mentioned before, this season takes place after the 2016 election. The use of this word sparked conversation everywhere. Nasty is a derogative term saying that someone is unpleasant or even nauseating. One thing to mention, is that Aly is on the left side of the political spectrum meaning she was somewhat of a Clinton supporter. When Kai confronted her on stage, it made sense she would call herself a nasty women because she knew that Hilary had been referred to one. When she refers to herself as a nasty women she is mocking the idea that she is a "bad" person when in reality, Kai had killed so many people and people still worshiped him.

-HH :)

Below is the link to the two things mentioned in this post:

Trump and Hillary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2KOQfZ0Zd0

Kai and Aly AHS: Cult: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEGTi7gyyig

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