[Image description: Mia Farrow (post-haircut) and John Cassavetes in a still from Rosemary’s Baby] TW: discussion of sexual assault I watched this for the billionth time with The Boy last night to celebrate not having to pull any more all-nighters in 2011. (Also being celebrated: a month off from writing things about Judith Butler!!) This movie is so much about the danger of being trained to always say “yes” — the whole plot wouldn’t have been possible (or at least not so easy) to pull off had Rosemary not been so conditioned to make things easy for people, to never cause conflict, to let people walk all over her. When she wakes up with scratches all over herself, her husband explains them away by saying it was because he raped her while she was passed out. She’s upset, but she only says, you could have waited, that wasn’t the only split second. When her husband is so caught up in his own shit and is ignoring/being an asshole to his pregnant wife, Rosemary won’t confront him about it. When he finally apologizes, she says no, no, it was all my fault. By the time she manages to pull herself together and starts yelling and screaming and saying no, it’s far too late, and her very acts of resistance are used as proof that she must be out of her mind.  (And as is now necessary to include in any discussion of this movie: Roman Polanski is the fucking scum of the earth.)

[Image description: Mia Farrow (post-haircut) and John Cassavetes in a still from Rosemary’s Baby]

TW: discussion of sexual assault

I watched this for the billionth time with The Boy last night to celebrate not having to pull any more all-nighters in 2011. (Also being celebrated: a month off from writing things about Judith Butler!!)

This movie is so much about the danger of being trained to always say “yes” — the whole plot wouldn’t have been possible (or at least not so easy) to pull off had Rosemary not been so conditioned to make things easy for people, to never cause conflict, to let people walk all over her.

When she wakes up with scratches all over herself, her husband explains them away by saying it was because he raped her while she was passed out. She’s upset, but she only says, you could have waited, that wasn’t the only split second. When her husband is so caught up in his own shit and is ignoring/being an asshole to his pregnant wife, Rosemary won’t confront him about it. When he finally apologizes, she says no, no, it was all my fault. By the time she manages to pull herself together and starts yelling and screaming and saying no, it’s far too late, and her very acts of resistance are used as proof that she must be out of her mind. 

(And as is now necessary to include in any discussion of this movie: Roman Polanski is the fucking scum of the earth.)

Notes