Okay, in a show like FX's American Horror Story: Hotel that is essentially an orgy of death and sex, and…well…sexual death, finding moments of moral clarity becomes something of a challenge. However, though it ended very, very badly, Wednesday night’s episode, titled “She Wants Revenge,” offered one of those moments.
After renting out a hotel room to a porn producer and his “cast,” Iris (Kathy Bates) goes off on an internal dialogue, illustrating her internal dilemma over allowing her hotel to be used for pornography.
Though the irony of the fact that her hotel has been used for about 749 murders this season is apparently lost on her, her thought process is a good one. Though again I caution you, it ends very, very badly:
**WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC CONTENT**
Iris: I’ve got nothing against pornography. When it’s done right. I went and say Deepthroat at the Royal on Santa Monica Blvd. Just like everyone else. Hell, even William Buckley went. That was shot with real actors. On sets. With a script. Nowadays any couple of yahoos can take out their iPhones and pretend to be the Sydney Pollack of sex flicks. And because of that World Wide Web they can actually make a buck off of it. Plenty of them are choosing the Hotel Cortez to make their masterpieces. In the past, I’ll admit it, I was an enabler. I’d take the money and hand them a key, and try not to think about what was going on upstairs. But ever since I was converted I can’t turn away. I don’t want to. It’s a new me. I’m becoming a G*d-D*mn Dirty Harriet. Porn hurts people. Hurts the girls that think they need to screw like that. Hurts the guys that think girls want to screw like that. I’m not uptight, I just don’t want it going on in my hotel anymore. Donovan will like his strong new mother. Hell, I’m an example for mothers everywhere now.
Porn Actor: I told you you were too loud.
Porn Actress: I’m always loud when I’m faking it.
Porn Cameraman: What the hell?
Iris: Douchebag.
Porn Actor: Oh my God
Porn Actress: Please, I don’t want to die.
Okay, so maybe not the solution to the problem of pornography that conservatives would come up with, but if I had a dollar for every time a character on American Horror Story: Hotel spoke out against gratuitous perversion and exploitation prior to Wednesday night’s episode, I would have exactly zero dollars.
So good for you Kathy Bates. A little less stabby and slashy. But good for you.
