Rosemary’s Baby

     Throughout all of history, horror has been a way for people to express their fears and to overcome challenges. Often political issues can be the main inspiration or driving force for creating horror movies. Women’s rights have been a constant issue throughout all of history, but organized feminism did not start until the first Women’s Conference held in Seneca Falls, America, in 1848. It was not until 1920 that women were even allowed to vote. This issue of oppressing women has often been the main theme in many horror movies including Carrie, Alien, and Scream but arguably one of the first and most powerful movies about Women’s rights is Rosemary’s Baby directed by Roman Polanski in 1968.

     The oppression of women is quickly seen through the character of Rosemary, who, throughout the whole film is always trying to accommodate others before herself. The first time this happens is the scene in which she agrees to go to dinner at her neighbors the Castevets, even though she does not want to. Probably one of the most memorable scenes and powerful scenes that portray this idea of women needing to break free from oppression is in the final scene in which Rosemary finds out her baby is the main subject of a satanic ritual and that she has given birth to the spawn of Satan. Despite finding all this terrible news out, she still submits her will and decides to raise the baby to appease others before doing what is best and most pleasing for her.

The acting in this film does an excellent job of portraying the discomfort that comes from Rosemary always being submissive to those around her. The Castevets, played by Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer, are very pushy neighbors who only think of themselves and not how their actions are affecting Rosemary. They come off as extremely obnoxious and oppressive people but are an excellent representative of the community in the 60’s. Another great performance was done by John Cassavetes who played Rosemary’s husband. Even though his character was subtler, he was just as bad if not worse in his oppression of Rosemary. He never took into account what she wanted and very rarely allowed her to make her own decisions through manipulating her to get his way.

Although women were able to vote in this era, there was still a huge equality gap that separated genders. Women were often forced to be reliant upon men. One of the most controversial issues in the 60’s was the approval of birth control. In 1960, the FDA approved the first birth control pill. However, it took until 1965 for the Supreme Court case Griswold vs. Connecticut to end state restrictions on access to the birth control pill. This is a prime example of outside forces controlling what a woman decides to do with her body and how the outside world can often imprison women. This issue is a major theme that arises in Rosemary’s Baby. One of the most extreme examples of this is the demonic rape scene that occurs at the hand of her neighbors as well as her own husband.

From the themes and issues that arise in this film one can assume that the director, Roman Polanski, is very passionate when it comes to gender equality, but less than ten years after releasing Rosemary’s Baby and fueling the flames of feminism, Polanski was charged with the rape of a 13 year old girl. This raises the question of “does the art become invalid, if the artist is not practicing what he is preaching?” Although many may argue that Rosemary’s Baby is not an essential part of feminist history because the creator of this film was, himself entrapping a young girl and controlling her actions, in reality, Polanski was not the sole creator of this masterpiece and the themes discussed in this film are essential in recognizing the oppression of women. It is vital to recognize the numerous other hands that went into creating this important film. Also just because a person is a hypocrite, it does not mean what he is preaching is no longer valid, it only means they are more responsible for their actions because they knew how terrible they were but still acted upon them.

 Although many may argue against its validity, Rosemary’s Baby is an essential film in recognizing the oppression of woman. It is important to study this film because of the political relevance at the time but also because many of the themes and issues within the film are still very prevalent in today’s society.