In the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, one can find grisly depictions of torture, rape, murder, and cannibalism. The majority of these gruesome scenes involve women and are described in such detail, that it is not difficult to recreate the horrific images in one’s mind. These depictions were met with great backlash when the novel came out in 1991, especially by feminist leaders who believed the novel would propel others to recreate the same violent crimes unto women in real life. Not only that, but the novel clearly depicts women as less than men. Fears of the novel influencing others to believe the same ideas about women like the protagonist Bateman, caused many to protest leading bookstores to keep the novel behind the counter, or going as far as not selling the book at all. However, after a thorough reading of American Psycho, one can interpret the novel as not anti-feminist at all, and actually a satirical work that criticizes white male hegemony and society’s numbness to violence. The immediate feminist response was to condemn the novel as it can be interpreted as encouraging abuse towards women. However, I will analyze, that by the way the novel is written, it suggests otherwise. Specifically, through a fourth-wave feminist lens that focuses on “justice for women and also opposition to sexual harassment and violence against women” (Russo 179). As opposed to popular feminist opinion of the time, Easton’s American Psycho depicts explicit violence towards women in a satirical way in order to highlight society’s tolerance of brutality against women which in turn poses the novel as a feminist text.
American Psycho follows a business man named Patrick Bateman set in Manhattan in the 1980’s, at the height of the “Wall Street Era” and the “Reagan-era” (Amnesley 15). The protagonist Bateman has a materialistic obsession and need to be dominant. His obsession with materialistic objects relates to the running theme of commodification and the commodification of women in the novel, which is strongly linked to the violence Bateman enacts. For example, when recommending Diet Pepsi over Diet Coke, the thought of being associated with a “lesser” brand causes Bateman to have “a sharp pain near [his] liver” and become “startled, confused” (Ellis 97-98). This example gives us a look at how Bateman’s obsession becomes physical and life altering for him. Furthermore, he expresses his obsession and needs partly, and controversially, through violence. The novel is filled with violence against men, animals, and most notably women.
The violence as a whole led to the temporary, preventive censorship that delayed the novel from being published, but the violence against women led to protests and boycotts. Ellis’s manuscript was set to be published by Simon and Schuster, who even gave him an advance for the publishing rights. However, once the book began advertising and pre-publication manuscripts were sent to critics, their unfavorable reviews and overall negative attention led Simon and Schuster to withdraw the publication. This censorship did not last for long as Random House bought the publishing rights only two days later. Nevertheless, the novel continued to receive negative criticism from critics and the general public encouraging many book sellers to keep it behind the counter, requiring those interested in buying the novel to ask for the title by name. Some booksellers went as far as to discontinue selling the novel. One critic for the New York Times, Roger Rosenblatt wrote, “the book goes nowhere. Characters do not exist, therefore do not develop. Bateman has no motivation for his madness…No plot intrudes upon the pages. Bateman is never brought to justice, suggesting that even justice was bored” (Rosenblatt). This review is representative of many newspaper reviews at the time for the book that caused the book to be condemned by most of the public.
Moreover, as for non-literary critics, most at the time of publication believed that Ellis was a violent man similar to Bateman (Zaller 319). As a result, feminists stepped in to try to ban the book from being further distributed to prevent giving a platform to a perceived misogynist (Freccero 46). In fact, the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women, also known as NOW, called the novel a “how-to novel on the torture and dismemberment of women,” “socially irresponsible,” and should be faced as “hard-core pornography” (Freccero 50, Zaller 319). Due to this perception of the book and the author, the NOW organized boycotts against the it along with other feminist organizations.
However, most of the critics who vowed for the censorship of the novel did not read it, or at least did not read it completely (Zaller 318). Reading reviews of the novel was enough to ask for its abolishment. However, when reading the entirety of the novel in historical context of the setting and the publication date, in combination with a satirical reading, the novel actually performs a criticism of hegemonic masculinity along with the commodification of women and social hierarchies. In 2005, Ellis made clear in an interview that the novel was “a criticism of certain male values…pointed at the men who live that kind of life” ("Ellis on Ellis on Ellis"). While this interview was much after the publication of the book, possibly to allow the novel to manifest its qualities on its own, the quote from Ellis makes evident that although feminist leaders and news critics were initially angry at the extreme violence against women and explicit masculine dominance in American Psycho, these qualities have purpose in helping to criticize and make people aware of these same ideas in society.
With the history of the book’s censorship and intention established, I will next examine controversial passages from the novel through a satirical and pro-feminist lens. As mentioned, I want to look at the passages from the perspective of fourth-wave feminism to see how they support “justice for women” in addition to opposing “sexual harassment and violence against women” (Russo 179).
To begin, I want to look at Bateman’s fear of and lack of compassion for “the other” and how it can be understood as motivation for him to commit his deathly crimes. The majority of his crimes or attempted crimes done unto others include animals, women, gay men, the homeless, and any group he cannot identify with as a member. Even if he can somewhat identify with the victim, he needs the duality of the other to assert his dominance. To establish his position with “the other,” he describes every materialistic detail that they embody, compares it to his, and verifies that his is better.
For example, in one scene Bateman thrives on flaunting his brand-new business cards that he thinks are better than the rest of his colleagues meanwhile also flaunting his expensive wallet, “I decide to even up the score a little bit by showing everyone my new business card. I pull it out of my gazelle skin wallet (Barney’s, $850) and slap it on the table, waiting for reactions” (Ellis 44). As a result, Bateman’s “entire identity, and specifically his masculine identity, is completely dependent upon his dominant relationship with his and others’ material possessions” (Zinger 22). When “the other” threatens his dominance, meaning they have more material value and power than him, he manipulates, mutilates, and exterminates them. In the same scene, Bateman “[clenches] his fist” when his colleague shows off his card and says, “Eggshell with Romalian type” (Ellis 44). His manner conveys how these small, materialistic details control his life. Furthermore, the way this scene is described mocks not just Bateman, but Wall street men as a whole because of the significance they place on something as insignificant as business card details. It also shows the “overstimulation by products and brand names all in the name of luxury” that these Wall Street men embody (Zinger 8). In comparison to the lack of significance Bateman and the other men place on women that will be mentioned, this example also shows how their priorities and values are unvirtuous. As a result, Ellis critiques the increasingly patriarchal society for holding these values by satirizing their love for material obsessions.
The following example portrays how extreme Bateman can be in asserting his dominance in regards to women. While Bateman ties up a woman in a way that exposes her in order to place a rat in her vaginal cavity via a plastic tube, he thinks “…I’m hoping she realizes that this would have happened to her no matter what. That she would have ended up lying here, on the floor in my apartment, hands nailed to posts, cheese and broken glass pushed up into her cunt, her head cracked and bleeding purple, no matter what other choice she might have made” (Ellis 327). This morbidly detailed passage of one of Bateman’s killings conveys the extent of which is necessary for Bateman to be satisfied, at least temporarily, in his dominant position. He assumes the position of an otherworldly, godly being that controls when and how a person dies by claiming to be the inevitable end of this woman’s life. It is difficult to see the satire in this passage as the violence can be so intense that it blinds any satirical reading; nevertheless, the way in which Bateman conducts the violence shows how this novel is not meant to simply describe and, by its detailed description of the murder, teach how to kill women in the most gruesome way. By analyzing, along with this violence, the fact that Bateman was “grimly lip-synching” to “Frankie Valli singing “The Worst That Could Happen”, ridicules the way in which violence towards women is taken so lightly that one can sing while committing the act and find humor at its irony (Ellis 273). Although this may arguably be an exaggeration of reality, it represents how society overlooks violence against women and does not take it seriously.
Moreover, while this passage is gruesome, when put in context with the entire book and its placement in the book, one can find themselves actually overlooking it. This is possible because of the detailed nature of the novel and even lack of development news critic Rosenblatt critiques. Ellis’ writing style during Bateman’s obsessively detailed descriptions of another character’s material possessions is similar to when Bateman describes his murderers. By doing this, “Ellis…equates violence with materialism as a technique to simultaneously dehumanize Patrick as a character and desensitize the reader to the reality of the horrific events described throughout the novel” (Zaller 323-324). Instead of developing Bateman’s character with insightful character attributes, the reader is only given materialistic characteristics of Bateman with his detailed descriptions of brands and designers. Even with Bateman announcing his killings prior to the event, he describes them in such a methodical and unemotional way that it’s easy to overlook and not get invested with its gruesomeness. His killings become more graphic throughout the novel, but with all the superficial description the killings become dull instead of shocking. “Ellis’ style allows the reader to distance himself from the text,” therefore distancing themselves from the violence being done (Brock 54). This further shows how Ellis recreates the idea of society overlooking violence against women with one’s reading of his novel. The detail is not meant to be excessive or sensational, but deliberately used to represent society’s treatment of women.
Next, I want to focus on how the novel works with the commodification of women to satirize the way in which society utilizes women as selling and buying tools. To reiterate, Bateman describes people by the way they are dressed and more important what they are dressed in. The way he describes them almost mimics a clothing catalogue or advertisement. These descriptions show that for Bateman, humans are nothing but commodities. In his search for a prostitute, the reader can see this directly as he looks for the perfect woman to purchase, “I’ve spent months prowling this section of town for the appropriate babe—I find her on the corner of Washington and Thirteenth. She’s blond and slim and young, trashy but not an escort bimbo, and most important, she’s white, which is a rarity in these parts. She’s wearing tight cutoff shorts, a white T-shirt and a cheap leather jacket, and except for a bruise over her left knee her skin is pale all over, including the face, though her thickly lipsticked mouth is done up in pink” (Ellis 168). He describes his search, where he found her, her clothes, her body, and even her race. His description connotes the pride he has of his find. Moreover, he assigns her the name “Christie,” marking his ownership (Ellis 170). She is not a woman or human being to Bateman, but a commodity that he owns and can do whatever he wants with. Bateman cannot distinguish between buying clothing and buying women. Therefore, he has no moral repercussions or remorse after committing brutal acts of violence towards them. With Bateman’s obsession with material objects and treating everyone as such, “the violent treatment of his predominantly female victims is thus tied to his vision of a world in which everything has been commodified” (Amnesley 14). In a satirical manner, he describes “Christie” by emulating an advertisement which emphasizes how women are treated as commodities in society by sexualizing their bodies and preferring a certain type of body.
Lastly, with the examples in mind, Bateman can be interpreted as a metaphor for a patriarchal society. Bateman is stuck within his inherent “oppressive patriarchal power structure” and as a result must defend his position as a superior white male in Manhattan (Amnesley 19). Though Ellis never makes a direct critique about the dangers of a patriarchal society, his satirical style along with Bateman’s loss of sanity at the end of the novel conveys enough to analyze the novel as a critique on it. Like the final part of the novel that ends with Bateman reading “THIS IS NOT AN EXIT,” there is no redemption for Bateman or a “way out of the strict patriarchal system he himself embodies” (Ellis 399; Amnesley 20).
Overall, the novel is “an icon of Reagan-era consumer culture” and representation of the mistreatment of women over time (Amnesley 22). Even after almost 30 years, violence against women is still an issue that has yet to change drastically. With feminist movements like Time’s Up and Me Too, people are beginning to take more of a proactive path to better treatment of women. It is the discussion of these mistreatments that leads to progress. Censoring or hindering one’s message based on only a small representation of a work prevents conversations that may lead to progress. Ellis’ American Psycho conveys a message that opposes violence against women by satirizing men and patriarchal society. In the words of John Stuart Mill, “If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”