AHS is a television franchise created by Ryan Murphy and Bradley Falchuk in 2011 for the FX cable channel. The series are available for mass consumption on streaming media platforms on the internet (such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video). In addition, it is very frequently praised by television studies scholars to be a progressive franchise for its engagement with the representation of gay and lesbian characters and racial issues through queer theory lenses (Taylor 2019; Sellin-Blanc and Doro 2019; Clarke 2019; Coker 2019; Earle 2019; Geller and Banker 2017; Cox 2017; Schottmiller 2017; Austin 2017; Simpson 2017). In this essay, I will analyze the characters representations and narratives of the ‘Asylum’ and ‘Cult’ seasons as technologies of gender (De Lauretis 1984, 1987) from intersectional lenses (Ahmed 2017, 2014; Lugones 2008; Hill Collins 2002, 1993; Lorde 1997, 1993; Crenshaw 1991).

AHS's second season ‘Asylum’ shows the struggles of white lesbian journalist Lana Winters (performed by Sarah Paulson) in reporting and successfully fighting against male psycho-killers, homophobia and the evil structures of a Christian sanatorium in Massachusetts in the 1960s. The story of ‘Cult’ shows the effects of Donald Trump's presidential victory in November 2016 in a fictional town in Michigan by unfolding the links between Trump supporter, psycho-killer and cult leader Kai Anderson (Evan Peters) and a progressive white lesbian partners and parents, including Ally (performed by Paulson too) and Ivy McFair-Richards (Allison Pill). At the end of both seasons, the characters performed by Paulson (Lana and Ally) become the heroic protagonists since they achieve social and professional success as a result of all the violence they have struggled with.

Taking into account Jasbir Puar's (2007) definitions of homonormativity and homonationalism, J. Halberstam's understandings of Gothic technologies of monsters (1995) and Sara Ahmed's reflections on fear (2014) and lesbian feminism (2017), I will argue how ‘Asylum’ and ‘Cult’ privilege white homosexual characters as subjects of national exceptionalism while oversimplifying the representation of racism and gender issues.

Intersectionality, Representation and Fear in AHS

In her article about Ryan Murphy's television series and queer television studies in the US, Lynne Joyrich (2014) considers the potential of gay artists and representations of queer characters within mainstream TV.