There is a power dynamic here. Bogatskaya argued that the “infinity pool” scene was “about female dominance, not nurturing”. When James becomes, as Mia puts it, a “sucky kid,” he becomes submissive and submissive. In “Barbarians,” similarly, AJ’s status is undermined, Davis said: “He’s infantilized and his agency is removed.”
Of course, all-natural breastfeeding can be frowned upon, where public nursing is considered “abnormal in society at large,” Arnold said. In this sense, simply representing breastfeeding in any form can be provocative. “Horror gives us something that other genres can’t: sometimes dark, sometimes unpleasant emotions and experiences that are still taboo to discuss openly,” Bogatskaya said. However, Arnold was wary that violent, unnatural representations in these films had a dangerous “staying power” and could affect how we view a natural process.
Whether breastfeeding is a source of horror is not solely up to the director. It can also be complicated for many mothers. “Having spent many years breastfeeding my children, I believe I look at it very differently than a man would,” Hudecki said. “For me, feeding my baby was a basic need, a beautiful time of connection, and also an endless, often painful, prison of responsibility.”
It’s this combination of contrasting influences—the innocent, the infantile, the sexual, the wholesome—that makes for such a fertile source of inspiration. Finally, imagery forces us to face the most terrifying thing of all: our own reality.
“These images remind us of that — that we come from someone else’s body, that we are connected to another at some stage,” Harrington said. “We like to think of ourselves as inclusive. Our belly buttons say otherwise.
