FEMALE SEXUALITY IN BLOODY MARY
Jackson :
University Press of Mississippi
Bloody Mary
Bloody Mary is a fearsome
figure that has been haunting the little children’s dreams and has been chasing
teenagers until adulthood in the American land.
There has been made many
speculations concerning the origins of this bizarre legend. The majority of the
stories insist that her name most likely derived from the blood thirsty queen
Mary Tudor, daughter of King Henry VIII (“Bloody Mary Legend”). Being a fanatic
Catholic, she manically pursued the Protestants and became famous for burning
people at the stake for heresy.
In addition, Bloody Mary
borrowed many elements from another legend, much celebrated in Europe , the legend of Elizabeth Bathory, a countess most
praised for her beauty. The legend says that, in order to maintain her youthful
appearance she bathed in the blood of virgins (Rowena, “The Legend of Bloody
Mary”, par: 14).
Finally, the great witch hunt
that raged in America during the Puritan times gave rise to the legend of
Bloody Mary, giving the spook a human name: Mary Worth, a witch that was
sentenced to death, after found guilty of practicing the black arts (Rowena,
“The Legend of Bloody Mary”, par: 13). Although no person of this name was
involved in the historical Salem trials, it
didn’t prevent the legend from developing into one of the most significant and
celebrated legends of America
This paper is an attempt to
explore the different elements of this bizarre legend, present the folklorists’
opinions on the subject and show that, what Bloody Mary actually stands for, is
the female sexuality.
Names
Bloody Mary has appeared in
many stories with many different names: Mary Lou, Mary Jane, Mary Wolf, Hell
Mary, Black Mary (according to Bronner), Mary Worthington , Mary Whales
(according to Langlois), Bloody Mary Worth, (quite often) Mary Worth (according
to Dundes) and, of course, Bloody Mary.
The one common element those
names have is the fact that they all use “Mary” as a first name. Considering
the fact that “Mary” is the most common name of the female population, I
believe that it is used to prove that Bloody Mary is a figure which applies to
all women: their hidden, sexual self that they must face and embrace at a very
young age, in order to move on, entering adulthood.
Additionally, we must not
forget that Mary is actually the name of the Virgin mother of Christ, a
universal model of purity and holiness for all women: she is The Woman, giving
birth, according to religion, to the most important being in the world. It is
possible that Bloody Mary was named after Virgin Mary, especially if we
consider the fact that in most of her stories Mary dies still being a virgin:
Virgin Mary gave birth to Christ without having sexual intercourse; she
remained virgin as well.
Also, according to Dundes « the vowel in the name "Mary" as pronounced in some American
dialects of English is the same vowel as in the verb "marry." Part of
the culturally defined transition from girlhood to womanhood entails the
expectation that one day marriage might occur » (9).
Considering the historical
background, according to the stories Mary Worth was a witch, who was tried,
found guilty, executed, and then came back in the form of this female mirror
spirit to take revenge. Bloody Mary is always referred to as “the mirror
witch”. Witches have the potential to charm and infatuate, just like women do.
In the first case they use spells and potions, while in the second their
sexuality and intelligence. Women are often called “witches” by men. We have
experienced that, both in poetry and literature (Aurora Leigh, Jane Eyre), and in real life. They are considered
cruel for practicing their “charms” upon men, or simply because women happen to
be more sophisticated, more intelligent. This interpretation also explains the
fact that Elizabeth Bathory got mixed up with the Bloody Mary legend; she is
the ultimate female fantasy: young, beautiful and sexual forever; she is the
female sexuality incarnated, what women desire the most when they look in their
mirrors: to retain their sexuality and be desirable till the day they die.
Ritual
Bloody Mary is popularly known
as a children’s game of summoning the female spirit. The person practicing the
ritual stands in front of the bathroom mirror in the darkness, with only one candle
lit, pricks one figure with a needle and calls the name «Bloody Mary» three times in a row («Overview», Wikipedia).
If the ritual is successfully performed, the child should see the image of the
frightening spirit materializing on the mirror’s surface (Supernatural) and sometimes she might scratch the performer of the
ritual. We, also, have to keep in mind that the person performing the ritual is
always a young girl. Considering the ritual an important and inseparable part
of the legend we have to analyze the many different elements in order to support
the thesis.
Darkness and light
The ritual is always performed
with the lights turned out and only one small candle lit, so that the girl
practicing the ritual will be able to see the spirit appearing.
The darkness represents a
girl’s ignorance concerning her sexuality. Darkness is commonly allied to lack
of knowledge (“The Dark Ages” used to describe the Middle Age, a period of
ignorance and superstition). According to researches, conducted by Nirojini Bhat Bhan, Payal Mahajan and Minal Sondhi, even from a young age, females are
kept in the dark, as far as it concerns subjects considered by society
“taboos”. Those subjects concern their sexual functions, such as masturbation,
homosexuality or heterosexuality. As a consequent, many girls grow up being
misinformed, or worst, completely ignorant about this very important aspect of
their lives. Lacking the appropriate knowledge they tend to picture these
functions as something “wrong”. Whatever they do must be done in the dark, kept
secret from others who might judge them and definitely never be discussed.
The darkness is also used to
conceal their imaginary “forbidden” deeds. It has been used for centuries to
portray the timeline when all evil things take place: the time when monsters
enter our imagination. Here, the girl enters a place where the same, familiar
darkness reigns as the perfect environment to summon Bloody Mary. The girl is
again doing something she considers “forbidden” and the darkness will cover up
her deed.
The candle used by the ritual
performer symbolizes knowledge. By entering the bathroom with it, the girl shows
that she no longer wants to be kept in the dark about all these important
matters that concern her sexual nature, but she rather prefers to face her
fears and taboos, illuminating this unexplored side of hers, in order to move
forward with her life and grow up as a woman. She wants to experience the truth
and she takes the definitive step by standing in front of the mirror, facing
her fears about her still unknown sexual self, all incarnated in the terrifying
form of Bloody Mary. The light she carries will guide her during this journey,
in order to achieve this exploration of her newly acknowledged side.
Mirror
Numerous essays refer to
Bloody Mary as a “Mirror witch”. Mirrors have a deep supernatural background,
having stood, throughout history, for power and belief to the self. Mirror
magic is very powerful and should not be underestimated. This is reflected in
many literary products: mirrors can be used as means to spy (Snow White), objects that reveal the
desirable (Harry Potter) or even
portals to other dimensions (Alice
According to Janet Langlois
and her book Mary Whales, I believe in
you, «Mary Whales becomes the girl’s own
reflection» (9). Commenting on this point, Alan
Dundes goes even further than Langlois and states that the stories of mirror
apparitions reveal one’s quest for the discovery of a deeper and in most cases
rather different self.
The key is the exploration of
the self: girls are searching for their inner “other” in the mirror. They have
started discovering aspects of themselves they didn’t know they existed (the
first menses appear, their body change, their attraction to the other sex
begins) and they are frightened by them: their sexuality scares them, just like
Bloody Mary does. They know that they will probably face something that will
terrify them, but still they go in the bathroom and face the mirror. They want
to learn more about themselves. Bloody Mary symbolizes their “other self”, the
hidden one, the one they cannot yet accept and they fear, their new sexual
self. Bloody Mary is the girls’ repressed sexuality that they need to face,
understand, explore and finally, accept as a part of their new identities as
they are growing up.
Additionally, I think it is
important to consider the fact that women are narcissistic beings; they enjoy
spending time in front of mirrors, admiring themselves. Mirrors are objects of
desire: women seek them to confirm their sexuality and the fact that they are
wanted by men. So, the mirror appears to be both an object of inner
exploration, something frightening, but at the same time an object of lust,
something they seek to make them feel good about their own reflection. Therefore,
the image on the mirror, the face of Bloody Mary, is actually their “other”
self, their sexual side they occasionally unleash to charm and conquer the
opposite sex.
Blood
Beginning even from the name of the legend’s
protagonist, blood is the basic element that runs through the legend,
supporting its uniqueness.
Simon J. Bronner reports in his
book five texts which describe the ritual. According to those, to call Bloody
Mary (or Black Mary), girls had to go in the bathroom and prick their fingers
with a pin to draw a drop of blood. Then they press the two droplets of blood
together and say "We believe in Bloody Mary" ten times with their
eyes shut. Once they reopen them they can see the image of Bloody Mary in the
mirror, a young girl with long hair, pale skin, and blood running down her face
from a large cut in her forehead (169). According to Dundes, the cut oozing
blood is an upward displacement of the bleeding vagina (11), supporting his
theory that Bloody Mary actually symbolizes the first menses of young girls.
However, the dominant presence of
blood in the legend extends even further than a girl’s menses. The blood offer
the girls make to trick and evoke the spirit brings to mind the virgin
sacrifices that witches were accused of performing in the presence of the devil,
during their rituals. According to a study conducted by Helen Rachelle White,
African witches (male and female) were offering virgin blood to their master to
elude him, in order to appear in their demonic celebrations, during which they
were accused that they used to dance naked in the moonlight or even come into
sexual intercourse with other witches, male or female, or, according to the
most extreme stories, with the devil himself (7). So, the virgin sacrifice
stereotype may stand for the first menses of a young girl, but it also stands for
lust and desire of the other, both being characteristics of the sexual side of
a female.
In some variations of the legend
the performer of the ritual will be marked once the ritual is completed with a
scratch on his arm as a punishment, according to Linda Degh (244). My opinion
is that the marks that the spirit inflicts on the performer of the ritual have
sexual connotations: the performer, the girl, is now infected with knowledge,
since the truth has been revealed to her. She has come face to face with her «other» self, her
sexual persona, understanding that it is, in fact, an inseparable part of her.
This knowledge is destined to «scar» her since it will sign the beginning of a new
era in her life as she compromises with the idea of the great changes that will
slowly infiltrate her life, commencing with menstruation but reaching till
motherhood.
Another fact that these scratches
may underline is that a woman is «marked» with the blood each time she enters an important
new phase of her womanhood: first with menstruation she has the blood flow. Then
with her first sexual intercourse she has the loss of her virginity, meaning
the destruction of her hymen, again signaled through the blood flow. Finally,
when she gives birth, the child that comes out of her body is covered in blood.
Blood seems to be present in all the important moments that define a woman’s identity;
it underlines her femininity and separates her from the other sex as a
different, special being with the ability to procreate.
After all, let us not forget
that, as the blood is the life line of every living organism, the element which
we could never survive without, so is the woman. If all female beings suddenly disappeared,
almost every species of our world would be slowly driven to extinction. So, the
female kind is actually the life blood of the man kind, what keeps the world
alive and breathing, leading them to the future. Just like a living organism
would be unable to survive without blood running through their veins, it would
be equally impossible for our race to continue without the female presence.
As we can now understand,
blood appears to be an element of great significance both to the legend and to
womanhood. Blood is the spine of the legend, giving the story unique
characteristics (the name of the spirit, the sacrifice in the ritual, the
bloody image in the mirror, the cuts and pain inflicted on the performer). The
fact that blood also accompanies the most significant moments of a female’s
life, not to mention the female presence herself, only strengthens my belief
that this legend is inseparably tied to whatever makes a woman special, meaning
her sexual, unique and irreplaceable nature.
Conclusion
In the end, we understand that
the monstrous, haunting image of Bloody Mary was created to distract the young
girls from their real fear: the fear of facing their “other” side, the fear of
accepting their sexuality and the fact that they are finally growing up,
transforming, body and soul, into real women. The mirror that stands before
them will help them see their new selves, the changes that time has inflicted,
while the light will guide them and assist them during this exploration,
driving away the darkness of ignorance and denial. The bloody image of «the girl in the mirror» is actually them, or we’d better say, their «other» self, their sexuality, the prospect
of growing up, moving from childhood into puberty and womanhood, assuming roles
like lovers or mothers.
Blood powerfully
connects all these significant moments of a woman’s life standing for the
confirmation of her sexuality, her female nature, what separates her from the
male. So, after all, Bloody Mary stands for the Woman: she’s got the name of the
universal Mother and protector of all women and the Blood to confirm her
femininity and sexual functions.
Work Cited
Degh, Linda. Indiana Bloomington :
Indiana University
Bronner, Simon J. American Children’s Folklore. Little Rock
Langlois, Janet. 'Mary Whales, I Believe in You':
Myth and Ritual Subdued. Indiana
Dundes,
Alan. Bloody Mary in the Mirror: Essays in Psychoanalytic Folkloristics,
Bloody Mary Legend. 3 March, 2009. http://www.the-tudors.org.uk/bloody-mary-legend.htm
Rowena. The Legend of Bloody Mary. 6 March,
2009. http://www.castleofspirits.com/bloodymary.html
“Bloody
Mary”. Supernatural. Warner Bros. Television. CW. USA
Nirojini Bhat Bhan, Payal Mahajan and Minal
Sondhi. Awareness Regarding Sex
Knowledge Among Adolescent Girls http://209.85.129.132/search?q=cache:okdbg4KmpnMJ:www.krepublishers.com/02-Journals/T-Anth/Anth-06-0-000-000-2004-Web/Anth-06-2-091-157-2004-Abst-PDF/Anth-06-2-101-103-2004-Mahajan/Anth-06-2-101-103-2004-Mahajan.pdf+sexual+awareness+research+girls&hl=el&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=gr
White, Helen Rachel. “Between the Devil and the Inquisition:
African Slaves and the Witchcraft Trials in Cartagena de Indies”. The North Star: A Journal
of African American Religious History. 8.2 (Spring 2005) : 1-15. 6
March, 2009
Bloody Mary (Folkore). 6 March, 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Mary_(folklore)
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