Many of us remember our awkward adolescent years, in which a hair grows somewhere one didn’t think possible, or a zit pops up right before the big dance(or was it just me)? I can only speak as man, yet, going through puberty was tough. Being somewhat of a late grower, all of my friends, it seemed were six feet tall, when I was barely 5 feet 5 inches tall. Bodies were changing, muscles were developing, and boys and girls became interested in each other. In The Exorcist, we watch a demon posses a girl going through puberty. Puberty, itself can be seen as this demon: that changes your body, emotions, appetite and sexuality. For females, it is also the beginning of their menstruation. Sight of blood, is terrifying for most people, since it is a signal that something is wrong. The body, while menstruating, hurts adding to the horror of puberty. In puberty, one also finds their sexuality. In many comedic movies or television shows, the young boy going through puberty is often times shown to be spending a lot of times in his room, bed or bathroom obviously drawing to the conclusion of masturbation. However, it has always been a taboo to show younger girls and women as sexual as their male counterparts in puberty. Thus, adds the great surprise and true horror of seeing Regan masturbating with a crucifix. The “abjectness” of menstrual blood is not lost in The Exorcist, adding to the horror when Regan, forces her mother’s head down to her bloody genitals. In this sense, Regan’s body, personality and sexuality have transformed not only by the demon, but by puberty.
Although it must be frightening for Regan to undergo a possession, the movies was made to terrify people in connection to Regan and the audience. We always see Regan and her exponentially increasing possession with others, witnessing what her mother, doctors or Father Damien witness. Although, Regan is possessed by a demon, her language is troublesome to her mother and Father Damien. It is terrifying and infuriating to see someone so innocent to use such sexually explicit language. Adding to the notion, of a fatherless house, The Exorcist brings about the fear of raising a child immorally. In puberty, as bodies transform so does the language around bodies and sexuality, transform. Boys and girls become more aware of their sexual urges and it may be hard sometimes to come up with the perfect way to express one’s sexuality into words. In the Digital Age, adolescents have access to the internet and each other, like never before. The Digital Age also introduces a new way to communicate these sexual thoughts yet, parents are always terrified of their children’s sexuality and constantly try to suppress it, and even punish it. For instance, it was a common occurrence for my friends and I to have our cell phones taken and read by our parents and then receiving lectures about morality and sexuality. One of those times, my parents also took my sister’s phone, and read lewd, eerily similar to The Exorcist messages from a boy she liked. This not only terrified my parents, it outraged them. They were immediate contact with the boy’s parents and grounded my sister for who knows how long. They were terrified of this boy’s advances towards a Catholic “morally raised” adolescent girl, and were terrified that this boy will somehow “possess”, their daughter and cause her to say and do these repugnant sexual fantasies. After that, both of our phones were forced to undergo downloads after download until my parents sense of terror and shock were subdued. What wasn’t frightening to my sister, a boy showing interest in her, to my parents was the most horrifying event, an unknown entity-a teenage boy filling my sister’s head with “impurities”. Thus for parents, adolescence in the Digital Age, is the True Horror Show.
The picture is taken from “https://cybercaution.wordpress.com/contact-us/”, a Cyberbullying blog. Ahmed Mahmoud, is said to be in charge of posting pictures and videos on the Blog.
