okay i mentioned once on here my reading of the overlook hotel as a representation of patriarchy and yk what let’s talk about it!!
there is a lot of blatant sexism expressed by male characters in the film. during the bar scene jack refers to wendy as a sperm bank, calls her a bitch, and lloyd responds with a misogynistic cliche “women, can’t live with em, can’t live without em”. and ofc one of the most blatant, textual themes is domestic violence, men’s violence against women. the misogyny is equated with jack’s disdain of wendy for doing literally anything. in the bathroom scene with jack and grady (one of my fav scenes in the whole film) where he is convincing jack to kill his family, he speaks of “correcting” women and girls. he says he “corrected” his wife and daughters because they rebelled against the overlook.
pair this with the theme of always having been here and the subtext relating to native american genocide. during that same bar scene, jack references the “white man’s burden”. this is a poem about how it is a white man’s duty to colonize in order to civilize the world. it’s easy to see how this connects with grady’s talk of “correcting” women. the use of violence against “inferior” people.
during that same scene with grady is when we get the dialogue, “you’ve always been the caretaker. i should know sir, i’ve always been here” (grady also calls halloran the n word in this scene). misogyny is old. it’s been around forever. men like jack and grady have always been around. they’ve always been here.
you could also argue that the shining powers (in the film, i have not read the book) are a metaphor for a child’s ability (specifically one who has been victimized) to pick up on violence and abuse (things that not everyone can see, but those who shine can see). halloran doesn’t mention anything about his experiences, but he is an elderly black man in the late 70s so we can assume he has experienced some kind of racist abuse (especially since he is called the n word in the movie).
there’s also the name of the hotel, the overlook. the institution of marriage, the nuclear family, and a parents ownership of their children is a system that allows abuse to be overlooked. in 1980 when this film was released, marital rape was still legal in most us states. there’s a mention that 4 presidents have stayed there, and ofc presidents abuses (whether towards a woman, their children, breaches of power, etc.) are overlooked all the time.
in conclusion the shining is a film about hierarchal violence. i also recommend this video essay about hierarchies of violence in the shining, which inspired my take a lot!!
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