Softness and femininity saturate the screen with warmth as the camera pans across each row in the locker room. As some girls get changed, we see other young, confident high school women wearing their nudity like a fresh new outfit–loud and proud. Slowly but surely, we eventually meet our timid and innocent protagonist–miss Carrie White herself–as the caresses herself in the shower, making us question if we’ve appreciated the skin we’re in lately. Suddenly, red stain runs down her hand and she panics, frantically asking everyone to help her as she stains other clothes with her newfound womanhood. The girls in the locker room are no help, yelling “Plug it up! Plug it up!” while they throw tampons at the poor wounded shower nymph. I couldn’t help but think, is this the way that men in Hollywood view women? Are females just doomed to surrender to mother nature helplessly?

I obviously wasn’t the only one who noted the underlying sexism in Carrie. Serafina Kent Bathrick wrote about de Palma’s demystification of women and his technique to capture the media’s interpretation of the naturally self-destructive sexes. Bathrick writes “De Palma exploits the position of women in this tradition of healers and rebels. By systematically witch hunting for social wrongs through the sexualizing of women’s nature and bodily functions, he upholds and contributes to the kind of scapegoating that keeps capitalist culture in the service of the state. Every woman in CARRIE is understood entirely in terms of her sexual frustration or potency.” Carrie is by far the most unique character, identifying with both sides of the spectrum and trying to keep up with her polarizing morals. Carrie has a sexual aura about her, but also struggles to embrace it due to her repressive (and abusive) Christian upbringing. Finally able to mute it out, Carrie arrives at the prom only to be slimed with pig’s blood, triggering her moment of utter destruction and murder. De Palma executes his grand moment and exhibition of Carrie seamlessly, showing her to be both “limited and defined by this repellent culture of women, but she tops them all in her capacity to destroy and be destroyed.” Brian De Palma not only takes a shot at the sexist behavior towards women in society, but illustrates his own fascination with the feminist power and its incredible potential.

De Palma’s subjection of women to the ravages of their physical-physiological natures is also articulated in the ways by which he structures the film around the opposition of two institutions which influence and ultimately control the adolescent Carrie”

Other critics have taken note of the dualism and contradiction that Carrie represents in all women. Anton Bitel of the website Little White Lies writes about Carrie’s desires and her struggle to fulfill them in an overzealous Christian household ran by her totalitarian worshiping mother. Bitel writes ”Carrie’s climactic empowerment is all at once the tragedy and triumph of a young woman trapped between Biblical regression and a secular coming-out,” reiterating Carrie’s final moment of incredible power paired with total defeat.

Carrie was there to remind me of the systematic sexism installed within our society today, but also reminded me of the mystique women wear with a sly smile, well aware of their ability to destroy anything that dare stands in their way.