Why can’t we have a book accurate Carrie White?

By Flora Irvine-Hall

Image via IMBb

The casting for Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of Stephen King’s classic 1974 novel has left some fans disappointed

Carrie is a horror classic. There’s a reason why it has been adapted multiple times. But with multiple adaptations, comes fatigue. So when it was announced that Mike Flannagan was going to be adapting the novel into a TV mini-series, the reaction was rather mixed.

 On the one hand, Mike Flanagan is to horror fans, what AC/DC is to classic rock fans. There’s no denying that the man is a genius. But on the other hand, do we really need another Carrie adaptation? Especially if we’re not even going to get a book accurate Carrie White.

In the original source material, Carrie is described as being a "chunky girl" with pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, and pimples on her neck, back, and buttocks. A far cry from all the conventionally attractive and slim leads that have played the titular lead in the past.

Image via Reddit

Some readers may think that this not that important. After all, people of all shapes and sizes can fall victim to bullying.

But Carrie White’s book appearance is an integral part of her story. It’s a large part of the iconic pigs-blood scene at prom. The fact that it’s pigs’ blood, is meant to be a mockery of her weight. When gathering the materials for the cruel prank, Billy Nohlan and his friends joke that it’s “pigs’ blood for a pig.”

This is true to life. If you don’t meet modern day beauty standards, you’re basically a human punching bag. If Carrie White were a real person, and she looked like King’s book description, she’d probably be a lolcow.  

A lolcow, a coin termed on the internet, combines the terms “LOL” and “cash cow” and refers to an individual whose outlandish and odd behaviour is obsessively followed and mocked online. The phenomenon is rightfully widely criticised, with other internet users pointing out how cruel it is, especially when internet lolcows are often neurodivergent, mentally ill or battling addicting.

People won’t admit it, but a large part of what makes someone a lolcow, is their appearance. While a conventionally attractive person’s strange behaviour might be labelled as quirkiness, non-conventionally attractive people are not awarded the same privilege.

Image via IMDb

 It’s an uncomfortable truth, but as a society, we tend to have a loss less empathy towards those who don’t meet beauty standards.

This is why, if we’re really going to get another Carrie adaptation, she should be book accurate. Anyone who watches any of the adaptations, feels sorry for Carrie. But what if she wasn’t attractive? What if she behaved outlandishly? Would they still feel sorry for her?

Image via Horror Homeroom

Unfortunately, we live in a world where plus-sized people are often treated as sub-human. A plus-sized Carrie would unpack the ugly truth and force us to look at ourselves and ask why our empathy is dependant on how someone looks.

And it’s not just Carrie’s appearance that misses the mark in a lot of these adaptations. It’s also her behaviour. In all of the adaptations, Carrie White is depicted as a shy, sheltered, timid and awkward young girl. This makes it easy to sympathize with her. In the original source material, she’s a little different. It’s stated that she often tells her classmates that they’re going to hell and once kneeled down in the school cafeteria to pray which caused her skirt to rip. This is the type of behavior that would certainly raise a few eyebrows. Some people may even think that because the behavior is off-putting that is justifies mockery. They might not even see it as bullying.

Image via The Mercury News

Bullying in real-life is often very different to what we see on-screen. Real-life victims of bullying are often strange and what some would call “cringe.” Because of this, we feel justified in emotionally tormenting them. We see someone acting strange, and we get angry. Especially if they aren’t attractive. How dare they fall out of line! How dare they not act normal! And how dare they make themselves visible while being unattractive!

Society teaches us that empathy is based on looks. Even those who are progressive probably have some biases and prejudice that they need to unpack.

And what better way to do this than a tv series where a plus-sized protagonist is the victim to inhumane cruelty and endless mockery? It would force us to really think about why our empathy seems to be tied to people’s looks.

Summer H. Howell will almost certainly give an excellent performance much like the actresses who came before her. But having another Carrie adaptation, with another skinny, attractive white girl, is very much a letdown.