The May Queen

I’ve talked about this before on this blog but this is the most disgustingly transphobic and lesbophobic narrative I’ve ever come across. 

CWs: transphobia, homophobia, lesbophobia, corrective rape, voyeurism

The book Adam by Ariel Schrag is being turned into a movie which has been named as one of the most exciting LGBTQ films of the year. You should know before watching that the book is about a cis boy who pretends to be a trans man in order to persuade lesbians to sleep with him.

Yeah… you read that right.

Book plot summary: 

boy spies on his lesbian sister having sex

boy decides to pretend to be a trans man (gross)

i.e. pretends to have a vagina because he thinks lesbians will want him then (he literally wants to fuck lesbians because he watched his lesbian sister have sex wtf)

he does get a lesbian to sleep with him, he straps his penis down using ace bandages and uses a strap on.

all the actual trans dudes we meet identify as lesbians this basically implies that trans men are not real men (lesbians i.e. women)  

another time they have sex again only he uses his actual penis but tells her its a strap on. that’s literally rape, she didn’t consent to an actual penis.

he confesses that he’s been lying to her this whole time but she doesn’t break up with him. she even says its okay cause she fantasised about him being “a real boy"

that’s a direct quote. massive transphobia. huge. not to mention this is now the “lesbian is cured by dick trope” which is disgusting and that trope leads to real lesbians and bi women being raped to “fix” them. 

he leaves new york, they’re long distance. they get in an argument and he calls her a slut and a whore among other things and then she dumps him

eventually they get back in touch and she has a new cis boyfriend so yep, she’s been “cured” woo she’s actually straight and he helped her realise that yay (massive sarcasm)

It is deeply deeply transphobic. To imply that our identities are just costumes for other people to put on erases who we are as people. More than that, to imply it is done to trick people into sex is a dangerous lie that literally gets us killed.

It is also deeply lesbophobic. To fuel this narrative that lesbians can be “fixed” by having sex with a man leads to real corrective rapes happening. 

Here is a review of the book by a trans man. I have yet to find one by a lesbian but will edit this if I do.

This book gives out incredibly harmful notions about trans men and lesbians that are used to hurt them in real life. It’s so entrenched in the narrative that I don’t see how the film can possibly be any better.

I do not say any of this lightly. it’s very very rare for me to call out a piece of fiction or for me to decide that a story is unfixable. But this… there’s no excuse for the bigotry in this. 

I’d like to tell people to boycott it but I can’t tell you what to do. So instead I’m going to ask that you share this because it being named as an exciting new LGBTQ film is going to make LGBTQ teens want to see it. And they should know beforehand how hurtful it could be. They should be able to arm themselves with that knowledge.

Don’t make queer kids see this film believing it will represent them only to be exposed to this hatred of their identities. 

Don’t base and assume everything about this tradition from popular media like Coco, as great as it is, it was still ultimately produced by a white multi-billionaire company that exploits its workers that tried to take the audience’s attention from actual Mexican cartoonists that wanted to make a movie about our tradition (yuppp, that’s Disney for you)

If you’re not Mexican and you want to do Mexican sugar skull makeup, I really really encourage you to do just a regular skull instead. Although I am okay with people using this as long as they are respectful and understand the roots and culture behind it, I know a lot of Mexicans that are not and I support their stance since I am very wary of non-Mexicans using them.

Don’t make jokes about this day, as someone that actually has deceased family from Mexico and plans to celebrate this, I cannot stress enough how disrespectful this

Educate yourself about our traditions if you want to, but don’t pretend to know more than actual Mexicans please

Don’t mess with our ofrendas please. Again, super disrespectful.

Actually don’t mess with anything related to this day, not even flowers of cempasúchil or sugar skull. Period.

Don’t dismiss our tradition as a dumb superstition or anything like that. For many of us this day is really important, including myself, and that is entirely disrespectful towards us and our cultures (you shouldn’t dismiss any holidays/special days for other cultures either!)

Above all, educate yourself and instead of making this about you, use this day to highlight Mexican voices rather than your own.

Thank you! Gracias! Feliz día de los muertos!!!

More info on it

Be careful if you see an article on it as like most social media, videos autoplay.

Happy Halloween Debbie Reynolds a.k.a Splendora Agatha “Aggie” Cromwell (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016)! I hope you are having a wonderful afterlife over in Halloweentown! We miss you so much!

Inktober 2019 ROTG

Day 25 : Mother Nature