Past Imperfect

pros: yay! i finally look like a guy! people think im a man!

And look, okay, listen. I have a film degree. Im not in any an expert on cinema nor am I a film scholar but I do have some higher formal education on the topic, and I am a trans person who has, unfortunately, been 21. Here's my 2 cents:

Firstly, trans-coded villains in horror movies (namely the "man in a dress" archetype) is pretty cinema 101. It IS so extensively talked about that you were probably drawing an eye in the back of the lecture hall if you dont remember anything being said about it. If you ever take a horror movie class specifically then you are absolutely guaranteed to have this conversation and have the plethora of scholarship about it thrown at you for required reading.

Secondly, I do not like this idea that simply being a bit rude or short with someone of a particular demographic is always and exclusively rooted in a prejudice towards the identity group(s) they are a part of. There is a VERY big difference between active transphobia and just being a bit of a dick, and conflating the two is going to make things very messy and potentially dangerous. For starters, you are going to create an extremely paranoid and jumpy bunch of young trans people who are absolutely convinced that the entire world is out to kill them when they inevitably encounter some random asshole in the real world. And you are going to give a whole bunch of conservatives a whole bunch of ammunition to say that we think every minor inconvenience or moment of discomfort is a targeted attack against us, frankly because you are acting like it is.

Additionally, every 21 year old has a very weird superiority complex. I did, you did/do/will. It just comes with the territory. Youre having your first taste of true independence and are probably in undergrad, which is an environment that drip-feeds you a lot of rewards for doing essentially what you just did in high school again but at a slightly higher difficulty with less social ostracism. If you live on your own or in the dorms with other 21 year olds, you will all just feed into each other's superiority complexes. You end up convinced that you and your friends are the smartest people alive and the first ones to ever come up with certain ideas, that I promise have been thought of by millions of 21 year olds before you. This includes "has anyone else noticed that trans-coded villains are common in horror movies?" And I think its justified to have a bit of a reality check in someone saying "yes, everyone has, this has been discussed extensively for generations, youre just 21."

Finally, I do not appreciate in the slightest the response to this tweet being "silence of the lambs has no artistic merit and should be scrubbed from the media landscape entirely because of Buffalo Bill." If you personally are not comfortable with/do not have the ability to look past the trans-coded villain archetype you dont have to watch it, but to act like the presence of a poorly-aged trope completely negates all the very real positive impact a foundational film did for modern horror is infuriatingly anti-intellectual and betrays your one-dimensional morality around media, as well as your complete inability to look at something objectively.

"It's no great sin to correct a callow yoot who thinks a banal observation is brand new:" sure!

"If you overreact to something that might not be transphobia you will make reactionaries justified in hating us and convince trans children everywhere they're doomed:" what is wrong with you?

Anyways. What kicked off the whole thing was Bricks and Minifigs corporate taking over the franchise in Keizer, Oregon. The owner Chrystal notified them that she wanted to sell, since they were moving overseas, and the next day and without any notice they showed up saying that they're taking the store from her and if she doesn't leave immediately, they're calling the cops. And because they didn't hold up their end of the contract and give her the lease on the building (among other things! they blame her for violating the contract but they didn't do a lot of the things they were required to do and that caused many of the issues they say they had with her), they could do that. They could say she was trespassing.

As she lays it out, she missed payments on the lease because the lease wasn't in her name AND corporate didn't hand over the bank account like they were supposed to so the bank froze it, so payments that were supposed to be made failed. And that's what corporate used to justify taking the store over, even though it was all their fault and Chrystal was working with them to rectify it.

Oh, also, Bricks and Minifigs corporate admitted that a month before they took the store over, they were investigating specifically the inventory. So they knew the store had at least $100,000 in inventory. Likely they knew about the consignment deal and that much of the inventory hadn't been paid for. It's hard to just say outright that they were planning to steal it, because that's such an insane thing, but that's absolutely what it looks like. And they knew that she was moving overseas so her ability to fight them would be greatly hindered.

This is pretty egregious behavior if you have just one example. Except that another store owner has gone public on YouTube with his story about how the exact same thing happened to him. And a lawsuit has been located with another example. And like, three examples is a trend, especially for such a small franchise. But in an interview yesterday Chrystal said she's in contact with four other ex-store owners in the same situation, two of which may be going public soon (and two of which are staying quiet because they basically had their lives destroyed by Bricks and Minifigs corporate).

Maybe we can say that it's because they're criminals who fuck people over and have gotten away with it for years, so when they find another person to fuck over they're not thinking about how it could go wrong. But that they didn't realize their shit was getting exposed and go into clean up mode when Ben's first video posted and got millions of views is insane. $200,000 and they could have made it all go away. I mean, probably half that or less could have solved the problem, but at a max of $200k they could have kept their other dirty dealings quiet.

it must have been equally terrifying for her as it was for the real nikki to have someone else fight for control over what she perceived as her body. the scene where she's sobbing in the corner, terrified of her dreams is now more sad than terrifying to me. real nikki, who has just been raped by her once best friend hurting so badly that it seeps into entity!nikki's nightmares. entity!nikki who doesn't understand why the thing she wanted so badly is causing her so much pain. why she can't bring herself to lie in bed next to the man who is the center of her world.

and the worst part is bear doesn't even seem to like her. she's trying so so hard; she made a lovely memorial for his dead cat, she waited for him to come home all day without moving an inch, she made sure to be the most doting girlfriend at the party, and he's not pleased by any of it. he seems disturbed and angry and scared and she has no idea what to do to make it better. to make it worse, he keeps asking her to behave like the original nikki but he was the one who wished for her!! she can't be like nikki because nikki was simply not capable of loving bear even a fraction of how much she does!

she can't seem to reconcile it; he wanted her so badly he conjured her into reality and now he doesn't want her anymore. she doesn't know what to do. she tries everything. she obsesses over him, she threatens to hurt herself, she gets rid of that bitch sarah who keeps distracting him and trying to steal him away, and then dresses in her clothes for good measure and he still doesn't want her.

and then finally in a fit of desperation, she makes the wish and for one beautiful moment its all perfect. he's finally looking at her the way she looks at him. and then he's dead and she's lost everything.

Women and girls (including trans women and girls) do experience negative health consequences from social pressure to prioritize thinness over health, including sexist ideas about what athleticism even means.

You could also point to sexism as an indirect problem - chores, second shifts, maternal healthcare, expectations for appearance, restrictions on contact with the opposite sex or participation in public spaces, safety. Sexual harassment is a barrier to activity.

Public transit systems are usually biased against adults who are responsible for errands like school pickups or grocery shopping and in favor of adults who commute downtown to a 9-5 office job; all by itself, that could push more women off walking and into cars.

It's likely that sexism does affect our sense of what "healthy female bodies" and "athletic female bodies" actually look like. Medicine has unrealistic ideas about women's size and strength, and women experience consistent medical neglect.

Women and girls (including trans women and girls) do experience negative health consequences from social pressure to prioritize thinness over health, including sexist ideas about what athleticism even means.

You could also point to sexism as an indirect problem - chores, second shifts, maternal healthcare, expectations for appearance, restrictions on contact with the opposite sex or participation in public spaces, safety. Sexual harassment is a barrier to activity.

Public transit systems are usually biased against adults who are responsible for errands like school pickups or grocery shopping and in favor of adults who commute downtown to a 9-5 office job; all by itself, that could push more women off walking and into cars.

It's likely that sexism does affect our sense of what "healthy female bodies" and "athletic female bodies" actually look like. Medicine has unrealistic ideas about women's size and strength, and women experience consistent medical neglect.