🍃 Finley ✨

Meanwhile...

Frank-N-Furter is a transmisogynistic stereotype of a trans woman.

The character is a cannibalistic rapist who is portrayed as a tall man with masculine features and garish makeup, presenting as a woman, referred to with he/him pronouns.

The character is referred to as a transvestite, as well as being an alien from the planet of Transsexual in the Transylvania galaxy. The film does not describe Frank-N-Furter as pansexual or genderfluid.

Rocky Horror Picture Show was released in 1975. At the time, trans women were still commonly referred to as transvestites. This is before the widespread adoption of terms like transgender or trans woman, back when transsexual was the more respectful term to use to refer to a trans person, even though transsexual was policed such that only trans people that sought out bottom surgery would be considered legitimately trans.

So:

The film refers to the character as a trans woman using language appropriate to the time.

It's an obvious example of the transmisogynistic stereotype of a trans woman as a sexual predator.

The character is depicted as tall and masculine with a feminine presentation to reinforce the idea that trans women are just deviant men.

The character is degendered and turned into a third gender, not allowed to be a man or a woman, instead depicted as some deviant other.

This character is in my top 3 of worst portrayals of trans women in cinema, the other two being Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs and Dil from The Crying Game. And just like those films, it does not matter that people handwave away the implications that they're trans women, because these films are still using transmisogynistic stereotypes that implicitly associate these characters with trans women.

I get that you may not have heard this before. You might find it shocking. You might want to rush to disagree.

I'm going to ask you not to. Before you rush to argue that all of the trans women who talk about how harmful Frank-N-Furter is as a character are wrong, please stop and consider. Maybe you don't have all of the facts and maybe you haven't considered how this kind of portrayal makes other people feel.

Girls will be boys

Boys will be girls

THIS IS NOT A SAFE PLACE FOR TRANSPHOBES,

ASEXUAL/AROMANTIC EXCLUSIONISTS,

AROMANTIC/ASEXUAL PHOBES,

HOMOPHOBES, BIPHOBES, PANPHOBES AND THOSE PEOPLE WHO SAY “invalid label” TO ANYONE IN THE QUEER COMMUNITY

(apart from those who use the “it’s a label” to push sick ideas like being attracted to children)

And finally anyone who supports, voted for, or likes trump and the surrounding policies.

my toxic trait is thinking if i give them enough attention that they'll do the same.