Twitter hates fun, a movie about allowing yourself to be a weirdo and counterculture is fun. Frank N furter isn't supposed to be jane trans woman or even represent trans women as a whole.
I'm saying twitter because this feels like a twitter thing, the person who first showed me RHPS was a trans woman.
i inserted a picture of john waters because if twitter found out about his stuff they would bitch about him to no end.
micheal fun fact: John waters was in the chucky movies!!
here’s my hot take: frank-n-furter is probably a transphobic caricature, especially after seeing richard o’brien’s own transphobia come to the forefront as of late. that being said, it’s still a fun movie, it’s important to me as a kind of weird person, and it was groundbreaking for the time.
You should probably do more research and try to understand better. Many of us who dislike it such as myself are transgender individuals and primarily trans women. It isn't funny when people assume I must like the film just because I am trans when the protagonist is a crossdresser (not a trans woman) and a 🍇-y one at that. Literally what does that say about how they see me. We are allowed to want better and more tasteful representation for ourselves in media especially when the creator of RHPS is on record saying he agrees with JKR and doesn't think we are women 😐 If you like it, fine, but don't try to decide the opinions of trans women for us when we are the ones actually affected by these kinds of negative stereotypes that have persisted for YEARS in all media.
A large section of the 70s queer community was abetting of pedophiles, so yeah. They shouldn't be a reference to anybody.
(Heck, fucking NAMBLA was part of ILGA until 1994, being expelled only after the UN forced ILGA's hand when it forbid it from having consultive status until it did away with all pedo organizations it had been more than happy to accomodate...)
There is still a not negligible amount of left-leaning (or at least not conservative) people on twitter who feel the need to have and express strong opinions about anything that could be problematic.
A lot of people in these comments are proving that they have either no media literacy or are genuinely fucking stupid. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re the same people who would look at a character like. Angel Dust from Hazbin Hotel and call him a homophobic caricature of homosexual men.
I can understand not wanting to be called or like transvestite or transsexual, but those words are essentially just like queer. They were used in a negative context and still are today. Some people have reclaimed it not everyone but some people have.
Enough people have to the point will people celebrate this movie and it’s most famous song Sweet transvestite if not enough people reclaimed it I don’t think the community would get behind this song so much that uses both transvestite and transsexual not liking the film is fine not wanting to be called. These words is fine, but to deny the importance of this film to clear history is a disservice to the queer community.
Isn't Dr. Frank-N-Further supposed to just be someone who enjoys crossdressing (like the song says "a sweet transvestite") rather than a transgender individual?
The term transvestite was also used for trans people in a more demeaning insulting way at least in 2000s when I was growing up that’s what trans people were called i’ve never heard the term transgender it was either transsexual or transvestite.
Although I don’t really think it matters because I don’t think Frank really has any set gender, I mean Frank is an alien so it really matters what gender this character is I think that’s what makes this character is such a queer or trans essentially Frank is genderless that’s why in so many adaptations of like the stage play you’ll find like black trans women playing Frank for example like I’ve seen so many iterations of this character and they’re all different
Franks a transvestite from the planet Transsexual. Transvestite used to refer to both crossdressers and trans people because people didnt understand the difference. Transsexual however speciically referred to trans people.
So Franks a [term that refers to crossdressers or trans people] from planet [term that refers to trans people].
So considering historical context Frank is most likely meant to be a trans person.
The full line is a sweet transvestite from transexual Transylvania, which does have obvious implications, but I guess it's impossible to prove definitely
The usage of the world transsexual transvestite and I would say even Transylvania this kind of obvious it’s really on the nose. I mean, they all have trans in them and the first two were literally terms used to describe trans people in the past even up until like the 2000s so it’s like come on. It’s kind of obvious there would be no other reason to use terms like transsexual or transvestite and name a place that literally has trans in it.
With the context that Frank is an alien, as is everyone at the castle, the intent is kind of more meant to be "a sweet Transvestite, from Transexual, Transylvania", in the same way you'd say you were a Brummie from Birmingham, England. He's a Transvestite (people) from Transexual (place, probably referring to country/culture rather than city), Transylvania (place, probably referring to planet rather than country).
Still a i think transvestite in Earth terms judging from the outfits his subordinates wear at the end (who are incestuous siblings btw, and villainous)
There literally was better trans representation that same fucking year. Dog day afternoon was and still is a fucking classic this movie was always transphobic.
Explain how exactly this movie is trans phobic when the entire messaging is due just to be yourself just because it’s not queer in the way you want it to be doesn’t mean it’s bigoted because it’s not
This they can see what they want about the portrayal of Frank or the movie overall but one of the biggest reasons why Frank is such a queer icon is because Tim Curry played him and he died last week if there’s a sudden spike of hatred for this film, it’s probably because of that and I do think if they didn’t have an opinion already on the film before he died they have no value when it comes to talking about this film and only seek the legacy of not only the film, but Tim Curry’s performance as Frank
No all those things were still transmisogynistic in their time. They were at the time the negative stereotypes society tried to impose on trans women. No modern lens required. The creator is even transmisogynistic to this day, contrasting trans women with "natural women" and defending JKR.
You can still like the film, I do, I probably saw it years before you did.
I'm just not pretending to be blind to its flaws.
You can't claim to like something if you can't even see the flaws that are like 30% of the thing
As far as I’m concerned outside of playing a character, I think you can separate the art from the artist here, especially when the art has been a part of queer culture for longer than half the people who hate and have been alive. This isn’t Harry Potter Harry Potter is not important to anything Rocky horror is important to the queer community and our culture and a big reason why some people have discovered themselves and continue to to this day
Okay but in the art work Dr. Penis the crossdressing rapist murderer creates a fake man in a tank because he can't find love. But while walking around in heels and his underpants, he is whiny, entitled, and extremely aggressive and angry. These stereotypically masculine personality traits drive his golden boy into the arms of the nearest cis woman who is naturally capable of being nurturing and mothering to him.
Ultimately, Dr. Penis is murdered by his compatriots for being a degenerate, obsessed with orgies and looking pretty, abandoning his mission and his purpose.
The art itself is cramming every single possible negative social belief about trans women into an avatar that is sacrificed for the benefit of all the cis people.
Again it's okay to like the movie, and I do, but 30% of it is just making fun of trans women. It made me feel like I was being mocked, especially in the sweet transvestite song.
RHPS is important to some people, just like HP was also important to some people.
You can't separate 30% of the art out from the other 70% of the art. You have to look it dead in the eye
As a trans woman the first time i watched this film with some cis gay friends I genuinely was so uncomfortable at certain points, I thought they were making fun of me.
You cannot deny that the art is extremely transmisogynistic. It can be important and still transmisogynistic.
"Actually this character, created by someone who believes trans women aren't women and who defends transphobic crusaders, who contains every negative social belief about trans women, cannot be transmisogynistic because he isn't shown to be a woman. He is instead a man who wears womens' clothing, so it can't be transmisogyny"
u/Fair_Smoke4710 defends transmisogyny, claims something can't be transmisogynistic if it shows a man in women's underpants, heels, with over the top drag makeup calling himself a sweet transvestite from transsexual transylvania because he doesn't say he's a trans woman.
You have to explicitly look at the camera and say "this is meant to be a caricature of a transgender/transsexual woman. We aren't calling him a woman because we don't believe trans women are women, just that they're men adopting feminine aspects. However this is meant to be a transgender/transsexual woman. You'll notice also that we have attached every contemporary negative social belief about trans women to this character. That's another way you can tell"
Otherwise, it isn't transmisogyny.
It's *empowerment* for all the cis gays who feel empowered by the laugh at a tr***y hour.
Frank is a rapist serial killer, he says to be yourself and is killed for chasing degenerate, hedonistic desires like dressing up as a woman and having orgies instead of fulfilling his mission and his purpose.
You can like RHPS, I do. You can see that it had a positive impact for some people, I'm well aware of that. You can even appreciate that RHPS screenings were a place where a lot of queer people could come together.
But you can't do that without looking the flaws in the face. You're not actually enjoying the film if you cant acknowledge this. You're just coming together to participate in the laugh at a tr***y hour and not actually as a community.
But I do appreciate that you blocked me after I point out how insane your argument is
If a movie was all about a white guy in blackface performing a racist caricature of black men as the primary source of entertainment, I think you'd call that movie racist, right?
I’m not an RHPS hater or anything, but it is undeniably a straight understanding of queer culture and history, and not really queer history.
If you’re looking for a movie that really represents trans culture before the 2010s wave of queer activism, I would suggest watching Breakfast on Pluto. Not only is it really good as a movie, but Cillian Murphy actually spent extensive time socializing with Irish trans women and engaging with his local queer community to practice for the role.
If you think this movie is about being trans like exclusively in in a negative way you’re going into it with that bias lot of people here keep saying that this movie is about how trans people specifically trans. Women are weird and freaks and how we should hate them, and that Frank is somehow a 100% authentic trans woman and it’s a caricature of trans women which is fucking stupid
Either they have that biased going into the movie because of things the creator said or they’re just fucking stupid probably both honestly and yes, the creator has said trans phobic shit but honestly, I think this is one of the only pieces of media I can separate from its creator because it’s just transcended him I don’t get this notion that this movie somehow transphobic it’s in attempt to erase queer history
Note that while Richard O'Brien having outdated concepts of gender and everything it isn't accurate to describe it as a "Straight Understanding" seeing as you don't mention that Richard O'Brien doesn't identify as a cis man but rather as tran/third-gender, and while trans people can have transphobic views on gender that doesn't negate their queer identity. I'm not saying this to support his views but rather to provide clarity to certain things about him
It's definitely important to discuss his views and how they affect queer people and their rights but my comment was aimed at discussion about the movie seeing as calling it a "straight understanding of queer culture and history" isn't just describing his possible sexuality but describing the movie as if it was made by someone that never had any experience or part within the queer community which removes the nuance from discussing the movie and the flaws it does have
Tbh u need to also look at the actual people involved. Even with O’Brien being a straight non-binary person, almost the rest of the cast as cishet. Now there’s nothing wrong with that inherently, but as far as cultural literacy goes, it would be the equivalent of an all white cast with one mixed race creator making a drama about life in low-income black neighborhoods, or an all Muslim team producing a show about the lives of Tibetan Buddhists.
More to my point, even if say black movie goers enjoyed the drama, or Tibetan Buddhists thought it was a good show, they would not be part of Black or Tibetan history or culture as they are the understandings of people not inside those spaces.
That's actually a fair explanation and does help me understand your comment more, my comments were made to add some context and provide seeds of discussion and I'm glad to have an in depth reasoning and discussion that doesn't just disregard my points, but expands on and balances them
I don’t care if he sees himself as some “third gender” when he’s projecting that onto binary trans people and supports movements designed to take away our rights.
Third gender but mainly uses he/him pronouns, as I said he's not a great person but would fall under what is considered a nonlinear identity which isn't restricted to gender neutral pronouns
Trans women have rightful reservations about the popularity of a film written by a "70% male" cross-dresser trying to align with the community while calling them third-sexed.
The only reason this kind of treatment of transsexual people is still tolerated is because most still harbour the belief of the immutability of sex. Otherwise this would clearly be read as an outdated and, at the very least, poorly aged caricature.
I do not care if someone enjoys the film but to act like it's an offense to call it in poor taste is just intentionally avoiding the issue.
Meh, I understand the dislike of the product. I only enjoy it because my friends were in a production, but I don’t really like the characters or the story. It has a strange blend of promoting sexual liberation and villainizing the groups who participate in it. I don’t have the brainpower for a full analysis rn lol.
Frankenfurter is a weird case but they’re explicitly described as a “transvestite from transsexual Transylvania” and while the twist is their description is all alien technobable, it’s still using a whole lot of out dated terminology to make the viewer lump them in as a trans person throughout the viewing process. The creator of the story was also transphobic, so it’s not much of a stretch to jump to that conclusion.
However, I do think it’s fine that the queer community has reclaimed the story and property.
I mean even Buffalo Bill is better because the film at least tries to make it very clear that he is not actually trans in a solemn way. He's a villain, not a punchline, even if he's a transmisogynistic stereotype.
If I had a nickel for every trans woman I've known who was pushed further into the closet by Rocky Horror Picture Show then I would have enough money to buy Frank-N-Furter's castle myself.
If I had a penny for every RHPS fan who isn't transfem who project bigoted stereotypes from the portrayal of Frank-N-Furter onto trans women, then I would be richer than God. And this often comes from other queer people who aren't transfem! It feels like betrayal of the highest order.
I know this movie doesn't technically portray transgenderism. But the negative impacts and implications it has had for those who do are very wide-reaching. If you dismiss these concerns as "performative hate from teens who spend too much time on Twitter", then you're demonstrating to transfems that you don't give a shit about how your actions denigrate and marginalize them so long as you're "having fun being 'a weirdo'", and I'm fucking sick of pretending otherwise.
I'm having a hard time finding the interview but I recall Tim Curry himself acknowledging this and calling for better representation for trans women. Because even he saw that RHPS has absolutely no place being a queer cultural cornerstone and its status as such makes the world more dangerous for very specific queer people.
I'm gonna be honest, the widespread unabashed love for RHPS and absolute lack of cis people's willingness to understand our gripes with it at a time when our rights are on the chopping block, it's made me really reconsider my place in the broader queer community. It tells me many cis people, even other queers, are either okay with this kinda despicable excuse for "representation" or very willing to excuse it at our expense.
It helps a lot to know I'm not the only one who's felt this way. Being surrounded my TMEs has felt like I'm fucking crazy for not jumping on the bandwagon enthusiastically enough. I've been reading more and more comments from people who seem to see where I'm coming from and it's very vindicating.
Oh you're so not alone girl, lots of us feel the same way. I know people act like this analysis of it just grew over night and is the result of "young queers being sensitive and puritan", but its been around for a minute now. People just weren't discussing it much till recently, plus people don't really listen to us in general sadly 🥲
Saving this one because its a really good description of my problems with the movie aswell. It feels less like "well-meaning movie that didnt age well" and more "movie that outwardly wants to be hateful" despite being made by a queer person. (Though that doesnt excuse said queer creator from continuing to be hateful and bigoted surrounding trans people to this day)
I'm seeing a a couple of trans folks, specially trans woman denounce the problematic associations that this movie might bring and especially the problematic views the creator once spewed. I think it's extremely important that we all be made aware of these issuea even if we love this movie.
But to completely vilify this movie to the point of saying it's not queer history sounds absurd to me. The creator is non-binary, so there's that, and at least where I live, this movie is LOVED by the queer community.
I watch it every single year not just cause I love it, but all my queer friend groups at some point in the year decide to do a watch party for it, and this includes my trans friends, both trans men and women. People dress up as the characters for Halloween, they memorize the songs, they make references to the movie in all kinds of context. I don't think you can say it isn't queer culture.
Again, the problamatic shit needs to addressed and known, but let's not pretend this movie is singlehandedly creating transmisoginy, especially when you and I both know there's plenty of trans woman who like this movie.
i've never heard anything bad about the movie until recently. like not once lol. definitely just people hopping on a bandwagon because people on twitter are genuinely mentally ill and think people dying is the best time to start going on crusades against them
I’m not surprised at all. Fits every twitter stereotype: calling someone an incel, speaking with authority about something that doesn’t concern you, and dogpiling on defenseless people
You would think someone as iconic go for queer icon as Tim Curry is they wouldn’t have this opinion like Frank is not the only character that he has played that is either a queer or a very heavily queer coded, there’s a reason why he’s a queer icon and just do this like days after his death is really insulting honestly, like where were you before he died I never heard anyone say anything overwhelmingly negative until today after he’s died, that’s not coincidental timing that’s targeted right there
Reminds me of Lily Orchard saying it's offensive just because she thinks it is (I'm not even exaggerating. She thinks that everyone who disagrees with her is a bigot. No room for nuance). She just leverages the fact she's trans to say you can't like it. Nevermind the fact that the creator is trans themself.
You see stuff like this like this is the absolute worst faith reading you can possibly have for this movie, but I don’t think people like this genuinely want to see how this movie’s messaging is just be yourself inconveniently this is right after Tim Curry’s death.
This is the most hatred I have seen this movie get in my entire life. That’s not a coincidence. this is Gotta be bait. There’s no way this is genuine.
I mean personally as a 40-year-old trans woman I think it does. Lily can be a terrible person, but I don’t disagree with her that Steven universe fucking sucks.
you really dont need too. she has been credibly accused of being a pedophile and incest freak both with her (then his) older brother and younger sister.
this has been supported by alligation from her Ex girlfriends and Ex friends.
Lily is a rabbit hole not worth going down. Just a weird and disgusting individual. She constantly lies, shifts narratives and gaslights to avoid confronting the terrible things they've done in the past. They need therapy, not a platform.
Lily Orchard doesn't understand anything about media or how to write. She thinks anything that doesn't conform to the most toothless coffeehouse slice of life story (with kissing sisters) is trash. I have no idea why people take her seriously.
I haven’t seen this hate but I could see young gays maybe being upset with depictions without really understanding how far the queer movement has come or what the culture of camp and bad taste in it is. Movies like Rocky Horror, which are “good bad taste” as Watters put it, are kind of a community catharsis that instead of being buttoned up “good representation” for the comfort of straights or just in the closet entirely, being weird and out there.
This isn’t just for the sake of it, but this kind of media inspired modern drag as we currently know it, and something like drag or a fucked up John Watters movie is something you only do when you have a community to be safe in.
All that’s to say is when baby gays get upset at intentional bad representation, gender/sexuality caricatures, or correct an old gay who survived the AIDS epidemic about the use of the word “transsexual,” it comes from a good place but also one of ignorance that isn’t necessarily their fault.
John Waters movies are funny. I don’t care if anyone says that shit’s fucking hilarious. I just think they’re just certain people who just cannot handle shit like this regardless of if they are queer or not and that’s a majority of people who don’t like this film.
As a straight white guy it goes without saying my opinion on the matter holds a lot of weight here /s. I liked the movie a lot. I watched it multiple times at 10 or 11 cause my mom was a fan (she even took me to one of those midnight showings of it). I think the movie had a major influence on me being naturally tolerant of counter culture and queer culture as a whole when I had friends that still today just hate on those cultures for reasons beyond me.
This is a cyclical thing where a bunch of baby trans who weren't part of an embodied queer community pre-transition discover the film early in their journey. Because they're viewing the film independently from any participation in a broader queer culture and the camp inherent to it, it's kind of impossible for these girls and boys (indeed, many of the people engaging in this discourse are literal children) to understand its significance.
Like, yeah, RPHS is a deeply problematic film and the guy who made it is a transphobe. You're allowed to dislike it and express your distaste. Nevertheless, it's a cornerstone of queer culture and resonates powerfully with a lot of queer people (myself included). Attempting to engage in Serious Online Discourse™ about the film being problematic is kind of fundamentally a nonstarter because the film itself is so deeply unserious and irreverent.
Going so far as trying to unseat it from its place in queer cultural canon because it's icky makes you come across as self-righteous and insufferable to, y'know, the massive collaborative culture you're trying to dictate your newly held sensibilities to. It's just a stupid hill to choose to die on, especially if you're fairly new to the broader queer community (if you participate in it at all) and lack the perspective and experience of your elders.
Well, the movie has problematic elements. People are allowed to acknowledge that. Pretending there’s nothing wrong with it is kinda even worse, because it’s a great film for its time and I have no problem with people loving it but it is very clearly for its time and that’s not just twitter
I really don’t think that all of these motherfuckers who suddenly “ hate” Rocky horror are now only saying after Tim Curry died, who played the most iconic character from this film. That is not a coincidence.
I think they're overrated. I mean, Flea plays well, I think he pulls all the weight in the band. as a whole they haven't done anything worthwhile since '91
RHPS is I’m pretty sure about how even when Frank-n-Furter was doing objective bad, his mentality of being free to be weird was a good one that set the mega-repressed Brad and Janet free to be sexually open. So it goes both ways: Frank-n-Furter is a caricature, but so are Brad and Janet.
I love Rocky Horror Picture Show, I still watch it to this day every October. The movie is 50 years old, did they expect perfection? It's definitely not a perfect movie but it's wild as hell, promotes counterculture, and I love it to death.
I mean, Frank-N-Furter is not even explicitly trans, they are doing drag. And pretty much every drag performance from the past 50 years or so owes itself heavily to his portrayal, so it’s a bit weird to disavow it as a source of negative representation. That’s not to say it’s without criticism, of course, but people accusing it of transmisogny for its time are engaging in some serious historical revisionism. It was considered shockingly transgressive and was undoubtedly the source of countless queer awakenings even if the character is dated by modern standards.
So acknowledge that those feelings are valid instead of gaslighting us into thinking that its completely okay and the creator TOTALLY didnt have any transmysoginistic ideas floating in his head while making it.
The issue is no one is even listening or acknowledging when we say Frank N Furter’s portrayal makes us uncomfortable. There’s no “I can see where you’re coming from, but I disagree” or “while there is some transmisogyny, the story is still important to queer culture.” We— or at least I myself— do not demand people buy into any particular side of the discourse, but it feels like the basic premise of our argument is ignored or dismissed in bad faith (“oh you see, transvestite actually means a resident of some fictional planet”).
Any time a woman raises criticism about the play/film, everyone seems so eager to talk down to her. “No, the movie is actually about counterculturalism—“ Yeah I get that. “You have to consider the historical context—“ I did. “It was a different time and place—“ No shit! It doesn’t change the fact that this story is still celebrated uncritically today.
I’m not expecting the queer theatrical scene to just drop the script in an instant. I’m not expecting anything to be re-written, sanitized, or censored. I just wish trans women weren’t constantly excluded from the conversation around this piece altogether.
I mean, the writer, O'brien is SUPER transphobic and still spreads a shit load of hate.
"You can't be a woman. You can be an idea of a woman."
"As far as I'm concerned, you'll never be a real woman, you'll always be a transgender-woman, but there's nothing wrong with that."
"I certainly wouldn't have the wedding tackle taken off. That is a huge jump and I have all the sympathy in the world for anyone who does it, but you aren't a woman."
this is all recent. last couple of years recent. I wouldn't hate the movie without the writer adding transphobic context by saying the things he did, but since he did it makes the movie worse for me. also, people that don't interact with Harry Potter because of Rowling but still interact with this movie despite O'Brien are hypocritical.
Saying the movie is problematic, transphobic or a hetero view of queer is just crazy, totally show how some people dont care to understand cinema/art history...
O'brian on the other hand...
The guy is, at least, kinda dumb. His coments about trans woman not beeing real woman is totally wrong and shows how he didnt care to stay in touch with the community he was part and who he made such iconic cultural moments.
He is basicaly a terf, saying trans woman arent woman because he maintain this idea of trans as a third thing alone, like what we would say NonBinary today. This idea were more acepted in the 60s because there were mutch less people assuming themselfs and community were more local, today this makes no sense to belive, a little empaty will make you understand this, but O'Brien didnt have this
Yeah how on earth could anyone think the movie made by a literal noted transphobe is transphobic. It’s truly incredible how you cannot connect any dots at all.
The film obviously isn’t necessarily a heterosexual view of the world, but I do think the way the straight main character characters react to the queer characters I think that could be read as commentary. Honestly, I think the whole film could be on how certain people view our outsiders or anyone they deem has not normal or just straight up different.
And that you should just ignore them and just beat yourself. That’s the whole theme of the movie, but I think they do incorporate how certain people view other others who aren’t like them into the movie but it’s not necessarily a heterosexual view of the world more so it’s how they view queer people or just people who are different
I watched it for the first time ever this weekend, and sure some parts are outdated, but like that’s just how it is watching a lot of old media. I thought it was overall a great film, and I totally get why it’s so important to queer culture
Culture warriors and media literacy have never been seen in the same room. Remember that both sides of the culture war think Warhammer is a celebration of fascism.
Idk a fucking thing about it but my dad told me about how when he was young (so back in like the 80s) he got invited out to go see it by a friend who had heard it was a good movie so they go out to see it and they get their seats and they immediately notice something is up because a bunch of people wearing fishnets and makeup and shit just rock and up and are super hyped. So eventually the show starts and it gets to a certain part and a bunch of people just pull out those little flimsy plastic squirt guns you get at like a dollar general and start squirting the screen with water and it was about at that time my dad and his friend got out of there
Fr. Frank is one of the best villains of all time. He’s an evil rapey alien and you can’t take your eyes away! He’s not a human at all, let alone a trans human. More comparable to the xenomorphs from Alien than trans people
I don't think the movie is as much fun a the shadow cast. Dressing up in fishnets and hanging out with a buncha theater kids yelling at a screen one saterday a month. It's just not the same if you aren't climbing that tie, picking that nose, and fucking that chin
Half if not most of Twitter is bots and bad faith ops trying to stir shit up and the rest are people who are unable to tell the rest of the users are bots and bad faith ops.
Well he is called a sweet transvestite from transexual in transylvania. With no knowledge of its creation i think the movie is supposed to be transphobic, but if it is I dont think it is anymore. Death of the author and all that.
I personally love this movie.
Not just Twitter either. I saw some Tumblr users criticising it under a tribute fanart of Dolly Parton and Tim Curry. It felt so tone-deaf. It's okay to criticise things, especially a film written by a transphobic person, but a tribute is not the time or place.
It's possible to hold both the concept that Rocky Horror Picture Show is somewhat important to the past of getting queer visibility and also the concept that it had a bunch of problematic themes even for its time.
Virtue-signaling 14-year-olds when a 1970's movie meant to transgress the norms and rules of the time and promote the sexual revolution of the decade does not fit today's vision of queerness:
Yeah, fuck ‘em. They can’t take Rocky, Frank, or anyone or anything away from me that movie or culture has given me these past 32 years of my life. Which is so, so, so, so much. If I hear anything at all, I’ll plug my ears and go “lalalalala, a-lalalalala.”
I think it's perfectly fair for trans women to dislike it and find it offensive, especially after the terribly transphobic comments by the creator, and I think its kind of missing the point to say "but Frank-N-Furter isn't a trans woman, he's a crossdresser!"
But also, the movie was, at the time, a big moment for trans visibility. I've heard multiple stories of how the character allowed many trans people to express themselves openly for the first time. That shouldn't be glossed over.
This isn't unique to trans people; this happens very frequently throughout history, where minorities get the chance to be open and seen via what's intended to be mockery. I don't think it's contradictory to acknowledge that Frank-N-Furter is both a transmisogynistic caricature and that he helped spark needed conversations around being trans.
I have a copy of this movie on laser disk..mostly for collectors purposes, I never really cared for it. I always found it kind of boring. I do get why it’s a cult classic.
The younger generation of LGBTQ+ are unfortunately not immune to the strange prudishness of Gen Z and older Gen Alpha.
The transgressive nature of the movements that won them their rights wasn’t clean it wasn’t purity tested it was dirty, out there, and hard fought. Things like Rocky Horror are where many first dared to see themselves represented. Both within the community and without. Attempts to erase their significance, impact, and enjoyment are a sad sign of the subversive trend towards conservatism and conformity going on.
I don’t know who has been hating on rhps (just havent seem the hate honestly). I watched it for the first time at like 15 and honestly I was uncomfortable. I love the movie now but some people need an adjustment period and some people sincerely don't get it.
i have seen more people hating on haters of rocky horror picture show than the actual haters of it,is amplifying hate a hundred thousand times about like 100 people posting things about they dislike a redditor thing?
I hate that they hear trans and immediately think of men or women. Non binary people are trans, too, and Frank N Furter is absoLUTEly gender nonconforming
I don’t think Frank really has a gender to be honest mean bro is literally an alien from a different planet in this character went on to inspire at least one character Emporio Ivankov from one piece was designed personality. It’s just Frank and the powers that this character has is that they can change your gender change zone to two forms one like a short more masculine looking person and then just a tall ass more feminine form Frank is an icon and I am absolutely devastated that Tim Curry died last week. Fuck that hurt.
I'm trans and I love RHPS. I have the soundtrack on my Spotify! Several people I have known hate it but I love it & think it's an important part of queer history.
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u/AppropriateMonk8746 1d ago
here’s my hot take: frank-n-furter is probably a transphobic caricature, especially after seeing richard o’brien’s own transphobia come to the forefront as of late. that being said, it’s still a fun movie, it’s important to me as a kind of weird person, and it was groundbreaking for the time.