Blue or red? Status quo or revolution? Will you take the blue pill and remain static, complacent, ignorant, or will you…
Wake up.
Everyone knows The Matrix. It’s a great film and, among other things, an allegory for accepting one’s gender identity. It’s also about finding a revolutionary community to fight capitalist hegemony, but the gender thing’s there. That shouldn’t be controversial; it’s confirmed by the directors that it was at least part of the story. And yet… people still insist on using the language of the film to support their reactionary ideologies. Take the red pill and wake up, man. But don’t wake up too much or you’ll get… woke? I guess? Whatever, this is old news. If you want to watch a detailed breakdown of the trans theming of The Matrix, just watch Aranock’s video.
But if The Matrix may or may not be an allegory for the transgender experience, what other movies can we infect with our transgender symbology? What other works of art can I pry from big, manly cis hands and reappropriate to suit my woke agenda?
Anyone can interpret just about anything as just about anything. That is to say, thematic readings of texts (I’m including films in “texts” here) are as infinite as they are subjective. However, I fall somewhere in between the “death of the author” and “authorial intent” camps. So I feel the need to acknowledge here that there is no evidence to suggest that some of the films I will talk about were at all intended as trans allegory. Over the course of decades, especially with the proliferation of fan-fiction, the tides have changed. The public is largely in favor of interpreting shit however the hell you want to. (Rodney Copperbottom from Robots is a trans guy–change my mind). So that’s what I will do here. Not without evidence, of course.
To those contrary Marys who say stuff like “it’s not that deep” or “why does everything have to be ‘political’ (as if existing while trans is ‘political’)” or those who would tell me that I’m “reaching”... Here is my response to you:
But what if it is that deep. Why can’t it be? Finding solace or even simple commonality in the stories that mean something to you is an important part of being human. I am worried that (especially with actual literacy rates plummeting in the US) media literacy will become a lost art. When we cease to meaningfully engage with what we watch, are we any different than a Coco-melon rotted toddler whose brain is slowly shutting down all frontal lobe activity? #FoodforThought.
So, let’s get into the meat of things. What even is transgender allegory in film?
Well, first we have to define literal transgender representations in film.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TRANS FILM
Trans themes and characters are rarer to find in film than I initially anticipated when I set out on this research quest. You kind of have to dig for things. I feel this makes sense given how small the trans population is and the oppression and repression which it faces. It is not something one can just talk openly about all the time, especially in the past– this is where allegory comes in…
But, when you look, you can find portrayals of gender transgressive behavior from the very advent of film. You can see the Digital Transgender Archive for some early clips. In referring to “trans” film history, I am not trying to anachronistically map a modern identity onto the past, rather, I am trying to use “trans” in an expansive way that includes a whole host of identities and behaviors. It is disingenuous in my opinion to split hairs too much, to try to disentangle “homosexual” from “transgender” themes, especially in early cinema wherein, according to Vito Russo (you know, the gay film scholar that James Summerton stole his entire steez from), “homosexuality emerged onscreen… as an unseen danger, a reflection of our fears about the perils of tampering with male and female roles”.
Historian Laura Horak has been foundational to my research here. They have done a great deal of the scholarly work available on this topic. To me, Horak is building on the work of Vito Russo (author of The Celluloid Closet). According to both Russo and Horak, in the early 1900s, trans-gender phenomena in film were a translation of their stage iteration, a form of entertainment, similar to minstrelsy. Russo writes in his first chapter about the prominence of transvestism in silent comedy, commenting on the obviously sexist origin of the “sissy” archetype (feminine = bad). He discusses the numerous cross-sex depictions in early American cinema wherein, he asserts, “the joke lies in the very appearance of a man dressed up as a woman”.
In addition to numerous films of vaudevillian female impersonators and other comedic gender-bending, there is an unfortunately lost documentary about an intersex person based on their own memoir from 1919.
These are the depictions that interest me more–the ones I consider part of the lineage of “queer/trans cinema.” Films which contain more sincere or “genuine” depictions of sexual and gender variance. In addition to this documentary, certain fictional depictions, Russo says, had more “subtlety and grace,” like those of Charlie Chaplin (A Woman 1915) or Edith Storey’s gender-bending portrayal of Lillian/Lawrence in A Florida Enchantment (1914). That movie is really interesting by the way. It shows a disillusioned heiress who, upset with her unfaithful fiancee, ingests a sex-changing seed (I wish it was that easy, am I right, ladies?)and becomes an alternate persona, the debonair Lawrence Talbot. There is a lot of obvious queer content in that film as it explores different relationships between people who transgress boundaries of sex and is a witty commentary on sexism. We also have a verifiable film star who we would today likely call transgender who starred in DW Griffith films, a youth called Billy Foster who wished to be referred to as their male stage persona off-stage as well.
There are many gaps in the history which are hard for me to fill in… At the risk of telling you too much you already know, the period of 1934-1968 wherein the so-called “Hays code” imposed strict censorship over sexuality in Hollywood… Well it’s pretty much a dead-zone. It isn’t until the 60s and 70s where you see gender and sexuality explode onto the screen. And even so, much of “trans representation” is buried in the underground and indie scenes. But it’s not all too niche to recover– some indie filmmakers who included trans actors and characters like John Waters and Andy Warhol did reach a level of notoriety and are valued (especially in “cult” followings) to this day. With films like Paul Morrissey’s Women in Revolt (1971) (produced by Andy Warhol), John Water’s Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble (1974), and Jim Sharman’s iconic Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), campy and outrageous films featuring gender non-conforming characters became more common.
The ‘70s certainly opened up the floodgates for queer and trans characters, whether or not this was always what we would consider “good representation”. For instance, Myra Breckinridge (1970) follows a sadistic trans woman (played by cis actress Raquel Welch) through a romp of crime and deceit. Also released in 1970, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is a weird-ass exploitation film that was initially created to be a sequel to the earlier rock centered drama film, Valley of the Dolls. Instead, it ended up being a “satirical pastiche” of the original. It is the first film I know of to represent a female-to-male transsexual. And boy, is it a doozy. The trans man in it is a predatory, murderous music producer nicknamed Z-man. At the end he is revealed to be a trans man (or I guess a “woman in drag” according to wikipedia) when he reveals his “scary” breasts. Apparently this film was low-key written as they went, and this plot twist was a last-minute decision. IDK maybe some practical effects artist really wanted to practice their prosthetic work and they adapted to that lol.
Overall, I feel like the largest quantity of trans representation comes from exploitation films and from the horror genre. Obviously some of the most iconic representations of trans-adjacent characters are in horror: we got Psycho, Dressed to Kill, Sleepaway Camp, and Silence of the Lambs. These are the ones that are discussed most frequently, especially in film/media studies circles. But, if you want some more trans film history that covers way more than just these films, check out this guy Logan-Ashley’s video Transgender Horror: a Visual History. It is fantastic.
And then, in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, the number of trans characters steadily increased. There are even a few genuinely critically acclaimed films with trans protagonists, for instance the famous Boys Don’t Cry (1999) for which Hillary Swank won an oscar for her portrayal of real life murdered trans man, Brandon Teena.
It isn’t until the late 2010s (especially with the release of The Danish Girl in 2015) where people begin to have conversations about whether cis actors should really be playing trans characters all the time in the first place.
BUT I digress. And when I digress, I digress HARD. Sam, @emodannydevito, you ask, isn’t this supposed to be about trans ALLEGORY in film? And I say to you: yes, I’m getting to that, you needy little fags. This is MY video, and I’ll talk about what I want. I wanted to explain to you how sparse and ambivalent the actual representations of trans people throughout film history are first so that you can see the importance of allegorical representation in filling those gaps.
DEFINING TRANS ALLEGORY
I chose to focus on allegorical rather than literal representations of so-called transgenderism because it is a less covered topic. Moreover, I think it is a beautiful and under-studied methodology of trans story telling which has been so essential because our community has had to be so underground. People haven’t felt the ability to speak openly about transness, even if the Hays code or whatever didn’t exist. Just think about how rare it is to find gay films– same thing but lowkey worse. Trans allegorical storytelling has given trans people (especially closeted ones) the means to express their story. #MyStory
Okay, so the million orbeez question: What is considered a trans allegory in film?
For my nefarious purposes, a trans allegory must contain at least some of the following elements:
-Some kind of bodily transformation
-Discordant feelings among the body, identity, and society at large
-Narratives of marginalization becoming self-realization
EXAMPLES
Because I am citing films with those aforementioned themes of transformation and navigating one’s identity, there is substantial overlap with things that are also read as an allegory for same-sex desire. You know, shit is subjective–both can be true. This makes sense, as sex, gender, and sexuality are all complex, intertwined subjects, and sexual minorities have overlapping community and axes of oppression with transgender people. So here is my list of greatest hits for trans allegory in order of release date:
Frankenstein (1931), James Whale
Okay, don’t murder me, but I have read the book (and watched Young Frankenstein plenty), but I still haven’t watched the OG Frankenstein film.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and its film adaptations have long resonated with trans people, especially “transsexuals” i.e. those who undergo medical transition. The creation of a human body and personage through medical science is the obvious parallel here as well as the utter loneliness experienced by Frankenstein’s creature as a result of his macabre and tragic existence.
But also, being created as a fully formed adult can resonate, as many trans people feel a disconnect from who they were during childhood and now. Famous trans historian Susan Stryker writes about her kinship with the creature in her piece “My Words to Frankenstein”
“...the transsexual body is an unnatural body. It is the product of medical science. It is a technological construction. It is flesh torn apart and sewn together again in a shape other than that in which it was born. In these circumstances, I find a deep affinity between myself as a transsexual woman and the monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Like the monster, 1 am too often perceived as less than fully human due to the means of my embodiment; like the monster’s as well, my exclusion from human community fuels a deep and abiding rage in me that I, like the monster, direct against the conditions in which I must struggle to exist” (Stryker, 238)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), Rouben Mamoulian
I haven’t seen this one either, but… Again, we have an eccentric, isolated figure who uses medical science to transform himself. While Jekyll and Hyde has often been interpreted as a homosexual allegory, especially due to historical evidence about the author, to me that medical transformation theme can also have a strong trans reading. Hyde is a side of him that lives within him despite his attempts to repress it and comes out in an embodied form to wreak havoc on his life. Like a closeted trans person experimenting with cross dressing, sometimes even developing an alternate persona.
The biological differences between Jekyll and Hyde were conceived at a time when anxieties about a kind of Darwinian degeneration of man were high and homosexuality was linked with the physical traits of “degeneration” i.e. a slighter or more effeminate frame. This strikes me as evocative of not just sexuality, but especially as a performance of gender and the gendered body. It speaks of the anxieties that some part of oneself might be less hardy and masculine and more inclined to a physical femininity.
To quote Samuel McIntyre:
“Jekyll himself describes Hyde as a regression or degeneration of himself, identifying Hyde as “less developed” and thus “smaller, slighter and younger than Henry Jekyll” (J&H 78). In consequence, a hermeneutics of the male body emerges through which external deformities or behaviors could be interpreted as evidence of internal failings.”
Perhaps, internal “failings” like gender confusion?
Dracula’s Daughter (1936), Lambert Hillyer
This movie is beautifully shot, and I really tried to pay attention to the whole thing, but there are a lot of parts where frankly uninteresting men take up the screen and I was just like… can I see Gloria Holden being a brooding lesbian vampire again please?
Anyways… Dracula’s daughter, Countess Marya Zaleska, is kind of a “self-hating” vampire who tries to break her curse by ritually burning her father, the famous Count’s, body. When that doesn’t work, she goes to a psychologist for medical treatment (conversion therapy vibes) to un-vamp her. She spends a lot of the movie struggling against her dark vampiric urges but eventually caves and accepts them.
It definitely has major lesbian overtones despite attempts to tone it down, but you can also add the struggling to change her biology layer to it to view more of a trans spin.
To quote Ariel Schudson:
“Countess Zaleska’s battle with her queer identity consumes her. From gender turmoil (she wants to be “free to live as a woman…”) to her expressed need for a standard existence (“to live a normal life – think normal things…”) She feels enslaved by her condition. Not only does she view herself as something Other Than Woman, she views herself as something Other Than Normal. As Zaleska wrestles with her demons and lust gets reiterated in the film text, the film shows itself to be a barely concealed allegory for individuals wrestling with gender identity and/or sexualities”
Pinocchio (1940), Sharpsteen & Luske
Look, I mean, he wants to be a “real boy”. He becomes a “real boy”.
But seriously, a lot of trans-masculine guys connect to this fuckass puppet boy (I definitely liked Pinocchio but not much more than other Disney films I think), to this story in which an initially-genderless little guy navigates the world to find his own truth and become a “real” flesh and blood boy. I found two particularly cool pieces of art that are inspired by the deep childhood connections trans men have made to this character:
There is an I guess semi-digital play that toured and streamed in 2022 which is a satirical look at the character of Piniocchio through a trans-masc lens. This is “The Making of Pinocchio” by Cade and MacAskill. The couple who created it did so inspired by MacAskill’s gender transition. There’s some fun stuff including lots of humor about wood and some freaky puppet sex.
There is also a collection of short creative writing works by Lucas Olvera for his Masters thesis called “The Pinocchio Boy”.
The Wolf Man (1941), George Waggner
When I watched The Wolf Man, I was struck by the emotionally sensitive and very average looking portrayal of said Wolf Man (who was, to my surprise, the protagonist) by leading man, Lon Chaney Jr. To me, the tragic figure of The Wolf Man is very trans-masc coded to me, as are werewolves in general. And this is the first Real Popular feature film about werewolves I believe. The trans themes are there: especially regarding main character Larry’s transformation into the monstrous (and very hairy) body of the wolf man
It deals with fighting against one’s nature and
Discusses a complex relationship of the son to the father and the fate of following in your father’s footsteps
To quote Henry Giardina:
“it’s so much a movie about masculinity, our fears around it, which of course are in dialogue with father-son anxiety. It’s a movie about the fear of not being able to become your father, as well as a fear around becoming only the worst parts of him.”
Also interesting: the public and his family (especially Larry’s dad) is gaslighting him about werewolves not being real the entire time this transformation is occurring
Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971), Roy Ward Baker
I also watched this one and it is super fun. It’s a schlocky twist on Jekyll and Hyde wherein, Dr. Jekyll, obsessed with eternal life, experiments with estrogen (because women tend to live longer) and ends up creating “sister Hyde,” this alternate female persona.
They keep it all quite biological and don’t substantially explore gender as a construct, but it’s trans by virtue of the fact in and of itself that a man takes estrogen and becomes a woman. Basically, Sister Hyde slowly takes over (while going on murderous sprees as a hot lady) and becomes dominant over Jekyll.
A quote from Lexi Bowen: “Like so many before and since, they are a character that falls into that ever-changing, ever-confusing ball of movie trans, which encompasses any and every character that, at some point or another, differs from their gender as assigned at birth.”
The Little Mermaid (1989), Clements & Musker
It was produced by and the lyrics were written by a closeted gay man in the 80s, Howard Ashman (Geisinger). The movie obviously deals with a forbidden love. And a biological transformation which is both a curse and a blessing.
The aesthetic of Ursula is, as you may know, inspired by famous drag queen Divine.
Ariel’s misfit archetype is definitely relatable to queer folks (and the neurodiverse), as she feels a longing to be part of the human community, to the extent that she makes ill advised sacrifices to do so which put herself in danger
Quoting Atreyo Palit: “But the allegory extends beyond forbidden romance for some viewers. Part of Ariel yearning to be part of the surface world comes with a desire to be human. She literally wants to lose her fins and instead have feet. This wish to be in a different body naturally resonates with the transgender community.”
Ghost in the Shell (1995), Mamoru Oshii
Ghost in the Shell is an anime film from the turn of the century which, like its influence Blade Runner, is seminal to cyberpunk imagery. In an iconic sequence, cyborg protagonist Major Motoko Kusanagi’s body (which is a fixation of the movie) is literally assembled before our eyes. She dons layers of flesh as the animation focuses on her nude female form (though she is more androgynous and less sexualized than some similar characters both in and out of the film)
The film really interrogates the definition of the self. Do our memories define us? What if those memories are false? Do our current actions alone define us? Our body? Our mind? Is there a soul?
Is Motoko little more than a violent agent of the state or is there a person in there?
Solvi Goard: Those questions – Am I really real? Have I ever existed? Or am I a ghost of an identity? – are ones many trans people will recognise: the visceral confusion that comes about from knowing how you feel and experience your body, but having that experience jar so powerfully with what meaning other people and society give to it. (Lee McGee)
In general, robots are often allegory for trans people, or at least, trans people tend to identify with the figure of the robot
There’s the build-a-body thing. The mind-body disconnect/separation of the self theme-
Plus alienation from society–feeling like you’re artificial or fraudulent somehow
Robots as Trans Allegory if you wanna see a great video about robots in general being allegorical to the trans experience which analyzes a lot of media about robots including but not limited to Ghost in the Shell, watch this video by Co2Goldy
The Matrix (1999), Wachowski sisters
The Matrix is the only film on this list with trans directors, though neither of them had come out at the time of its release.
This one is pretty much an admitted trans allegory according to Lilly Wachowski.
It’s about making the difficult choice to abandon familiarity and falsity for radical self actualization and truth.
Morpheus says: "You know something. What you know, you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life. There's something wrong with the world, you don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad."
Neo, which by the way is a chosen name different from the character’s initial more masculine and “acceptable” moniker of “Mr. Thomas Anderson,” is living a double life but eventually chooses the more authentic, harder one, though he knows he’ll be persecuted for it.
To quote Laura Dale: “Of particular note, while the homogenous face of civil obedience and status quo Agent Smith insists on discrediting this new chosen identity, those outside of the Matrix all unquestioningly support Neo's name from the very first moments of the film, presenting the idea that escaping those societal expectations is a path to having who you are seen and validated by others.”
I should also mention that the character Switch was initially intended to be a trans character who lives as a different gender in and out of the Matrix, but that was scrapped.
X-Men movies, particularly The Last Stand, Brett Ratner
Okay, you all know the basic premise of X-men, right? Some people are mutants and lots of people hate them.
The X men comics were initially created as a commentary on the American Civil Rights movement
These stories have rightly been seen as an allegory for many things from racism to homophobia, but can also have a more specific trans or intersex reading as part of the queer one, especially due to focus on physical bodily changing and mutilation– like that seen where Angel as a kid is so ashamed by his mutation that he tries to cut off his wings
I think Mystique is also a canonically gender-fluid character?
In the comics she apparently says “I have lived for years as sapiens males. Years more as females… The only true binary division lies not between the genders or sexes or sexualities. It lies between those who are allowed to be who they wish, and those denied that right” (Rob Salerno)
Gingersnaps (2000), John Fawcett
This is a really cool werewolf movie from 2000 with some fantastic practical effects.
Often interpreted in a feminist and sometimes also queer/lesbian way (Berlatsky), it is also possible for a trans (whether trans-masc or fem) reading of Gingersnaps.
It focuses on the teens’ rejection of womanhood and feelings of horror at female puberty, driven home by the coincidence of her werewolf transformation aligning with her first menstrual cycle, which seems very trans-masc
See ItsForrestThere’s video
The scene of taping – tail down and shaving all her hair could also be relatable to trans girls.
The film deals with sexuality, gender roles, and coming of age in a visceral, bloody way.
To quote Marisa Mercurio:
At once emphasizing the horror of womanhood, Ginger Snaps explores the fluidity of gender through Ginger’s lycanthropy and her status as outcast alongside Brigitte. At the start of the film, it is clear that Ginger and Brigitte’s androgyny and disinterest in boys characterize their ostracization. Throughout the film, Brigitte remains an androgynous pre-pubescent teen, but there is an inevitability to her fear of becoming gendered: she will get her period sooner rather than later, she will change into a woman in the eyes of society, she will be forced to deal with sexuality and gender under her peers’ gaze. Ginger Snaps, however, offers another possibility: lycanthropy. A queering.
Barbie (2023), Greta Gerwig
Barbie is one of very few films on this list to be directed by a woman.
Kinda like Pinocchio, Barbie is on a journey to become a “real” woman whether she wants to embrace that initially or not.
While her experiences apply to womanhood in general, a case can also be made for trans womanhood specifically because it’s a lot about self-assemblage and learning as an adult.
While Barbie’s existence (kind of like someone beginning to explore their gender identity) is at first defined by the more shallow talismans of femininity like perfect outfits and pink hairbrushes, she soon experiences an existential crisis and is motivated to go out into the real world to restore things to their “perfect” state– But, spoiler alert, she comes to prefer her more nuanced life as a real woman outside of Barbie Land.
Joanna Mills says:
Every transgender woman has a similar moment where she realizes living within her own Barbie Land no longer fulfills the emotional needs of a real woman. They also begin to see it is impossible to maintain the façade of her perfected avatar.
And, while you might see the final stinger scene of Barbie at the gynecologist as kinda defining womanhood by the experience of having a vagina, you could also see it as similar to a trans woman finally getting the gender confirmation surgery she has been longing for.
Nimona (2023), Quane & Bruno
I have not seen Nimona, but I hear good things!
The movie is about a shapeshifter who is rejected by society which turns her into an anti-hero/temporary antagonist, though in the end, she is redeemed.
This is an animated film, but it is very adult. It harshly deals with Nimona’s rejection from society and abandonment by her only friend, Ballister–and her subsequent wish to commit suicide. In the end before she can do so, Ballister apologizes, and they reconcile.
The author of the comic it is based on is actually trans which definitely makes the trans/non-binary interpretation hold water a bit more.
The Trans Allegory in Nimona
Lisa Frankenstein (2024), Zelda Williams
Lisa Frankenstein is a horror comedy which, written and directed by women, is a very female centered story, however, at the risk of #erasing women– there could also maybe be a bit of a trans-masc reading to it.
It centers on a grieving and depressed outcast, Lisa, who finds herself talking to the grave of a Victorian gentleman. When he’s resurrected by lightning strike, she starts a friendship (which blossoms into something more) with him. And he kills her evil stepmom, and things just kind of spiral from there.
The film has themes of constructing a new identity in the wake of grief, and the creature, played by Cole Sprouse, reads as trans-coded to me.
This is more than a build-a-boyfriend film. Creature is, with the help of Lisa, reconstructing his identity in his new (after)life. This is especially present in the dress-up montage where the Creature consciously chooses more masculine clothes despite Lisa loving him in a pink feathery thing.
Most overt: Creature has feelings of insecurity around not having a penis, to which Lisa assures him: “you don’t need one of those to be a man, it’s actually like the least important part, really, we can do other things”.
But, in the end, the Creature severs the penis of Lisa’s step-sister’s shitty boyfriend, and Lisa lovingly performs a DIY bottom surgery on him
Writer Diablo Cody (who also wrote Jennifer’s Body) does view it as a queer story and emphasized in an interview the theme of “transformation” (2:00 IntoMore)
Void
Alright, so, yeah. That’s my broad overview of trans allegory in various films. But, now, let’s dig in a little deeper.
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