pervocracy:

ozyreads:

life-in-neon:

ozyreads:

Occasionally I feel guilty being a fan of Rocky Horror because it’s super-transmisogynistic (and not exactly Consent Culture either, onscreen or off). 

But dear God Frank = MY GENDERQUEER ICON. 

It’s hard, having problematic things also be SUPER-IMPORTANT TO YOU. :/

Yeah. I have to compartmentalize on this one. I can’t not see him as a serial rapist murderer. I also don’t often trust cis / straight people to uncouple that problematic shit from the squick they feel at having queer pride literally parading their pearl necklace in front of them.

Frank, problems and all, is both my dream stage role (and seriously, how the fuck did I not connect the dots on that all those years in HS?) and a crucial part of my nascent queer identity. I can’t excise RHPS show from my library for the problems without losing something truly important to me. But I’ve stopped insisting others put up with the culture surrounding the theatrical screenings.

That takes any latent misogyny in the film and dials it up to 11 and shows that the sentiment is still present. If you’re not a slut you’re a prude, but rather than being something we can celebrate with true slut pride, Janet is slut shamed for being coerced into sex while trapped, forever tainting any possible slut pride for that. 

Half Frank’s songs (and the entire damn floor show) move me to tears now because of the way they are actually relevant to my life. So to have it so closely tied to some real bullshit means I have to just acknowledge the bad parts and forgive myself for still liking it. 

Thiiiiiiiiis.

I think that some of it is that there are SO FEW nonbinary people represented in the media that when we find someone like us we have to cling to them. Frank is incredibly problematic on so many levels but he’s one of, like, two primary nonbinary characters whose opinion about their gender is explored in ALL OF MEDIA.  

(there’s an interesting thing, btw, with how often nonbinary people are nonhumans)

So as awful as Rocky is a lot of times, at least for me, he was the first time I saw someone with the same gender identity as me, and that means a LOT to me. :/

MIXED-ASS FEELINGS.  (not mixed ass-feelings.)

When I was a tiny barely-pubescent Cliffy, Rocky Horror was one of my first gateways to a life beyond “you’re supposed to grow up to be cis/het/mono/vanilla and you’re failing at it.”  It was one of my first introductions to the ideas that sexuality could be fluid and queerness could be fun.  Rocky showings were a huge, wonderful release from the sex-negative, heterocentric world in my high school.

Rocky Horror also taught me (and if I admitted how long I took to unlearn these things, Tumblr would disown me) that “tr*nny” is a hilarious fun word, that tricking and coercing people into sex is charming mischief, and that anyone who doesn’t want to be hazed with public sexual stunts on their first viewing is a Prudey No-Funster.

So.

I wish there were more movies with singing pansexual perverts in corsets to choose from.  That’s what we really need here.  Just saying “don’t watch Rocky” doesn’t quite sit right with me, because it was such a huge eye-opener for me.  (Especially because it’s fun. Movies that focused on the struggle and angst of being queer tended to inspire more “oh shit, I better act normal so I never have to deal with this” in me than any desire for self-exploration.)  I want to be able to say “don’t watch Rocky, watch this awesomely queer-positive sex-positive movie about playing around with gender”… but I’m not sure what that movie is.

When I find it, I’m going to get all my friends together and throw toast at it.

What Cliff said.

(Source: livefreetofail)