Queer Bodies in Horror: Why Gendered Reveals Are Harmful

[Reader disclaimer: spoilers will be discussed. This piece also contains material of a sensitive nature].

Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)

Something that has really been playing on my mind lately is a specific horror trope that has been used in films for years and is regarded as one of the most well renowned plot twists in cinema: the gender reveal. You'll undoubtedly know this from films like Psycho (1960) but you may not have ever stopped to wonder why this trope is harmful to the LGBTQ+ community. Not until now, anyway.

The subversion of gender as a trope, sometimes referred to as the "gender bender", is where a film features a character that can be transgender, non-binary or cisgender and the plot twist revolves around their "true" identity being revealed to the audience.

In Silence of the Lambs (1991), Buffalo Bill is described as a "transsexual" and is motivated to murder his female victims under the pretext that he was being rejected for gender reassignment surgery.

In Cassadaga (2011), Christian Burton is berated by his mother for wearing dresses and playing with dolls, and consequently castrates himself, leading him to lead a traumatised adult life wherein he murders women and forms them into real-life marionettes. 

In Insidious: Chapter 2, the ghastly apparition of the Bride in Black (also known as Marilyn) is seen to be raised as a girl and psychologically abused by his mother, then proceeds to castrate himself and later commit suicide. He spends his adult years murdering women in the iconic funeral dress and then haunts the living after his death.

This list could go on (and I'd rather not) but my main point is that we see this trope in a lot of places and don't usually think much of it. Why should we? It's just a plot twist, right?

The Problem with Sleepaway Camp (1983)

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

There is, of course, one particular horror film that is famous for this trope: Sleepaway Camp (1983). What has now solidified itself in modern culture as an iconic film, Sleepaway Camp dons the gender subversion plot twist like a big, shiny medal, revealing at the end that Angela (played by Felissa Rose) is in fact Peter, raised by his "eccentric" (albeit clearly mentally ill) aunt to be a girl. 

The camera pans away, showing Angela standing there stark-naked beside the body of her camp sweetheart, Paul (played by Christopher Collet), wielding a knife, an unnerving expression on her face. She lets out a feral, scratchy sound and, as we move from close-up to wide shot, we see that Angela has a penis.

Arguments have, of course, been made for why this ending is so memorable and unforgivingly creepy. Perhaps it is the juxtaposition of scenery, standing by a tranquil lake late at night, lulling the audience into a false sense of security before bludgeoning them over the head with the truth. Perhaps it's the frozen expression on her face, somewhere between childlike euphoria and murderous intent. Perhaps, as some people on Reddit pointed out, it's the uncanny valley effect that is given when shots of Felissa Rose are interchanged with the body double wearing an unnervingly realistic mask of the actress. Or perhaps it's a combination of all three.

I've read articles that claim that the penis reveal is not what makes this ending shocking. Some critics claim it's the reveal that Angela (who is Peter) has been assuming the identity of her dead sister the entire time, or that the trauma that they experienced (seeing their loved ones killed but also the addition of seeing their supposedly depraved father in bed with another man) is what lead Angela on her murderous rampage within the camp.

But I disagree with this entirely because you can tell that the film wants you to go "oh my god, she's a boy!" which, incidentally, is an actual quote from the end of Sleepaway Camp. No, there are a couple reasons as to why the ending of this film is so disturbing, but not for the reasons you often see discussed online.

Cassadaga (2011)

Firstly, Angela's character is 14 years old. The fact that they objectify her at the end by showing off her prepubescent body and genitals is not only alarmingly perverse but begs the question as to why more people haven't spoken out about it. 

As a queer person over the age of 20, I felt repulsed to be acting as the observer, and yet I have not seen other critics point this out. This might be due to the fact that the majority of them are cisgender men who see no apparent reason to see this as a cause for concern, but the age thing is definitely creepy, no matter which perspective you take.

Secondly, I fail to understand what response the film wanted me to have. Was I meant to be afraid? Disgusted? Creeped out? Angela's character undergoes trauma at the hands of Mary Ann (played by Alyson Mord) when she accidentally murders Angela's family and has her identity forcibly removed by her aunt Martha (played by Desiree Gould) before she even gets to the damn camp. At this point, I can't help but sympathise with the character, which I doubt was the film's intention for me as a viewer. 

You might now argue that I'm justifying Angela's murder spree. I'm not entirely, but when you consider that Angela is already experiencing some kind of psychosis at the hands of the women in her life, plus the fact that most of the victims had it coming to them (a long slew of paedophiles, antagonising bullies, misogynists and sexual aggressors), you can at least understand why she did it.

The motivations for the murders are rooted in revenge, not the fact that she's biologically male or has a supposed bloodlust for the campers due to internal, psychological trauma. And that makes far more sense as an explanation, rather than a shot at the end with her penis out. 

Gender Identity ≠ Murderer

Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Therein lies the main issue: using gender identity as a reveal doesn't really work when you look at it on a basic level. Showing that a character like Angela had different genitals the whole time or insinuating that gender identity is in any way inherently linked to murderous intent/mental instability is incredibly harmful to people within the LGBTQ+ community, whether they be transgender or other variations of identity (e.g. genderfluid, intersex, agender). 

These tropes perpetuate the stereotype that trans individuals are in some way depraved, made wrong or fuelled by their own dysphoria (as we see with Buffalo Bill and Christian Burton) to kill. Yes, if we look at context, Sleepaway Camp was not considerate of this, nor would I expect it to be. But we've seen this trope as recently as this year with Glass (2019), in which James McAvoy's character has seven, differing female counterparts as a result of having DID and he dresses up in feminine clothing to accommodate for the personalities' gender. Why was that needed to get the point across?

To put it bluntly, there is nothing horrifying or scandalous about the gender subversion trope. It's a cheap tactic at the expense of our community and doesn't really do anything for shock factor when you consider that gender identity is not intrinsically linked to psychopathy or other known traits of serial killers. 

Hey, you can have trans villains, just don't make them villains because they're trans. 

- K

The Failings of Contemporary Queer Cinema

[Reader disclaimer: this piece may contain content of a mature/sensitive nature].

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)

I'll level with you, dear reader: this was not the post I had intended to put out today. In fact, I was in the process of writing another edition of the Recommendations series, focusing on LGBTQ+ films to suggest to newbies and matured queers alike for Pride month.

However, I became disparaged doing my research when it became painfully clear to me that there just aren't enough unproblematic LGBTQ+ films to recommend. And this angered me so much that we've come to the topic of today: how queer cinema has failed its community and how it needs to improve.

The Problem

Soldier's Girl (2003)

There's a few issues to address but let's try and keep this concise: LGBTQ+ representation in cinema is built on the foundation of archaic stereotypes and, to be honest, that hasn't really changed. I personally didn't believe this to be true until I looked up queer films from the last three years and found that most of them showcase character studies that heavily rely on how heterosexual people see us (probably because they're the ones that keep writing/directing the damn things).

"But wait!", I hear you cry, "Atomic Blonde was really good! So was Bohemian Rhapsody! Are you telling me Moonlight isn't a good LGBT film?!"

Listen. Moonlight (2016) is an exceptional film. So is Atomic Blonde (2017). No, Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) wasn't good, get off my ass about it. But Moonlight depicts the brutalisation of a queer character (hate crime trope), Atomic Blonde is centered on a bisexual assassin (depraved bisexual trope) and Bohemian Rhapsody, as well as all of the other shortcomings, demonises gay people in a way that probably made poor Freddie turn in his grave (depraved gay trope). 

There's this fixation in cinema on using these stereotypes as pivotal points but they're insanely harmful and unnecessary. 

I wanted to recommend Brokeback Mountain (2005) until I remembered that they literally play into the 'bury your gay' trope at the end. 

I wanted to recommend The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), a film that I have suggested before, until I rewatched it recently and discovered how poorly they handled the character of a trans woman (played by a cis man, to make matters worse). 

I wanted to recommend plenty of horror films that now come across as downright problematic, due to their use of "gendered reveals" as a plot twist, which just comes off as horribly transphobic and homophobic. 

The Solution?

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

Abandon the tropes. Make new ones. 

Hire queer writers and directors to make queer films. Make more LGBTQ+ content. 

Normalise homosexual leads in films instead of basing the entire narrative on it. 

Stop using gender and sexuality as a motivation: hell, stop pointing it out unless it serves some kind of purpose that isn't manhandled in an insensitive way. 

You want recommendations? A Fantastic Woman (2017), a film focused on a trans woman who is played by a trans woman. Velvet Buzzsaw (2019), wherein a bisexual, male character is at the forefront of the narrative but isn't motivated by his own sexuality. You'll laugh, but Zootopia (2016), a fluffy kid's movie that stands as an allegory for how community and conversation can tear down homophobia, xenophobia and racism. I challenge you to fight me on that last one, honestly: if a kid's film can do it, then Hollywood's hotshots should be able to as well.

Is it so wrong of me to want to go into a film and see myself represented properly, and not chalked down to being "the psycho lesbian", "the depraved queer" or "the genderless murderer"? Or, god forbid, I'm able to go and see a film like Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013), a film that shows a young woman exploring her sexuality by engaging in a sexual/romantic relationship with another woman in an unforgivingly raw but honest way that doesn't demonise either person? 

I wish that I had more films to offer you this week. In all honesty, it's saddening to see how far we've come in this community and yet how little we've created to represent that on-screen in a true-to-life way. I know we have Love, Simon (2018) and Call Me by Your Name (2017) but there shouldn't be tokenised films every summer to fill the queer quota: we deserve to be within the mainstream pool, not segregated to the side as the average hetero's fun, campy one-off. 

- K

The 'T' That Cinema is Missing

When we think of LGBT+ representation in mainstream media, we think of Orange is the New Black (2013 - present) or RuPaul's Drag Race (2009 - present): in short, we think of queer representation gracing our television screens every week in a flamboyant and fantastical way, a fun way. Both of these series in particular have given light to homosexual relationships, the discrimination of same-sex lifestyles and the art of drag, aspects of the LGBT+ community that have been acknowledged but nowhere near as popularised as they are now.

There is an issue, though, when it comes to cinema, specifically the representation of the trans community. Because when it comes to showing trans people on screen, it ends up being that they are portrayed by not only cis-actors but actors of the opposite sex; men playing trans women is just a glorified form of drag and does not honestly represent trans people, but Hollywood doesn't seem to have caught onto this.

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

A recent example of this is Dallas Buyers Club (2013). Jared Leto plays a trans woman suffering from HIV and drug addiction, a role which he barely adheres to in his acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor in 2014. Though he acknowledges the hardships of those who suffer with HIV ("[...] this is for the 36 million people who have lost the battle to AIDS"), he also goes on to say that his award reflects "[...] those of you out there who have ever felt injustice because of who you are or who you love", implying that he represents the struggles and injustices of the LGBT+ community.

Jared Leto is a heterosexual, cis-male. It's not his place to represent the community, especially considering that he isn't part of it. That's not to say that straight people, people comfortable with their assigned gender, are not allowed to be allies: of course they are, but their job is to give queer people the space to speak out, not to speak for them. 

The Danish Girl (2015)

It's considerably problematic for cis-men to play trans women (or vice versa) because it's not a true portrayal of reality and, more often than not, these actors don't understand a trans person's experience, even with a script (which, let's be honest, is usually written by a cis person as well).

Of course, Jared Leto is not the first man to play a trans woman. Lee Pace, Eddie Redmayne, Denis O'Hare, Terence Stamp, Ted Levine and Cillian Murphy can be added to that list as well. Let's not also forget that women (such as Hilary Swank and Elle Fanning) are also guilty of this, and play trans men in their respective films.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)

My friend/flatmate is transgender: he identifies as a trans-masculine, non-binary individual. I asked him about tropes surrounding trans representation in Hollywood, which ones he'd change or say were unrealistic. To my horror, I found that so many parts of trans representation in our mainstream media are toxic and demonising. These are just some of the things that he listed.

• Showing the murder of trans sex workers is too hauntingly close to real life. The murder rate for people who identify as trans is infinitely higher (especially in the U.S.) than other minorities in the LGBT+ community, so to show that explicitly in a series/film is both disrespectful and painful to watch, to say the least.
• Focusing primarily on how physically transitioning and how that affects the next of kin/family of the trans person instead of showing how they feel: transitioning is obviously difficult for people to come to terms with but they don't get a say in it happening, and the focus should be on the trans individual instead of them.
• "Trans misery porn", or rather, a narrative with dysphoria and suicidal ideation at the epicentre, as opposed to celebrating the metamorphosis of someone becoming their true self.
• Explicit shots of full frontal nudity, objectifications of the trans form (whether that be male or female)

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

• Establishing stereotypes (such as "cutting hair off and strapping down your titties") that are not only misinformative of the trans experience but also potentially harmful, i.e. binding with bandages instead of approved binders, that can actually lead to fluid build-up in the lungs and cracked ribs.
• The demonisation of trans people in horror films, a subject which is touched on in a documentary called The Celluloid Closet (1995) that focuses on the depiction of homosexuality in cinema. Examples of this are Psycho (1960), Sleepaway Camp (1983), The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Split (2016), in which the plot twist/main relies on the antagonist being a member of the opposite sex. 
• The tokenisation of trans actors, such as Laverne Cox and Chaz Bono. This isn't to say that these two aren't talented individuals, but there are few and far between trans actors who are established, or even given roles for that matter. There are plenty of people who identify as transgender who are willing and more than able to fill an acting role but they are not given the chance.
• Trans women who are given a spotlight are often white, strange considering that a large part of influential culture in the LGBT+ community consists of POC. This also leads to the last point, which is the erasure of existing trans characters: Marsha P. Johnson (a black, trans activist) was omitted from Stonewall (2015), despite the fact that she was one of the frontrunners of that movement. 

Soldier's Girl (2003)

So, the problem stands that trans people in film and television are portrayed by the wrong kinds of people, and the solution to that is pretty straightforward: hire trans people to play trans characters. It's not that difficult. In the same way that Scarlett Johansson and Tilda Swinton have been criticised for playing roles attributed to characters of an Asian heritage, the actors aforementioned are guilty of playing roles attributed to a gender expression/lifestyle which is alien to them. They cannot truly represent a trans character as a cis-person in the same way that you cannot represent an Asian character as a British person. It doesn't work.

If Hollywood would be more open-minded and cast out their net a little further, they would find actors suitable for these LGBT+ roles. Imagine the success they would gather if they held true to representation: I know from experience that it made a world of difference for me to see lesbian characters on television because it meant that I didn't have to be closeted, that I was normalised, that I was validated. 

It would be nice to be able to watch a film with real diversity and know that not only are these people real but they are celebrated through the form of cinema, and not met with deprecation or erased completely. 

- K