Silence of the Lambs star Ted Levine says he regrets film’s trans depictions: “Having gotten aware and worked with trans folks, and understanding a bit more about the culture & the meaning of gender… It’s unfortunate that the film vilified that, and it’s fucking wrong. And you can quote me on that.”
Transphobes are dumb and if you need proof of that, the movie explicitly says Buffalo Bill isn’t really trans, Starling says that trans people are passive and non-violent, and Lector agrees and says that Bill is something else altogether, and has likely been turned down by multiple hospitals for sex reassignment surgery because of that (the clear implication being that sex reassignment surgery is warranted in other cases, so it’s not saying “trans people aren’t real”). But transphobes see a dude tucking his dick and that’s all they need to know, apparently 🤷
While I definitely get it and don’t disagree in the slightest, I also would just like to point out that upon seeing the film (even at what most people would probably consider way too young an age lol) did I ever think that Bill’s plan to make himself a new skin by murdering and sewing together the skin of his victims was being portrayed as an accepted, reasonable path toward gender reassignment… I mean, dude is literally what you would expect to see pictured on the Wikipedia article for ‘crackhead serial killing psycho’ lol I feel like that should be one of your first indicators that a character isn’t like a ‘good dude’ or something. 😋
In all seriousness, tho, it trips me out that there are absolutely people out there who would be more than happy to engage in the mental gymnastics necessary to twist reality into whatever fucked up pretzel they need to push their narrative.
Right? I actually find it really pandering when a marginalized group is consistently depicted as infallible. They stop being characters and become stand-in caricatures.
Obviously, its a worse issue when it happens the other way around.
I never once viewed him as a trans person. He was just a fucked up psycho.
When I see such a film (Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is another example) I take it as an indicator how far we’ve come.
Especially since Silence of the Lambs only came out like, what, 15 years ago.
fact checks himself; sees it is 35 years old
Well fuck.
Yes, it was a different time. Not defending it, just saying that people did not have the same insights and viewpoints as we have today.
Judging past people by today’s standards is not fair. You can judge their modern-day image by today’s standards, but not their past selves.
To a degree.
It’s not always so black and white. Take for example child marriages where little girls were betrothed to older dudes. Or how some cultures would treat people based on race, gender, etc.
Some things can, and should, be judged critically (holocaust, “comfort women”). Some things can get a pass (movies like Silence pf the Lambs).
TL;DR history should be judged on a case by case basis and we should avoid blanket judgement.
My book club read the book about a year ago and from what I remember it devoted a scene to clearly explaining that Buffalo Bill did not meet the criteria for gender reassignment surgery and was just kinda sick in the head. We were impressed with how it was handled for the time that it was written. Unsurprisingly this scene did not translate well when rewritten for the movie.
But the movie explicitly states that Buffalo Bill is not trans, and explains why.
Demonizing male gender nonconformity isn’t great either.
Doesn’t stop the Right from quoting Buffalo Bill to mock transpeople
I hate this sorta thought process. He was sick. He was a serial killer. He had serious mental issues. He was making a fucking skin suit. Nobody is assuming this was or wasn’t because of the trans-sexual implications. It’s no different than the belly aching about the albino bad guys in The Matrix. It was a character not social commentary about all trans people for fucks sake.
Edit: There is nothing wrong with being trans. But if every bad guy in every movie or story is a straight white guy, the stories are gonna get kinda boring real quick.
