Rocky Horror and Media Criticism

[soft_masc]

I am still very shaken about this, so I apologize if I failed to explain anything entirely and I will expand if it is required.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a cult classic. I saw it for the first time when I was thirteen and still in closeted about questioning my gender. I saw it in an old theater with a shadowcast, and it was a lot of fun. The movie, with or without a shadowcast, has its own culture.

I saw it for the second time last night, with four more years of experience, and I spent most of the show crying. I think this movie is heralded for being transgressive and for making queerness accessible to the inexperienced, but in reality it is anything but. I understand that it was and is important to a lot of people, but the critical consumption of media only goes so far. There is real queer media out there, there are other cult movies, and there is no longer an excuse I can see to support this one.

The shadowcast I saw last night is a classic take on the movie. It is incredibly popular in my area and its content is generally representative of what the movie inspires in people. Last night, I watched them whip out a sixteen-year-old’s penis in front of a crowd of hundreds. I listened to that crowd of hundreds hurl slurs at the actors and the screen and I watched the rape survivor beside me curl up and hide when they mocked her experience. Countless jokes were made at the expense of trans women’s bodies. I wanted to throw up when they started with the Holocaust jokes. This is the culture the Rocky Horror Picture Show inspires.

The movie and its followers equate trans women with transvestites with gay men. Trans women, as usually happens in media, are demonized and presented as rapists and murderers in the film. It is important to note that trans women in the real world are murdered at incredibly high rates. The problems in this movie and media as a whole are represented in real life, because media affects our lives and how society views its members.

I am going to be blunt. I know that it is fun for a lot of folks to go out late at night, dress up, act more sexual than they generally would. I know that people enjoy that environment, and there is nothing wrong with that. However, the movie’s virtues in that respect are so far outweighed by its flaws in the violence and the pain it brings up that it is up to everyone to find a better space in which to explore that environment.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is not transgressive. It is not a queer film. There is nothing radical about throwing trans women under the bus, there is nothing radical about encouraging rape culture, and there is nothing radical about blatant misogyny. It teaches cis people that slurs with brutal histories are okay to say and survivors that they will be ignored. It reinforces every tired transmisogynist narrative that gets trans women murdered. For these reasons, I don’t think critiquing the movie is enough. I don’t believe it can be redeemed. I think it is time to call Rocky Horror what it is, and it is time to put it to rest.

I am posting this in the user-to-staff portion of the boards because, unless someone can give me a reason why it's okay to stop at critiquing the movie's problems, I would like Scarleteen to take down its article about Rocky Horror's virtues. This site has an enormous user base, and to keep it a safer space for marginalized youth, I think it is necessary to withdraw support for such a harmful piece of media.

[Redskies]

I'm so immensely sorry you had that experience in that crowd. What you're describing of the audience's behaviour is absolutely vile, and being in that crowd would be soul-hurting and terrifying. I hope that you're able to take whatever time and space you need for some extra-top-quality self-care, and that you have supportive and lovely people around you, too.

It's Scarleteen's policy to discuss any comments or requests about the site itself over email, because it's been clear that's the most productive venue for it. If you'd like to drop us an email ( http://www.scarleteen.com/contact ) so we have the email address you'd like us to correspond with you at, we can continue there. You are, of course, absolutely welcome to share your views of the movie/show on the boards, as you are with any piece of media.

[soft_masc]

Thank you, Redskies. I sent that email.