If You Squint…
This is a somewhat follow-up to the short essay I wrote about the trans subtext surrounding Leatherface in the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. It stems from both my near rabid need to overanalyze something until I’m sick of it and because, like any movie I mentioned in that piece, there’s a lot of buried or unintentional subtext (whether positive or negative) in a lot of media.
Because good explicit trans representation is so few and far between it makes sense that we look for even the slightest blip of subtext lurking in the margins of the script. I’m certainly not the first, nor will I be the last, trans person to go on a desperate hunt finding characters that represent parts of themselves. Hell, some of my friends have written pieces about characters and films that they’ve found solace in — the first two that come to mind are Ash’s (logan ashley) transgender Ash Williams piece and William’s (william valentine) recent piece on Slumber Party Massacre II. The intimate, individual relationship we all have with the never ending stage show that is gender influences why we interpret or amplify possible trans themes in different films or TV shows or whatever. So, in tradition with me picking apart media I love until there’s nothing left, I compiled characters that smacked me in the face with the implications of trans subtext…if you squint.
- Brigitte Fitzgerald- Ginger Snaps
This isn’t my first rodeo writing about the transgender subtext in werewolf movies. And Ginger Snaps definitely isn’t the first werewolf film to receive analysis as a metaphor for dysphoria. But, there’s something special about Brigitte and the journey she goes on in the first two Ginger Snaps films: her own way of rejecting the association of “womanhood” after Ginger gets her period is so strikingly familiar. She has no desire to take on the responsibilities of a woman, in fact the prospect absolutely terrifies and disgusts her, and seeing her sister become the literal embodiment of the Monstrous Feminine does not ease this in the slightest. This is explored even further in Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed when she’s trying to stave off the effects of her werewolf transformation by any means necessary. The fear of losing control over her own body is amplified tenfold when faced with the consequences of lycanthropy. Her anger and disgust with the implications of her period and the resulting label of “womanhood” personally hits home because they mirror my own relationship with the societal concept of femininity.
2. Himiko Toga- Boku No Hero Academia
Toga is probably the most “if you squint” embodiment of trans subtext because you really need an intimate relationship with the concept of gender envy for it to smack you in the face. In the world of BNHA characters have quirks and Toga’s quirk “Transform” allows her to take on the appearance of another person for a short period of time by ingesting their blood. This combined with her “twisted idea of love” (from the Wikipedia page) produces a trend of people she wants to use her quirk on: typically people she finds attractive. This is where gender envy —essentially the urge to emulate a person that looks like the ideal of what you want to look like when freely expressing your gender — comes in. Toga’s choice to drink the blood of people she finds desirable could easily be interpreted as some version of the yandere stereotype but I’m simply going to take it a step further and call it gender envy. The way she idealizes the people she regularly aims to transform into feels like a sort of admiration for how they look, or rather how she wants to look. And if that isn’t screaming Trans Energy to me…I don’t know what will.
3. Howl Pendragon- Howl’s Moving Castle
Okay so this one is probably the biggest stretch I have to make because Howl’s Moving Castle has a million ways to read it, and I’ve yet to see Howl’s transformation as a metaphor for dysphoria as one. Howl’s whole arc during the film is learning to no longer view himself as a monster and feel comfortable in his own body which…sounds oddly familiar. Putting my personal gender envy for Howl aside, the concept of feeling like a foreign entity in your own body radiates trans subtext. Viewing yourself as a monstrous entity before (and sometimes after) realizing you’re trans is a terrifying experience: much like Brigitte, Howl’s stuck with a body that’s changing on him without his consent. The ever present weight of his lack of control hits Howl like a freight train regularly sending him into fits of anger and despair; again, a character trying desperately to avoid the implications of the changes thrust upon him. It’s only when Sophie finally gets through to Howl that he isn’t a monster that he learns to accept his identity and finally becomes comfortable in his body.
4. Herbert West- Re-Animator
Transgender Herbert West is a concept I actually fell upon perusing the Re-Animator tag on Tumblr…and honestly it kind of makes sense. I mean it’s easier to peg him as a gay man based off of the film and its sequel; he’s basically in a domestic partnership with Dan in Bride of Reanimator and willing to literally create a substitute for his deceased fiancée to make Dan happy. But in the novelization for the film, Herbert appears to be regularly injecting himself with the reagent citing that he desperately needs it, how he needs to feel the rush of its power. Now I’m personally not partaking in HRT and thus not claiming to be an expert in what it feels like to take hormones, but the way its phrased sounds like he requires the reagent to feel like himself and comfortable in his own flesh vessel. The reagent makes Herbert match up with the version of himself in his head. It quells the disparity between the two.
5. Clancy- The Midnight Gospel
I lied, actually this might be the most “if you squint” character on this list. Same thing as Toga, Clancy seems incredibly willing and excited to shift himself into new avatars when he’s travelling for his spacecast. His choice in avatar depends on how he’s feeling that day or how he chooses to act within his environment: another iteration of gender as a performance. Of course me stating that a humanoid space man is trans probably doesn’t have the best implications (see: that one video of those fucking AWFUL bathroom signs), but Clancy really does treat his appearance as some sort of performance art. He’s entertained by the sheer amount of ways he can express himself which kind of gives me a Matrix-esque reminder of gender expression (I didn’t put Neo on here because it’s been a minute since I’ve seen the movie). The way Clancy is so willing to abandon his normal form for a number of others simply radiates “gender is a performance, I am an artist”
I’d like to conclude on a short list of characters that I think are trans despite there being either close to or nothing suggesting they are outside of my own personal foolishness. These are based mostly on my own projections on them or simply because I think it’d be cool if they were trans.
Vincent Sinclair- House of Wax
Chop Top Sawyer- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Rei Ayanami- Neon Genesis Evangelion
Rue Bennet- Euphoria
Dabi/Todoroki Touya- Boku No Hero Academia
Again, is the subtext for any of these characters intentional? Who’s to say? Does the lack of explicit recognition negate that there are trans people finding these characters relatable? Absolutely not. The freedom of indulging in labelling a favorite character as trans because of a recognizable connection is so freeing, so why not do it?
