oh my blog!- Laura Darby Singh -

I’ll begin by saying that I love the Rocky Horror Picture Show. And, to be fair, I am not a huge fan of remakes.  All those facts aside, I have issues with the recent news that Laverne Cox has been tapped to play Frank N’ Furter. 

As a small tidbit of background, I used to go to Rocky Horror at midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. It was a staple of my teens and twenties, and the raucous energy of the 12th Street theatre in New York was intoxicating even on a slow night.

My gorgeous husband as Frank. Make up by me.

I recently got to go to a Rocky Horror viewing party here in Nairobi, where my husband and I were among some of the only people who were actually dressed up.  And, bless his heart, I got to fulfill a dream of making up someone as Frank. And it was beautiful. Of course none of the non-Americans in the room had any idea what was going on, and I was literally the only person doing the call backs, but the fact that it’s a film with staying power, that transcends oceans (the host of the party is a huge fan and he’s French), really says something about it.

Who would have thought that the cast (mysteriously missing creator Richard O’Brien) would have been on the Today Show forty years later, talking about the anniversary of the film? It’s indicative of how far things have come in society and its embrace of what had previously been considered “fringe” culture.

Much to my delight and amazement, gender fluidity has reached a level of cultural awareness that I never thought it could.  There are prominent trans actors, celebrities, and “celebrities.” There are shows about trans people, movies too. I remember what a big deal it was on Buffy when Willow and Tara kissed, or the even bigger hullabaloo about the gay kiss on Melrose Place. Trans is the next hurdle we need to overcome, and I have seen the world make very big strides forward.

But the bulk of the world is probably not on the same page that I am, and even my progressive 74-year-old mother who goes to a Unitarian Church under the guidance of a lesbian preacher, seems constantly confused by the changing terms and definitions.  She calls the preacher’s spouse her ladywife, and thinks it’s funny and somehow appropriate to call trans people “it.”  I’ve disavowed her of both uses of terminology, but at least she’s actually asking what’s okay, which is a far step above some of the other people in my peripheral circle.

There are a lot of terms, but they do all have specific meanings. Frank N’ Furter may be from Transsexual Transylvania but he is a transvestite – that is, he is a man who enjoys wearing women’s clothing.  He’s clearly a bisexual man, but, despite looking fabulous and fierce, he is not transitioning into a woman.

Laverne Cox is a woman. She is not a transvestite, or a man dressing in women’s clothing for fun. She is a woman in the morning, in the evening, when she sleeps in the night.

It’s not like I haven’t seen women play Frank when I’ve been to my multitudinous midnight showings of Rocky Horror.  But the news didn’t announce Anne Hathaway playing Frank.  The executives chose someone who is a woman to play a man’s role, when the woman happens to have previously been a man and the man in question wears women’s clothing.

This choice, in my mind, undermines the strides that have been taken to clarify gender roles in the public eye.  I feel like it subtly says,

Hey, Laverne. You may think you’re a woman, but to the world, you’re just a trashy man in  ladies’ lingerie.

Which brings me to my second problem, that, in our “acceptance” of trans men and women, there is an unspoken aesthetic boundary that is being unfairly put upon those choosing to come out publicly.

“Passing” is an antiquated and gross term that is used for a transsexual person that can “pass” for their gender.  One of the reasons I call this term gross and antiquated is because at no moment do cis (non-trans) people get judged on their ability to exemplify their gender.  There are tons of women who don’t look particularly feminine, and tons of men who are not the typification of masculinity.  But we don’t take away their right to say “I’m a man” because they do not look like Fabio.

Yet this odious activity is something that happens to trans people all the time. Most notably, Caitlyn Jenner.

Caitlyn Jenner had the misfortune of spending immense amounts of time in the public eye as a man, and I imagine that unhappiness about who she was and how much she was having to hide probably did contribute to the immense amount of plastic surgery that she’s had.

But if Joan Rivers was a woman, so is Caitlyn Jenner. I see these posts on my Facebook feed like the one on the left that seek to undermine the legitimacy of her transition because these people don’t think she’s “pretty,” and it makes me so furious.

It’s one thing to be a little behind in your thinking, because information about what trans means has only recently readily available, but to judge a woman based on your parameters of femininity and beauty is seriously straight out of 1950’s Mad Men era thinking.

Most drag queens are much prettier than most women I know, but it doesn’t mean that at the end of the club show when they get out of drag that they’re any less men. Gender isn’t about aesthetics.  If I’m having a bad hair day, I don’t lose woman points. It’s just not how it works.

Part of me wants to believe that Hollywood is casting Laverne Cox as Frank because it’s a purposeful genderfuck Don’t Dream It, Be It wonderland. Who cares what gender anyone is, we’re all weirdoes! Get into the pool!

But I feel like I know better. Laverne Cox is gorgeous, but I don’t think she’s being considered for the role because she’s a gorgeous woman. Cox, one of the most prominent trans actresses, would garner media attention for the project, and honestly, most Hollywood execs probably think she’s a transvestite anyway. Maybe they think she doesn’t “pass,” or that her few potentially biologically-manly features somehow qualify her to still be treated by Hollywood like man. I don’t blame her for taking the role, either, because I’m sure she doesn’t get offered a whole lot of quality roles and this one is a doozy.

I’m reminded of the early 2000s and the movie The Score with Robert DeNiro, Marlon Brando, and Edward Norton.  Angela Bassett plays Robert DeNiro’s girlfriend, and, even though they’re clearly in an interracial relationship (much like DeNiro himself in real life), it’s not mentioned, it’s not a plot point, and it’s just a “Hey, life!” mentality.

So call me when Laverne Cox gets the lead in a remake of How Stella Got Her Groove Back* and it’s not a movie that centers on Cox’s gender and Hollywood’s shitty definition or interpretation of it.

And to all my friends whom this actually impacts personally, because you are dealing with gender issues of your own, I am so sorry.  I cannot even grasp what it must be like to leave the house each day, additionally burdened with the societal expectation that, if I don’t gussy up enough and look “appropriately” feminine, that someone will question my gender, and, as a result, all of my decisions and life choices. Even the idea of that kind of shenaniganrous bullshit is so horrifying and unfair and even worse, I realize that there is absolutely nothing I can do to change it, aside from within my own behavior.

Yay for Laverne.  Yay for Caitlyn. Yay for Tim Curry who, I’m told, came to the first table read for Rocky Horror (the movie) in full Frank wardrobe, in an era when even his co-stars weren’t comfortable with men in women’s clothing.

Yay for all of the brave people I know and don’t know who manage to still leave the house and look fabulous and be fabulous and be true to who they are even under that haze of societal crap.
For the rest of us, tell your mothers that people have pronouns that don’t include “it” (unless specifically requested).

Explain to your friends who make casual comments about trans people, or gay people, or agender people, or any kind of people that they don’t understand, how they could improve their vocabulary and be more inclusive.

As much progress as we’ve made, I don’t think it’ll be enough until I’m not the only person offended by the way we’re treating trans people.

* As a sidenote, I had to think really hard to come up with a movie with a strong black lead character, and that’s sad.