I happened to turn on the TV and saw that The Rocky Horror Picture Show was on Fox. It was a remake. I'm not going to start a rant on remakes here and why most of them are so bad. Usually, it has to do with the "modern spin" they always choose to put on a movie in a misguided effort to make it better.
I had nothing better to do. I decided to give this version a chance. It only took until Frank N Furter entered the picture to see that this was going to be a different show and would surely create a controversy. Transgender actress Laverne Cox took on the role.
This brings the first question. Was she doing it just because it would be fun to take on the role that made Tim Curry famous, or was she wanting to start the debate that her appearing in the role would cause? If it was the latter, that was a brilliant move.
Laverne's appearance in this role started the conversation about the various sub groups within the transgender community. You see, the T in LGBT has it's own big umbrella. There are cross dressers, sissies, transvestites, gender fluid, transgender (pre op, non op and post op) and other groups I'm sure I'm forgetting.
When Curry made the role famous, he was clearly playing a bisexual transvestite. The "horror" of the movie had to do with the idea that he had captured this couple and would have his way sexually with them, basically against their will, and that they might eventually submit and become one of them. There was the "stigma" of being gay. Plus, you had the sense that Frank was dangerous and could snap at any time and kill them if the mood took him.
One of the debates over Cox taking this role is that she is transgender. She identifies as a woman. That's what transgender is. You don't identify in the gender in which you were born, and you seek to transition to the other gender, male to female or female to male. That's what transgender is.
Transvestite is entirely different. It's a clothing and sexual fetish. You may be a man who will dress in societal norms, and then at times you will dress in clothing and go for the whole appearance of the opposite gender. And, sex is one of the goals for a transvestite. There's sometimes the appeal of the blurry lines. If you are a male dressing as female and have sex with a man as his "woman" of the moment, you aren't gay because of how you were dressed. This is the way some transvestites think. They might never engage in sex with a man if they are dressed as a man themselves.
So, knowing that the original movie has a male transvestite in the lead role, was Laverne Cox the appropriate person for this part? There's big debate over that, and I'll add my two cents. I don't believe she belonged in that role, and it took some of the edge away from the movie.
There's a question some men may not want to honestly answer to anybody, but I'll ask it anyway. If Tim Curry's portrayal of Frank forced himself on you, would you submit or would you fight it? If Cox's portrayal did the same thing, what would be your answer? I'm willing to bet that more men would play with Laverne. I know it's an uncomfortable question to ask, because people are still freaked out by the transgender community enough to commit violence against them in 2016.
When it comes to the role, I heard it suggested that Laverne was just too pretty to pull it off. I agree that she is a beautiful woman, and in this case, that's not what the role calls for. In the original, you know Frank is a he. In the remake, the female pronouns are used more, because that's just natural for Laverne. She is a transgender woman. I would never disrespect her by suggesting otherwise.
The thing that freaks the heterosexual male out about transgender women is that some women have done so much to make themselves beautiful and feminine that the men themselves can't "tell" by looking at them. So, some of these women will appeal to certain men enough to want to have sex with them. When the subject of her "born gender" comes up, it messes with the man's head, and the gay discussion takes over.
Hence, the biggest reason the T is in LBGBT when the T has needs that don't always jibe with the LGB. Many transgender people don't want to fight a cause, be in anybody's face or any of that. They are the gender they present and want to be accepted as they are, not talked about in terms of what they "used to be" or any of that.
This is another struggle that so many go through in the transgender community as they start their transition. People can "tell" what gender they were born just by looking at them. Adding further insult is the fact that despite the efforts to present themselves in public, there are some people who refuse to acknowledge them properly when they can see the obvious effort being made. She is still a he to them, and that brings up another insensitive comment I read in the post movie discussion.
It was the discussion about whether Laverne herself has had the surgery, which I personally feel is out of bounds. Somebody made the rather disrespectful comment that no matter what she had "cut off" she was still a he or an it. To those who don't understand, these thoughts go through the minds of many who transition, and some are still suicidal over the whole thing. They don't doubt that they are doing the right thing. What they struggle with is the idea that they will never completely be that gender, no matter how they look.
People like to rate a transgender person on how they look. She's passable, that's a man and so on. Cox herself was judged in portraying Frank, and some said she was just too pretty for the role. The role required a man in woman's clothing. This may be true, but Hollywood loves to miscast. Consider all of the transgender roles that clearly called for somebody like Cox, yet went to naturally born or "cisgender" women. Yes, there are transgender actresses who constantly get overlooked.
I don't personally feel this version of Rocky Horror measured up to the 1975 movie. How could it? But, Laverne and the cast gave it their all, and I can't fault them for that. Cox had fun with the role, and she intentionally or unintentionally sparked a conversation that can lead to better understanding of the transgender community. That's a good thing.
Even in this discussion, the Trump vs Clinton election had to rear it's ugly head. Curry had a role as the narrator, and he's still recovering from a stroke suffered in 2012. Somebody asked a question that appeared insensitive because they discussed his performance not being so good. Automatically, this person was branded as hateful and intolerant, which apparently can only be the case if you are a Republican.
The reality is, ignorance has no political, ideological, racial or religious preference. We are all guilty of it from time to time. Fortunately, we all have the opportunity to grow and learn as human beings. One of the nice things about Laverne Cox taking on the role of Frank N Furter is that it gives people a chance to engage in a discussion about transgender issues and come to more of an understanding.
