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Corpses, Fools and Monsters
A radical history of trans images in film, and an exploration of the political possibilities of the new trans cinema movement.
There have been trans images in cinema for over a century — very often bad cultural objects and very often inspired by the cultural zeitgeist, from Christine Jorgensen to Candy Darling to a guest on The Jerry Springer Show. But now, trans cinema as a movement is slowly emerging from the margins to create a new film language, often in reaction to these historical trans film images that cast the trans body in abject form; a corpse, a foolish joke, a tragic martyr, or even a monster.
Corpses, Fools, and Monsters is a new radical history of these trans film images, and an exploration of the political possibilities of the new trans cinema movement. Analysing the work of trans cinema directors Isabel Sandoval, Silas Howard, and the Wachowski Sisters, it also discusses the trans film image in everything from pre-talkie films and Ed Wood B-movies to Oscar-winners, body horror and slashers.
Going beyond reassessing notable films, performances, and portrayals, Corpses, Fools, and Monsters instead brings to light films and artists not given their due, along with highlighting filmmakers who are bringing trans cinema out of the margins in the twenty-first century.
There have been trans images in cinema for over a century — very often bad cultural objects and very often inspired by the cultural zeitgeist, from Christine Jorgensen to Candy Darling to a guest on The Jerry Springer Show. But now, trans cinema as a movement is slowly emerging from the margins to create a new film language, often in reaction to these historical trans film images that cast the trans body in abject form; a corpse, a foolish joke, a tragic martyr, or even a monster.
Corpses, Fools, and Monsters is a new radical history of these trans film images, and an exploration of the political possibilities of the new trans cinema movement. Analysing the work of trans cinema directors Isabel Sandoval, Silas Howard, and the Wachowski Sisters, it also discusses the trans film image in everything from pre-talkie films and Ed Wood B-movies to Oscar-winners, body horror and slashers.
Going beyond reassessing notable films, performances, and portrayals, Corpses, Fools, and Monsters instead brings to light films and artists not given their due, along with highlighting filmmakers who are bringing trans cinema out of the margins in the twenty-first century.
332 pages, Paperback
First published July 9, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
January 2, 2025
I was so excited for this book, and it has been a real let down. While it's a treasure trove for finding lost classics, the analyses are lacking. They're mostly film summaries, mixed with personal reflections.
At times, broader historical moments are discussed, such as the advent of Reagan. But there's no analysis of political economy. Of why trans people were increasingly demonised. No mention of neoliberalism. Of how the dismantling of social services coincided with the disappearance of sex reassignment clinics. The fleeing of allies at times of increased economic precarity and reactionary violence.
I would be willing to let things slide if the analyses were better. They're fine. Nothing offensive. Well written undergrad-style essays that state things too authoritatively, and have yet to interrogate their Americentrism. The book purports to be a history of trans cinema. It's predominantly a history of North American cinema and North American reactions to international films. Regardless, there's no mention of African, Asian, or Pasifika cinemas. No indigenous American films. Willow and Caden often slip into the register of 'this is objectively bad for trans representation' and it pisses me off. Don't speak for me, don't speak for my trans circle, don't speak for the trans community at large: speak for yourself, and those you've referenced, and the circles you're a part of. Situate your fucking knowledge.
I reached my breaking point when Willow and Caden started talking about Silence of the Lambs. They argue that "through the cisgender gaze, [Buffalo Bill's dancing] becomes a sleazy, perverted homemade peepshow" that iterates the fears of Janice Raymond's Transsexual Empire. Yes, this is one reading of the scene. Having rewatched the film recently, however, I was struck by how beautiful Buffalo Bill looks. They do not look grotesque, nor masculine. They're lit by this gorgeous warm light, framed in smoke and haze, with a fur coat draped across their shoulders. They're glam af. And I was frustrated none of this was brought up, because it provides the material for an oppositional reading, something that provides nuance and pleasure to the marginalised and dispossessed.
This is what bell hooks explores in her essay 'The Oppositional Gaze': the pleasure of gazing at white people on screen without the fear of supremacist violence. It's what Stuart Hall explored through cultural studies; when he screened Die Hard to homeless people they cheered to cops dying on screen. Meaning is always situated, and I wish Willow and Caden understood that. It's especially egregious as both hooks and Hall are black, and none of their work is in this book, despite how foundational they are to film studies. In fact, even the work of queer film scholars is lacking.
At a most generous reading, Willow and Caden are simply inexperienced scholars trying to fill a perceived gap in trans scholarship, and that is something to be encouraged and celebrated. However, there's something deeply conceited coming into two rich fields (film studies and queer studies), referencing few, if any, of the scholars already working in those fields, then titling your book "The History and Future of Transness in Cinema" when you centre New York, with token inclusivity gestures to other peoples and ethnicities.
Ultimately, queer essays should be apertures towards new meanings, because queer subjects have been effaced enough. I don't need another trans person to efface me, and the work of filmmakers and scholars before me, no matter how well intentioned.
At times, broader historical moments are discussed, such as the advent of Reagan. But there's no analysis of political economy. Of why trans people were increasingly demonised. No mention of neoliberalism. Of how the dismantling of social services coincided with the disappearance of sex reassignment clinics. The fleeing of allies at times of increased economic precarity and reactionary violence.
I would be willing to let things slide if the analyses were better. They're fine. Nothing offensive. Well written undergrad-style essays that state things too authoritatively, and have yet to interrogate their Americentrism. The book purports to be a history of trans cinema. It's predominantly a history of North American cinema and North American reactions to international films. Regardless, there's no mention of African, Asian, or Pasifika cinemas. No indigenous American films. Willow and Caden often slip into the register of 'this is objectively bad for trans representation' and it pisses me off. Don't speak for me, don't speak for my trans circle, don't speak for the trans community at large: speak for yourself, and those you've referenced, and the circles you're a part of. Situate your fucking knowledge.
I reached my breaking point when Willow and Caden started talking about Silence of the Lambs. They argue that "through the cisgender gaze, [Buffalo Bill's dancing] becomes a sleazy, perverted homemade peepshow" that iterates the fears of Janice Raymond's Transsexual Empire. Yes, this is one reading of the scene. Having rewatched the film recently, however, I was struck by how beautiful Buffalo Bill looks. They do not look grotesque, nor masculine. They're lit by this gorgeous warm light, framed in smoke and haze, with a fur coat draped across their shoulders. They're glam af. And I was frustrated none of this was brought up, because it provides the material for an oppositional reading, something that provides nuance and pleasure to the marginalised and dispossessed.
This is what bell hooks explores in her essay 'The Oppositional Gaze': the pleasure of gazing at white people on screen without the fear of supremacist violence. It's what Stuart Hall explored through cultural studies; when he screened Die Hard to homeless people they cheered to cops dying on screen. Meaning is always situated, and I wish Willow and Caden understood that. It's especially egregious as both hooks and Hall are black, and none of their work is in this book, despite how foundational they are to film studies. In fact, even the work of queer film scholars is lacking.
At a most generous reading, Willow and Caden are simply inexperienced scholars trying to fill a perceived gap in trans scholarship, and that is something to be encouraged and celebrated. However, there's something deeply conceited coming into two rich fields (film studies and queer studies), referencing few, if any, of the scholars already working in those fields, then titling your book "The History and Future of Transness in Cinema" when you centre New York, with token inclusivity gestures to other peoples and ethnicities.
Ultimately, queer essays should be apertures towards new meanings, because queer subjects have been effaced enough. I don't need another trans person to efface me, and the work of filmmakers and scholars before me, no matter how well intentioned.
Read
July 19, 2024on the one hand, frustratingly sparse or otherwise saying nothing new or interesting about the films in the early middle sections of the book that I really would’ve loved to see discussed over Cronenberg (again). on the other, worth the price of admission for what’s said and transcribed on modern films and the more obscure older stuff (LOVED seeing “Vera” discussed). happy to have it on my shelf!
June 14, 2024
This was such an engaging read about the history and evolution of trans representation in cinema. The authors give historical context for what was happening in the world when the movies were coming out, discuss who the filmmakers were, give plot explanations, and show how language and film images have changed over time.
Big movies like Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, The Danish Girl, Boys Don’t Cry, and more get coverage within the book. But what I appreciated the most was learning about all of these different trans narrative films and documentaries that I had never heard of before, even with all the research I’ve already done into the history of LGBTQ+ movies. I have such a long list of films that I’m now dying to seek out. Another strength of the book was how the authors discussed how even if a movie isn’t intending to depict a trans character, audiences still take away messages from the film. That can be negative, like even though within The Silence of the Lambs they say that Buffalo Bill isn’t trans, many walked away from that movie with a negative association with trans women being killers. But it can also be positive, like when people have trans reads that help them feel represented within movies that don’t have canonical trans characters.
This isn’t just an encyclopedia of different movies, it brings up discussions of persistent stereotypes, commonly used images, cis vs trans casting, the lack of trans masc films, important figures in trans history, and the filmmakers who are bringing new and unique trans stories to the screen today. It covers so many years of films and so much ground in terms of different topics of conversation.
The book does have an academic tone, but not in the way that makes it difficult to read. The information is portrayed clearly and the connections between the different chapters and topics are easy to follow. I’d definitely recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in trans history or film history. You’ll most likely learn about movies you’ve never heard of before to add to your watchlist.
Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Big movies like Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, The Danish Girl, Boys Don’t Cry, and more get coverage within the book. But what I appreciated the most was learning about all of these different trans narrative films and documentaries that I had never heard of before, even with all the research I’ve already done into the history of LGBTQ+ movies. I have such a long list of films that I’m now dying to seek out. Another strength of the book was how the authors discussed how even if a movie isn’t intending to depict a trans character, audiences still take away messages from the film. That can be negative, like even though within The Silence of the Lambs they say that Buffalo Bill isn’t trans, many walked away from that movie with a negative association with trans women being killers. But it can also be positive, like when people have trans reads that help them feel represented within movies that don’t have canonical trans characters.
This isn’t just an encyclopedia of different movies, it brings up discussions of persistent stereotypes, commonly used images, cis vs trans casting, the lack of trans masc films, important figures in trans history, and the filmmakers who are bringing new and unique trans stories to the screen today. It covers so many years of films and so much ground in terms of different topics of conversation.
The book does have an academic tone, but not in the way that makes it difficult to read. The information is portrayed clearly and the connections between the different chapters and topics are easy to follow. I’d definitely recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in trans history or film history. You’ll most likely learn about movies you’ve never heard of before to add to your watchlist.
Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
September 30, 2024
Certainly a thorough and well-researched account of the history of trans cinema, and a resource for adding a number of films to my watchlist I wasn't familiar with. Maclay & Gardner's prose is dry and fumbling, though, and the uneven balance of time spent with various films is awkward. Do we really need entire chapter sections on Silence of the Lambs and The Matrix, movies that surely every trans filmgoer has already thought about to death? And god bless this small press for doing their best I suppose, maybe we'll get another edition that cleans up the text eventually but this thing is rife with copy-editing errors and basic fact-checking oversights. Just makes it feel a bit lazy and rushed.
January 31, 2025
I'm so glad to have read this book, and found it very interesting. I appreciated how the authors brought together the discussions of films with the historical events that were taking place during the periods they were created, since I'm very interested in trans history and less interested/knowledgeable about film history/criticism/theory. This book covers a lot of ground, which is great, but sometimes I wished the authors went deeper into their topics.
Read
December 9, 2024looked forward to this all year, but was left wanting. i'll admit that im not a film critic or theorist, but i feel like a lot of the writing in this book was not as well-developed as i would have expected for this kind of overview/analysis. the way that summaries + analyses were structured was very strange -- often the analysis of a movie or scene would take place before describing to the reader what the scene in question actually was. for some movies (e.g. the matrix), it's perhaps fair to expect the readers to have familiarity with the movie, but for others (crash 1996 cronenberg) i don't know that that is necessarily the case. i mention cronenberg because i feel like the body horror chapter was what seemed the most interesting to me in theory but then fell flat in execution unfortunately.
i found this book mostly helpful in its summary + history of transness in cinema, but found it lacking in analysis.
i found this book mostly helpful in its summary + history of transness in cinema, but found it lacking in analysis.
July 4, 2024
Legitimately wonderful stuff - begins a little academic, mind you (although I’m a sicko who likes that about it) but the latter half is so readable I couldn’t put it down. This belongs in every school, public, and personal library possible. A triumph!
July 31, 2024
Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley in exchange for a review.
The second I saw "The History and Future of Transness in Cinema" I knew I had to have this book. I do enjoy Media Studies as a field and the history of trans images particularly in horror movies are something I have spent quite some time thinking about and feeling devasted because of it. Thankfully, albeit slowly, there is starting to be a bit more representiation in modern horror (Bit 2019, Hellraiser 2022, We're All Going to the World's Fair 2022, They/Them 2022, Evil Dead Rise 2023, T Blockers 2023), but I also enjoyed reading what came before.
This book is an incredible addition to queer media studies and I really enjoyed reading it! This book does start out a bit academic, but you don't need to be a scholar to understand it and once you get past the first chapter, it all becomes easily accessible. If you are in any way interested in representation in movies then everything described here is easily understandable.
While it is a slow read at times, in part due to the often lenghtly descriptions of a film's plot, that makes it easily accessible if you haven't seen a movie. If you have and you aren't like me, who wants to read every word in a book, you can always skip the summary and get to the analysis faster. I also liked that while a big portion of this text is centered on trans women, as they were portrayed more often in early trans film (although often in very transmisogynist ways), trans man and nonbinary characters also play a role. An incredibly number of topics from documentary depictions, horror, Cronenberg's Media, the Matrix, cis-as-trans casting, Christine Jorgensen, the 1960s, 70s and 80s, and finally The New Frontier of the Trans Film.
So if you want to enjoy a really interesting look into trans media (the good, the bad & the severly transmisogynistic) I can only recommend you check out this amazing piece of queer media study.
And lastly, I'll finish this review with the list of movies I've written down to check out after reading this book:
In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden (In a Year of 13 Moons) - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Cruising - William Friedkin
City of Lost Souls, I Am My Own Woman, Transexual Menace - Rosa von Praunheim
Second Serve - Anthony Page
Dressed in Blue - Antonie Giménez-Rico
TV Transvestite - Michele Capozzi & Simone de Bagno.
Paris is Burning - Jennie Livingston
Southern Comfort - Kate Davis
Videodrome, Rabid, Crash & Crimes of the Future - David Cronenberg
By Hook or by Crook - Harry Dodge, Silas Howard
Maggots and Men - Cary Cronnenwett
Lingua Franca - Isabel Sandoval
So Vam, Bad Girl Boogey, T Blockers - Alice Maio Mackay
The second I saw "The History and Future of Transness in Cinema" I knew I had to have this book. I do enjoy Media Studies as a field and the history of trans images particularly in horror movies are something I have spent quite some time thinking about and feeling devasted because of it. Thankfully, albeit slowly, there is starting to be a bit more representiation in modern horror (Bit 2019, Hellraiser 2022, We're All Going to the World's Fair 2022, They/Them 2022, Evil Dead Rise 2023, T Blockers 2023), but I also enjoyed reading what came before.
This book is an incredible addition to queer media studies and I really enjoyed reading it! This book does start out a bit academic, but you don't need to be a scholar to understand it and once you get past the first chapter, it all becomes easily accessible. If you are in any way interested in representation in movies then everything described here is easily understandable.
While it is a slow read at times, in part due to the often lenghtly descriptions of a film's plot, that makes it easily accessible if you haven't seen a movie. If you have and you aren't like me, who wants to read every word in a book, you can always skip the summary and get to the analysis faster. I also liked that while a big portion of this text is centered on trans women, as they were portrayed more often in early trans film (although often in very transmisogynist ways), trans man and nonbinary characters also play a role. An incredibly number of topics from documentary depictions, horror, Cronenberg's Media, the Matrix, cis-as-trans casting, Christine Jorgensen, the 1960s, 70s and 80s, and finally The New Frontier of the Trans Film.
So if you want to enjoy a really interesting look into trans media (the good, the bad & the severly transmisogynistic) I can only recommend you check out this amazing piece of queer media study.
And lastly, I'll finish this review with the list of movies I've written down to check out after reading this book:
In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden (In a Year of 13 Moons) - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Cruising - William Friedkin
City of Lost Souls, I Am My Own Woman, Transexual Menace - Rosa von Praunheim
Second Serve - Anthony Page
Dressed in Blue - Antonie Giménez-Rico
TV Transvestite - Michele Capozzi & Simone de Bagno.
Paris is Burning - Jennie Livingston
Southern Comfort - Kate Davis
Videodrome, Rabid, Crash & Crimes of the Future - David Cronenberg
By Hook or by Crook - Harry Dodge, Silas Howard
Maggots and Men - Cary Cronnenwett
Lingua Franca - Isabel Sandoval
So Vam, Bad Girl Boogey, T Blockers - Alice Maio Mackay
December 31, 2024
A really special book that feels like a long overdue advancement of Vito Russo's seminal text. A comprehensive parsing of the Trans film image both textual and subtextual. Quickly moving through cinematic history at an un-put-downable pace, hitting the typical Queer canon you'd expect but also shedding light on works and figures who's public recognition is perhaps still not quite there. The intersection with the medical and cultural shiftings of Trans identities across these periods is what was most interesting to me and the authors offer measured, thoughtful observations and critiques throughout.
A book I'll return to many times over while I move through my newly expanded watchlist. Thank you Willow and Caden.
A book I'll return to many times over while I move through my newly expanded watchlist. Thank you Willow and Caden.
Read
March 21, 2025Really great introductory for me, gave me a lot of great recommendations for movies and filmmakers to look out for, and gave me a deeper perspective into gender and performance and how trans people are presented in movies now that I can carry with me. I wish it had gone further into the analyses of various movies or tied it with more detail in “modern history” but this was still a very riveting read and I feel like I learned a lot!
December 15, 2024
Fantastic work that nails the intersection of film, medical and cultural history surrounding so many trailblazing trans directors, actors and personalities. To fit this many people and give time to contextualize and reflect as thorough as they do just shows how tactful and full the writers' grasp is on the subject. As the history of trans people in cinema continues to grow it's great to have a resource like this that brings together so many voices and ideas.
January 27, 2025
moves a little swiftly over each film, but i realise that it’s more of an overview than a close analysis. some really great stuff in there and has given me a nice list of recommendations. stylistically much more accessibly communicated than beautifully written
February 18, 2025
Wonderfully researched film history covering dangerous and misinformed stereotypes, damaging missteps at representation by cis artists, and a hopeful look at a trans film canon created by trans filmmakers. Learned a lot!
May 26, 2024
This book is fairly explanatory- it’s a detailed history of transgender representation throughout the history of TV and film. As a side effect, it also serves as a good study of how cultural perceptions of trans people changed throughout America, in particular, in that same time period.
It was a bit of a slow read, in part because of the careful plot descriptions of so many movies, but I enjoyed it, especially the chapters discussing the representation of trans people in horror, particularly Psycho and Silence of the Lamb, and the chapter on The Matrix.
All in all, it’s a fairly academic book, but well worth the read.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my fair review.
It was a bit of a slow read, in part because of the careful plot descriptions of so many movies, but I enjoyed it, especially the chapters discussing the representation of trans people in horror, particularly Psycho and Silence of the Lamb, and the chapter on The Matrix.
All in all, it’s a fairly academic book, but well worth the read.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my fair review.
December 31, 2024
I wanted to love this as a trans media theorist, but I don’t think this book is very well argued, if I’m being honest. A lot of it is, frankly, somewhat media illiterate if not outright deceptive - bent truths building upon bent truths to make arguments.
I’ll single out the Cronenberg section because that seems to be what most of us are here for. The synopsis they write of Crash positions Vaughn as the protagonist, upon which they make the argument that Crash is a beautiful, optimistic, utopian (but complicated) film about transformation and personal expression.
Sorry, but Vaughn is the antagonist of Crash, not the protagonist. James and Catherine are the protagonists, and they end the film fucking on the side of the road body-broken and promising each other that the next high will be the one they’ve been looking for. This is exactly where they started. Vaughn is a cult leader who constantly changes his arguments about what his “project” is, so whatever he says it is cannot possibly be what Cronenberg is trying to say, no? The film’s framing would suggest otherwise. And yet the book positions his monologues as thesis. Cronenberg himself has also spoken in very nuanced ways about his films (especially Crash) being about lovely but deeply misguided and isolated (“hermetically sealed”) people attempting to liberate themselves through created sexualities. The authors include long summaries of additions he intended to make to his films, including the cut orgy from the end of Videodrome, but I’m sorry, those aren’t the films that exist - the Videodrome that exists ends on a suicide.
It might help film critics to consider the auteur as dead as literary critics consider the author to be sometimes. Or, at very least, present the artists and films they’re talking about in an honest fashion. I think all of the films in this book have trans narratives. You don’t have to invent new narratives on top of the (far more interesting) ones that already exist. How can you claim to love a text while also ignoring everything that it actually is? “I want this film to say what I want it to say, so I’m just going to pretend it says everything I want it to.” Everything has become “representation” obsessed. It’s exhausting.
I’ll single out the Cronenberg section because that seems to be what most of us are here for. The synopsis they write of Crash positions Vaughn as the protagonist, upon which they make the argument that Crash is a beautiful, optimistic, utopian (but complicated) film about transformation and personal expression.
Sorry, but Vaughn is the antagonist of Crash, not the protagonist. James and Catherine are the protagonists, and they end the film fucking on the side of the road body-broken and promising each other that the next high will be the one they’ve been looking for. This is exactly where they started. Vaughn is a cult leader who constantly changes his arguments about what his “project” is, so whatever he says it is cannot possibly be what Cronenberg is trying to say, no? The film’s framing would suggest otherwise. And yet the book positions his monologues as thesis. Cronenberg himself has also spoken in very nuanced ways about his films (especially Crash) being about lovely but deeply misguided and isolated (“hermetically sealed”) people attempting to liberate themselves through created sexualities. The authors include long summaries of additions he intended to make to his films, including the cut orgy from the end of Videodrome, but I’m sorry, those aren’t the films that exist - the Videodrome that exists ends on a suicide.
It might help film critics to consider the auteur as dead as literary critics consider the author to be sometimes. Or, at very least, present the artists and films they’re talking about in an honest fashion. I think all of the films in this book have trans narratives. You don’t have to invent new narratives on top of the (far more interesting) ones that already exist. How can you claim to love a text while also ignoring everything that it actually is? “I want this film to say what I want it to say, so I’m just going to pretend it says everything I want it to.” Everything has become “representation” obsessed. It’s exhausting.
June 4, 2024
This book is as the title says: the history and future of transness in cinema. It’s an academic text that references cinema throughout the 20 and 21 century that featured trans representation and how that representation could be harmful or helpful to trans people and the public opinion on trans people - shown as corpses, fools and monsters. It considers the time period the movies were made and released in while also considering the films through a modern lens. For each film mentioned, there’s ample description of the cast, characters, plot, and how transness is shown. I wrote down several of these movies to watch and then revisit the text here. This is so well researched and argued. It is heavy and dense, but it’s an excellent read, especially if you’re interested in cinema or are a queer person or want to know more about how trans people are portrayed. It’s an amazing collection of research and thoughts on the history, current day, and future of trans people depicted in cinema.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
November 16, 2025
3,5 ster.
Op zich heb ik qua inhoud niets nieuws gelezen. De grotere films krijgen een meer inhoudelijke analyse dan de meer niche films. Logisch, maar ook jammer. De schrijvers benoemen een heleboel films die te maken hebben met trans mensen/de trans identiteit/gemaakt zijn door trans mensen, waarvan ik nog nooit eerder had gehoord. Ik heb dus nog een hoop te kijken. In dat aspect zijn mijn ogen wel geopend, en daar ben ik blij mee. (Ik heb een lijst op Letterboxd met alle benoemde films, voor de geïnteresseerden. Niet al die films zijn goed, overigens).
Op zich heb ik qua inhoud niets nieuws gelezen. De grotere films krijgen een meer inhoudelijke analyse dan de meer niche films. Logisch, maar ook jammer. De schrijvers benoemen een heleboel films die te maken hebben met trans mensen/de trans identiteit/gemaakt zijn door trans mensen, waarvan ik nog nooit eerder had gehoord. Ik heb dus nog een hoop te kijken. In dat aspect zijn mijn ogen wel geopend, en daar ben ik blij mee. (Ik heb een lijst op Letterboxd met alle benoemde films, voor de geïnteresseerden. Niet al die films zijn goed, overigens).
July 12, 2025
"When you are trans, you become painfully aware of the time lost in becoming yourself". The personal elements of this terrific study of trans representation on film are key to an engaging, balanced examination of (among many others) groundbreaking documentaries, post-Psycho slasher cinema, Cronenbergian body horror, the films of the Wachowski sisters and the promising recent wave of inventive filmmakers like Jane Schoenbrun.
October 15, 2024
An extremely thoroughly researched account of transness on the screen, not just in its explicit portrayals, but in the subtextual as well. Sheds light on many obscure and influential trans historical figures and martyrs. I will definitely be looking more into the works of Cronenberg following this book.
March 21, 2025
An eaaaaasy 5 stars!!! This collection of essays is PHENOMENAL! I feel like I've gained a huge appreciation for trans/queer film from reading this. It covers a huge scope of film history and topics, yet remains digestible, engaging, and easy to read. It's academic without being heady and just so so interesting. A 10/10 in my book!! And now, I have so many movies to add to my queue. HUGE SLAY <3
October 16, 2024
A really engaging and enlightening read. It's refreshing reading a film history book whose films and figures I know little, if anything about beforehand. Starts off a bit academic for my liking, but thankfully settles in quickly.
February 15, 2025
A very compelling walk through both trans film history and the history of transness through the last century and a quarter, in both depiction and perception. I think this is an especially important text, for both film buffs and those less movie-literate (like me), in dark times like these, if only to gain a greater appreciation for what our trans elders have gone through, and what our trans contemporaries are working towards. And, as a trans creative myself, it inspires me to continue working towards more, and more real, representation in our media, as so many others have done over the years.
July 31, 2024
loved this so much! one of those books that sent me down a million wikipedia rabbit holes as i read. a comprehensive history of films made by and featuring trans people, and an analysis of the state and future of trans cinema. i recommend this to anyone interested in queer cinema, i thought i had a pretty good grasp on the history of trans filmmaking, but in reading this, i discovered so many films i had never even heard of. love love loved it!
August 29, 2024
such an awesome overview of transness in film and public perception of trans people due to these media images!!! cant recommend enough and i also need to watch so many of these movies expeditiously
November 17, 2024
An essential read for anyone interested in film history and LGBTQ+ representation in popular media. My watchlist has grown larger thanks to this book.
January 10, 2025
this is a book that I’m glad exists but I wish the form it took was a little different. Added a lot to my watchlist which is good I guess
Read
March 9, 2025*loved* this. the wachowski’s chapter made me feel extremely seen for verbalizing what i’ve thought about these movies. made a letterboxd watchlist, let’s go
August 30, 2025
I love cinema and I love queer creativity
July 22, 2025
An important start, but the prose is frequently awkward and the analysis over-certain. Also they're wrong about Sleepaway Camp.
October 28, 2024
Maclay's book looks at representations of trans people in films and how it has changed over time.
In an essay that was performed as a monologue at California State University, Long Beach in 1993, ‘My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix,’ Stryker likens herself and the trans body to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The trans film image resonates through Stryker’s words:
The transsexual body is an unnatural body. It is the product of medical science. It is a technological reconstruction. It is flesh torn apart and sewn back together again in a shape other than that in which it was born. In these circumstances, I find a deep affinity between myself as a transsexual woman and the monster in Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein.’ Like the monster, I am too often perceived as less than fully human due to my embodiment; like the monster’s as well, my exclusion from human community fuels a deep and abiding rage in me that I, like the monster, direct against the conditions in which I must struggle to exist. 19
One pre-Jorgensen figure was trans man Dr. Alan Hart, famed for his work on X-ray photography screenings to treat tuberculosis, who had a hysterectomy in 1917 and officially socially transitioned to male while under psychological evaluations and observance. Dr. J. Allen Gilbert would write of Hart in a medical journal that he had taken an ‘exit as a female and started as a male with a new hold on life.’ Hart would also take synthetic hormones when they became available in the 1920s, decades before Jorgensen. Hart’s procedure was done in secrecy, identified in Dr. Gilbert’s writings under the patient name ‘H,’ although despot the covert nature of his transition, Hart would face being outed in the years after. 29
This trend produced works such as William Castle Homicidal (1961) and Doris Wishman’s Let Me Die a Woman (1977), but the first of these was Glen or Glenda. Released a year after Christine Jorgensen’s transition became public fodder, the film has long been a notorious work, but it presents itself as a fair, ‘seeing-all-sides-of-the-issue’ picture on the topics of transness and cross-dressing.’ 32
Gore Vidal’s Myra Breckinridge, published a year after Christine Jorgensen’s memoir, was an instant success. The film adaptation of the book was also, in a twist of fate, released in 1970, the same year as The Christine Jorgensen Story. 37
I had been a photographer and filmmaker who became a performer,’ this Christine Jorgensen notes in how the spectacle of her existence launched her as a celebrity. 43
In the twenty-first century, the gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities have taken a more conscious role in working with the trans community-after decades of a tempestuous relationship-by affirming the trans community’s place in their broader, big-tent coalition. But what is often missed in such coalition-building is the complicated histories in the nuances of trans identity. In many ways, the use of the term ‘transgender’ rather than the term ‘transsexual’ was itself a reparative action designed to bring together small groups of people under a larger umbrella. It is important to outline how transness today is a consolidation of many identities and groups that were previously separate. 58
[Virginia] Prince advocated for cross-dressers rights, but in turn wished for straight cross-dressers to distance and separate themselves from cross-dresses who identified as homosexuals and away from transsexuals; she adviser her cross-dresser groups and readers of her publication Transvestia to follow her lead. 60
But Prince saw the rights of straight cross-dresses as separate from the rights of the gay liberation movement, whether they were homosexual men, street queens, drag queens, or gay cross-dressers, which was, in retrospect, baked into the respectability politics of that period that Jorgensen and many trans pioneers abided to. But unlike Jorgensen, Prince was also something of a hypocrite; she made her own feminizing hormones and altered her body, much like the trans women from whom she wanted to distance herself. She would later be part of the great gender variance and trans umbrella, right alongside the people she had previously pushed away. By 1968, Prince had dropped out of identifying as a straight cross-dresser and was living fully as a woman. 61
Crystal LaBeija did not just give up. Ultimately, within the next decade, she would be running House of LaBeija and the rise of the Hosues for modern ball culture scenes, accelerating as disco became the soundscape of queer people and people of color alike. It is the ballroom connection to Paris is Burning, in which House of LaBeija is featured prominently, that gives The Queen an even greater historical importance beyond being a significant cultural snapshot of its period. 65
Some of My Best Friends Are…Violence hangs over everyone, and the tensions of a nascent political movement introduce a new kind of queer anxiety in the trans film image. 91
The 1970s were a time where trans and queer film images were frequently conceived as violent menaces, such as the rapist hillbillies in Deliverance (1972) or the unbalanced cross-dressing con artists in Frebbie and the Bean (1974). Vito Russo noted in The Celluloid Closet that this was the product of the end of the production code. Explicitness of figures and themes of queerness were often portrayed negatively rather than just coded, erased from the narrative, or pushed to the margins as in earlier times, deeming the output of 1970s Hollywood a continuation of ‘the freak show aspects of homosexual villains, fools, and queens.’ 105
The difficulty in cataloguing trans lives and representations is that many trans people often had no interest in revealing themselves to the world. 113
In 1979, Janice Raymond wrote her TERF manifesto, The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Man, which argued that transsexuality should be mandated out of existence. 116
After years of research, the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-III )The Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders) was finally published in 1980 and employed the term ‘gender identity disorder’ (GID) to label those who were transsexual. 119
Merissa Sherrill Lynn’s work at both Fantasia Fair and later Tiffany Club in the 1970s helped her build networks and support in the New England area that ultimately led to the creation of the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) in 1986. 120
[Steve] Dain’s case was one the many firings of gay and lesbian school teachers in the 1970s based on their sexuality, part of the moral panic stirred up by Anita Bryant’s ‘Save Our Children’ campaign. 140
The resulting videos, called Female-to-Gay Male Transsexualism, were broken up into four parts and released from 1988 through 1990. 143
But by 1979, something shocking happened. The clinic abruptly closed and trans surgeries were effectively, indefinitely halted. This happened the same year a study titled ‘Sexual Reassignment Follow-Up’ was put out by a JHU psychiatrist, Dr. Jon K. Meyer (with his secretary Donna Reter as a co-author), which argued that there was little benefit to sexual reassignment surgery, thereby raising the question of whether medical interventions should engage in it all. 160
By the 1990s, the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) and the American Educational Gender Information Service (AEGIS) were making concerted efforts in advocacy and education to modernize the Standards of Car. This coincided with the modernization of language used to describe what was reframed as the ‘gender community’ and the transgender community. 190
Transgender actress Laverne Cox was on the cover of the May 29, 2014 issue of Time Magazine accompanied by the headline: ‘The Transgender Tipping Point.’ IT was just a year removed from ‘gender identity disorder’ being dropped from the 2013 publication of the DSM-V, subsequently re-termed ‘gender dysphoria.’ 273
In an essay that was performed as a monologue at California State University, Long Beach in 1993, ‘My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix,’ Stryker likens herself and the trans body to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The trans film image resonates through Stryker’s words:
The transsexual body is an unnatural body. It is the product of medical science. It is a technological reconstruction. It is flesh torn apart and sewn back together again in a shape other than that in which it was born. In these circumstances, I find a deep affinity between myself as a transsexual woman and the monster in Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein.’ Like the monster, I am too often perceived as less than fully human due to my embodiment; like the monster’s as well, my exclusion from human community fuels a deep and abiding rage in me that I, like the monster, direct against the conditions in which I must struggle to exist. 19
One pre-Jorgensen figure was trans man Dr. Alan Hart, famed for his work on X-ray photography screenings to treat tuberculosis, who had a hysterectomy in 1917 and officially socially transitioned to male while under psychological evaluations and observance. Dr. J. Allen Gilbert would write of Hart in a medical journal that he had taken an ‘exit as a female and started as a male with a new hold on life.’ Hart would also take synthetic hormones when they became available in the 1920s, decades before Jorgensen. Hart’s procedure was done in secrecy, identified in Dr. Gilbert’s writings under the patient name ‘H,’ although despot the covert nature of his transition, Hart would face being outed in the years after. 29
This trend produced works such as William Castle Homicidal (1961) and Doris Wishman’s Let Me Die a Woman (1977), but the first of these was Glen or Glenda. Released a year after Christine Jorgensen’s transition became public fodder, the film has long been a notorious work, but it presents itself as a fair, ‘seeing-all-sides-of-the-issue’ picture on the topics of transness and cross-dressing.’ 32
Gore Vidal’s Myra Breckinridge, published a year after Christine Jorgensen’s memoir, was an instant success. The film adaptation of the book was also, in a twist of fate, released in 1970, the same year as The Christine Jorgensen Story. 37
I had been a photographer and filmmaker who became a performer,’ this Christine Jorgensen notes in how the spectacle of her existence launched her as a celebrity. 43
In the twenty-first century, the gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities have taken a more conscious role in working with the trans community-after decades of a tempestuous relationship-by affirming the trans community’s place in their broader, big-tent coalition. But what is often missed in such coalition-building is the complicated histories in the nuances of trans identity. In many ways, the use of the term ‘transgender’ rather than the term ‘transsexual’ was itself a reparative action designed to bring together small groups of people under a larger umbrella. It is important to outline how transness today is a consolidation of many identities and groups that were previously separate. 58
[Virginia] Prince advocated for cross-dressers rights, but in turn wished for straight cross-dressers to distance and separate themselves from cross-dresses who identified as homosexuals and away from transsexuals; she adviser her cross-dresser groups and readers of her publication Transvestia to follow her lead. 60
But Prince saw the rights of straight cross-dresses as separate from the rights of the gay liberation movement, whether they were homosexual men, street queens, drag queens, or gay cross-dressers, which was, in retrospect, baked into the respectability politics of that period that Jorgensen and many trans pioneers abided to. But unlike Jorgensen, Prince was also something of a hypocrite; she made her own feminizing hormones and altered her body, much like the trans women from whom she wanted to distance herself. She would later be part of the great gender variance and trans umbrella, right alongside the people she had previously pushed away. By 1968, Prince had dropped out of identifying as a straight cross-dresser and was living fully as a woman. 61
Crystal LaBeija did not just give up. Ultimately, within the next decade, she would be running House of LaBeija and the rise of the Hosues for modern ball culture scenes, accelerating as disco became the soundscape of queer people and people of color alike. It is the ballroom connection to Paris is Burning, in which House of LaBeija is featured prominently, that gives The Queen an even greater historical importance beyond being a significant cultural snapshot of its period. 65
Some of My Best Friends Are…Violence hangs over everyone, and the tensions of a nascent political movement introduce a new kind of queer anxiety in the trans film image. 91
The 1970s were a time where trans and queer film images were frequently conceived as violent menaces, such as the rapist hillbillies in Deliverance (1972) or the unbalanced cross-dressing con artists in Frebbie and the Bean (1974). Vito Russo noted in The Celluloid Closet that this was the product of the end of the production code. Explicitness of figures and themes of queerness were often portrayed negatively rather than just coded, erased from the narrative, or pushed to the margins as in earlier times, deeming the output of 1970s Hollywood a continuation of ‘the freak show aspects of homosexual villains, fools, and queens.’ 105
The difficulty in cataloguing trans lives and representations is that many trans people often had no interest in revealing themselves to the world. 113
In 1979, Janice Raymond wrote her TERF manifesto, The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Man, which argued that transsexuality should be mandated out of existence. 116
After years of research, the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-III )The Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders) was finally published in 1980 and employed the term ‘gender identity disorder’ (GID) to label those who were transsexual. 119
Merissa Sherrill Lynn’s work at both Fantasia Fair and later Tiffany Club in the 1970s helped her build networks and support in the New England area that ultimately led to the creation of the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) in 1986. 120
[Steve] Dain’s case was one the many firings of gay and lesbian school teachers in the 1970s based on their sexuality, part of the moral panic stirred up by Anita Bryant’s ‘Save Our Children’ campaign. 140
The resulting videos, called Female-to-Gay Male Transsexualism, were broken up into four parts and released from 1988 through 1990. 143
But by 1979, something shocking happened. The clinic abruptly closed and trans surgeries were effectively, indefinitely halted. This happened the same year a study titled ‘Sexual Reassignment Follow-Up’ was put out by a JHU psychiatrist, Dr. Jon K. Meyer (with his secretary Donna Reter as a co-author), which argued that there was little benefit to sexual reassignment surgery, thereby raising the question of whether medical interventions should engage in it all. 160
By the 1990s, the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) and the American Educational Gender Information Service (AEGIS) were making concerted efforts in advocacy and education to modernize the Standards of Car. This coincided with the modernization of language used to describe what was reframed as the ‘gender community’ and the transgender community. 190
Transgender actress Laverne Cox was on the cover of the May 29, 2014 issue of Time Magazine accompanied by the headline: ‘The Transgender Tipping Point.’ IT was just a year removed from ‘gender identity disorder’ being dropped from the 2013 publication of the DSM-V, subsequently re-termed ‘gender dysphoria.’ 273
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