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The Silence of the Lambs: I have an issue, and it's not with the dude eating people
I was thinking of posting this rant on the t-place, but I can predict how well that would go. So the smaller, but generally saner and more responsive LJ community, gets to hear it instead.
I decided that visiting the actual novel The Silence of the Lambs was in order. It's engaging enough, BUT: I have a big issue with the arguable transphobia happening in this book, which this blog expresses better than I could. I'm not done with it yet so I'm unclear whether this unsavory overtone is couched in the author's own attitude, or that of the majority of his characters.
There is a character, Dr. Danielson, who appears briefly and seems to be a voice of reason and compassion; apparently his scene[s] was cut from the 1991 film version *figures*. Dr. Danielson was played by Philip Bosco in the film.
The thing the blog I linked doesn't touch on much, which I found quite ridiculous as well as dangerous, was the idea that there is an archetypal transgender psychology, and that anyone who doesn't conform to it can't actually be a "real" transgender person; this is probably a reflection of the times (the book was written 25 years ago), but it still makes me livid.
I decided that visiting the actual novel The Silence of the Lambs was in order. It's engaging enough, BUT: I have a big issue with the arguable transphobia happening in this book, which this blog expresses better than I could. I'm not done with it yet so I'm unclear whether this unsavory overtone is couched in the author's own attitude, or that of the majority of his characters.
There is a character, Dr. Danielson, who appears briefly and seems to be a voice of reason and compassion; apparently his scene[s] was cut from the 1991 film version *figures*. Dr. Danielson was played by Philip Bosco in the film.The thing the blog I linked doesn't touch on much, which I found quite ridiculous as well as dangerous, was the idea that there is an archetypal transgender psychology, and that anyone who doesn't conform to it can't actually be a "real" transgender person; this is probably a reflection of the times (the book was written 25 years ago), but it still makes me livid.
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