The Lobster Dance

While I was rewatching Silence of the Lambs (1991) for my post on NBC Hannibal, I realized I had forgotten about the transphobia in the film. (Or, rather, it was one of many things I didn’t really get when I was in high school and saw it for the first time.)

Major spoilers for Silence of the Lambs. Content warning for discussions of transphobia, transmisogyny, and queerphobia in horror films.

What bothers me, too, is how people try to explain it away but miss really key elements of queer terminology and history. For example, despite really on-point analysis of Clarice Starling as a feminist character, the creators of The Faculty of Horror missed the point about Hannibal Lecter’s analysis of Jame Gumb vs. the film’s treatment of the character. In regards to Lecter says Gumb thinks they are trans (or gay) but that they are not–Gumb is making a woman suit because they’re psychotic.

Lecter says, “[Buffalo] Billy hates his own identity, you see, and he thinks that makes him a transsexual, but his pathology is a thousand times more savage and more terrifying.” Let that last line really soak in– it implies that being trans is “savage and terrifying.”

Lecter’s quote enforces the idea that other people can determine a person’s gender identity. Although Jame Gumb was a ruthless murderer who skinned people alive, if she identified as a woman, she was a woman. If a person thinks they are transgender, they are. In real life, transgender people’s identities are often scrutinized by cisgender people. There is a fascination with the genitals of transgender people, based upon the erroneous idea that one’s sexual organs determine gender. (“The Not-So-Hidden Transphobia in Silence of the Lambs”)

Yet, according to Subissati and West, Lecter’s analysis clarifies in the text that Gumb is not trans, and thus the film is somehow not transphobic.

We have to look deeper. We first can look at the conflation of drag queens, trans women, queerness, and the act of cross-dressing in the 1980s-90s. (The terminology also was different, with transsexual representing not just the contemporary term transgender but also grouping in the out-of-use word transvestite and other non-binary identities.) Yet, as Mey writes on Autostraddle,

When we see serial killer Buffalo Bill in their most famous scene, it is meant to be one of the most jarring and disturbing moments of the film. We see someone who is presented to us as a man tucking their penis between their legs, wearing a wig made from a woman’s scalp, swaying and dancing to music. Growing up, I remember many times hearing that this was one of the strangest and creepiest scenes in modern film. This action of putting on makeup and a wig, tucking and trying to look as beautiful and feminine as you can is something that a lot of us trans* women can relate to. It’s something that a lot of us trans* women have done. And here it is being presented as the epitome of horror.

That’s why Lecter’s verbal analysis is not supported by the visual narrative–the audience is shown actions associated with AMAB individuals participating in femininities (regardless of personal identity). This scene, as Mey wrote, is meant to scare and disgust the audience. The point isn’t Gumb’s exact gender identity or expression. The transphobic element is that the audience is being shown that trying to look feminine is monstrous.

Or, as BJ Colangelo writes,

Think of it this way–if Jaws made people scared of the ocean and IT made people afraid of clowns, what sort of idea are we perpetuating about trans* women if they’re frequently shown as psychotic, violent, or perverted?

Again, to be blunt: Hannibal Lecter telling Clarice and the audience that Jame Gumb is not trans does not erase the damage of showing the audience that dressing as a woman, identifying as a woman, or participating in the culturally feminine is something to be associated with serial killers or mental illness.

Back to Mey:

The movies that use trans* people or crossdressers as a scare tactic don’t bother to make a distinction between the two. Because of this, for many viewers of these movies, these characters have been their only pop culture reference points when a trans* woman is mentioned. That means that when they hear that someone is a trans* woman, they have a list of characters that are lumped into this general category of “women who are really men” and that category is filled with psychopaths and serial killers.

I’m disappointed with FoH‘s lack of analysis here, especially given the sociological background of the show and the fact it was recorded in 2013.

Read the full articles here. If you wish to comment, please educate yourself about the correct terminology and be respectful. Comments are moderated. If you have other good articles on SotL or trans representation in horror, send me a comment.

BJ Colangelo. “Trans* Women and the Horror of Misrepresentation.” Bitch Flicks. Oct. 1, 2014.

Mey. “Who’s Afraid Of The Big, Bad Trans* Woman? On Horror and Transfemininity.” Autostraddle. Oct. 8, 2013.

Savannah Staubs. “The Not-So-Hidden Transphobia in Silence of the Lambs.” The Sociological Cinema. Aug. 25, 2014.

Comments by John Demme. “Silence Of The Lambs Director Understands Why Film Was Considered Transphobic.” Queerty. Jul. 25, 2014.