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[–]fuckingsealions 50 insightful - 4 fun50 insightful - 3 fun51 insightful - 4 fun -  (10 children)

If this is transphobic, then we're going to have to remove The Silence of the Lambs too. And Psycho, which I believe was partly inspired by Gein.

[–]VioletRemi 44 insightful - 5 fun44 insightful - 4 fun45 insightful - 5 fun -  (1 child)

They have nothing against when it is done by a man, but when woman is writting about it - boom, it is transphobia!

[–]MarkTwainiac 31 insightful - 2 fun31 insightful - 1 fun32 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

BTW, I rewatched Silence of the Lambs the other night, and was really struck at how informed it was by 1970s and 80s-era feminism and what criminologists back then had learnt about male sex predators like Gein, Speck and Bundy.

So many scenes were framed in a way that really played up the often vast size differences between males and females, the extent to which males predominate in most fields, the sexism and creepiness of so many males in all sorts of professions and positions, the vestiges of sexism displayed by even well-meaning males like Crawford who truly was trying to "do better" and respectfully mentor his young female colleague whom he recognized was brighter and more intuitive than he, the bravery and kindness of the female characters and the way they all had to continually strike a delicate balance between being forthright badasses and protecting the "fragile male egos" around them whilst thinking fast on their feet how to outsmart so many evil men like Buffalo Bill and Lecter.

Director Jonathan Demme, screenwriter Ted Tally, the DP and all the actors did an incredible job.

[–]DivaExMachina 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Will have to give it another watch. It came out when I was a teenager and the scene where her boss/mentor undermines her in front of all of the other men in the room really hit me at the time.

[–]MarkTwainiac 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yes, and there's another scene right before then when they're bringing in the murder victim's body to be examined and one of the cops/coroners shown just briefly is an actor with a naturally creepy face who really plays up his creepiness to the hilt as he quickly gives Starling a glance in an unnerving, leering way, like he wants to eat her for lunch. The camerawork makes it very clear that his unsettling presence and gaze is something Clarice Starling immediately picks up on and sets her internal alarm bells to start clanging inside - yet none of what's going on seems to register in any of the other men's minds at all. They are oblivious to the creepiness of their male colleague, and clueless about what it's like for a female person to get that kind of look from a man. It's a bit part and a just a quick moment, but it shows what girls & women are up against and how we always have to be on the alert. For girls and women no place, not even inside an effing police station, is or feels safe coz law enforcement has tons of creeps and bad guys in it - in fact, it's a magnet for them.

(And then there's the two bug experts at the Smithsonian who seem creepy and appropriate at first, immediately hitting on her. This of course makes Starling wary and irritated, but at the same time you can see her trying to figure out if they really are bad eggs at heart or whether they're perhaps just awkward with poor social skills coz maybe they're just a little odd and don't get out much, or perhaps they're "on the spectrum." When the movie was made, ASD was getting lots of attention, which led to more pressure to be placed on female people to "be kind" and "give the benefit of the doubt" to male people who behaved in ways that struck us as inappropriate, unsettling and "off" coz, we were told, some males "really couldn't help it" due to autism/Asperger's.)

Also, the follow-up to that scene where Crawford undermines Starling in front of all the other male law enforcement officers is good too: in the car afterwards, Crawford mentions what he did and gives a quick apology, clearly thinking that "sorry" is all that needs to be said, end of. But instead, Starling politely points out that Crawford's sexist disrespect implicitly gave all the other men in the room the go ahead to go out into the world and treat all the women they deal with in the exact same way, since they look up to Crawford and see him as a role model. To which he responds by thinking for a sec - but his face and manner show that he clearly has never considered the broader implications before, and really would prefer not to think about them now (or ever) - then he nods, says, "Point taken" and turns away.

Foster's acting in that scene and all the others is so good: her Clarice Starling always seems to have her brain on overdrive trying to figure out whether/when to speak up, and when she does decide to speak it's clear she has to put enormous effort and thought into coming up with just the right words that will get her point across and listened to whilst not coming off in a way that might give the men (and some women too) reason to dismiss her and her statements on account of her supposedly being "too aggressive," "uppity," "bitchy," "angry," "too smart," "full of herself," "abrasive," etc. The writing, directing and acting all show how much extra mental effort women in the workplace constantly had to put in walking tightropes...and how exhausting it is.

[–]coffeedrinker 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Awesome analysis! Going to have to give this movie a rewatch.