Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives

[Zuul]

A gay director wanted to make a comedic version of the exploitation films of the '70s and '80s, using transsexual women. The women are attacked by three cis men (the description of the film has them as "straight", but since trans isn't "gay" that's really not part of the hate crime) and decide to take revenge.

Okay. Well. It sounds offensive, particularly since the title is Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives, but I've found before that some cissexed GLB people can be absolute morons when it comes to trans issues, so I was willing to give it a shot as well-meaning but dumb.

Ahem. The trailer:

[OtakuLoki]

I am not very clued in on trans- issues, nor even on GLB issues, either. But it seemed to me that that trailer is riding every straight stereotype of transwomen it can find, and doing it nearly as crudely as possible.

Now, I may be simply reacting as a cis- man who's not always as comfortable with trans- issues as I'd like to be. But as it is, the trailer does not leave me thinking that it's going to leave any of the characters with any dignity. Now that may be part of the whole exploitation film theme - I never got into those, either. But as it is, it starts off with a bad taste, listing real murders, and then got worse.

[Oliveloaf]

This could just as easily been Ticked-Off Hamsters with Knives.

[Zuul]

Ticked-Off Hamsters with Knives would actually be rather awesome.

[parzival]

Let's not give Jerry Bruckheimer any ideas.

Remember ?

[Taumpy]

I can kind of almost see where the filmmaker probably had some good intentions. After all, transwomen get very limited exposure in the media, and never get to the be heroines. So let's make a movie where they beat up their oppressors! Hurrah! Empowerment!

And that more than anything else is why this movie ticks me the fuck off. Because this jackass is probably going to get accolades from certain circles for 'daring to take on' such materials. But he fails utterly in empowering transwomen when he turns his characters into drag queen stereotypes rather than three dimensional humans.

[Risha]

I have to say: excellent band name (for a queercore band that has some transsexual members too).

[Zuul]

It does kind of sound like a band name. It'd probably be better for that than a movie title.

[parzival]

Well said, Taumpy. It's not clear what, if anything, 'Trannies' ought to signify anyway, but this seems to take the approach of 'outrageously caricatured drag queens are people too'.

[Taumpy]

A blog post from one transwoman who has already seen this movie in it's entirety:

Yes, I saw it and I wish I hadn't.

[Zuul]

From that blog post, I ended up on the GLAAD take on the film:

However, while some of the actors in the film identify as transgender, the characters are written as drag queens, “performing” femininity in a way that is completely artificial. The very names of these over-the-top female caricatures (Emma Grashun, Rachel Slurr, et al.) drive this point home.

The "some" in that paragraph really troubles me, because that implies that in addition to writing the characters like drag queens he also probably cast drag queens as well. I've seen male identified performers do a great job at portraying women in films before, but actually casting women (regardless of if they're trans or not) would have at least made it clear the director understands what gender the characters are.

Films like Boys Don’t Cry and A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story have graphically portrayed the murders of transgender people. In a serious dramatic context, such depictions convey the tragic reality of the violence that many transgender people face. But in this film, repeated shots of a baseball bat covered in clumps of hair and blood are grotesque – and serve only as horror movie-like gore. Depictions of violence and brutality are immediately followed by ridiculous scenes that make light of the horrific crimes that have been committed. There is nothing funny about the murders of the countless LGBT people who have fallen victim to hate-motivated violence.

Furthermore, the filmmakers have chosen to market Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives using a crass trailer that opens with references to the recent murders of Angie Zapata and Jorge Mercado, putting their brutal murders on par with the outlandish violence in this film.

Ugh.

[OneCentStamp]

I'm definitely an outsider to this culture and its issues and politics, but I feel fully qualified to ask: who in the hell thought this was a good idea?

[OtakuLoki]

The name is Israel Luna. Here's his IMDB page.