this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
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Fauxmoi
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When I see such a film (Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is another example) I take it as an indicator how far we’ve come.
Is Psycho seen as transphobic? In the big exposition at the end of the movie
Tap for spoiler
someone accuses Norman of being a transvestite and the psychologist interrupts to clarify that Norman didn’t dress as his mother to “achieve a sexual change or satisfaction,” but specifically because he was “doing everything possible to keep alive the illusion of his mother being alive.”Contrast that with The Silence of the Lambs, where the character’s sexual “deviancy” is actually portrayed as a motivating facet of his murderous, perverted mind. Psycho seems pretty nuanced by comparison and even progressive by the standards of 1960.
Yes, it was a different time. Not defending it, just saying that people did not have the same insights and viewpoints as we have today.
Judging past people by today's standards is not fair. You can judge their modern-day image by today's standards, but not their past selves.
To a degree.
It’s not always so black and white. Take for example child marriages where little girls were betrothed to older dudes. Or how some cultures would treat people based on race, gender, etc.
Some things can, and should, be judged critically (holocaust, “comfort women”). Some things can get a pass (movies like Silence pf the Lambs).
TL;DR history should be judged on a case by case basis and we should avoid blanket judgement.
That's a very good nuance
I’ll argue that Fatal Games is bad, was always bad, and forever will be bad, and it’s not because times were different. It’s because they picked a lazy bigoted trope to build the killer off of.
Especially since Silence of the Lambs only came out like, what, 15 years ago.
fact checks himself; sees it is 35 years old
Well fuck.
This is a good take.
Recently finally started watching Star Trek (the original) and holy shit it is some misogynistic bullshit, like so many plots are built on “woman bad” and even when it isn’t they take time out of virtually every episode to make sure the men have a chance to demean the women a bit.
I sure am glad that isn’t as easily accepted today.
On the bright side, at least TOS was trying to push other social norms the right way, and they did some good. They didn’t get everything right but they got the ball rolling.
And on Trek: TNG started out with some pretty questionable episodes (especially the borderline racist planet), but it also gave us Measure of a Man, that reverse-sex planet with Riker, and introduced species like the Binars and that androgynous race which I tried to push some more boundaries. Then DS9 went ahead and gave us DAX, who I think in the early seasons did a good job kind of introducing some of the issues with identity that pertain to gender transitioning (I loved the Klingon approach: Dax, my old friend!).
i think that was a "agender planet people" ENterprise had the xindi insectoids, as genderless species too, and a putative 3rd sex in vissian.
Yeah it’s a gradual progression but it’s still shocking to see by today’s standards. Like, a totally normal scene will be playing out and then the camera will focus on Kirk and some male crewmate so they can belittle one of the women for like no fucking reason.
I’m trying to get through the show because I started with TNG and never went backwards, but I know my late dad loved the show and I want that connection to him… it’s hard to get through sometimes. I just watched the episode where they find Apollo and the whole thing centers around how the one female crewmate just instantly fawns over him. He like forcibly changes her outfit to “barely there” and she’s like “oh my god it’s so pretty thank you” where any real person would not react that way.
The Klingon thing is indeed one of my favorites. I’m glad ST got its shit together on this haha.
I still think it's an absolutely hilarious, and likely unintended, stroke of genius with the Binars.
They take the Hat to the extreme, where every single aspect of their very being involves binary in some way, to the point of always working in pairs.
Except their gender.