Dealing with "Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives" (the movie)
Instant Response to Moral Authority:
Any organization, whether I agree with them or not, telling me I ought to protest some media work that I have not seen/read/listened to is going to cause me to yell “No!” very loudly at that organization.
This applies to non-commercial and commercial works in any medium.
I posses a basic distrust of ANY organization telling me what I ought to think of a work that I have not seen/read/listened to myself.
Whether or not I agree with an organization and its goals or not has nothing to do with this response.
I did not like being told what was morally correct for me to read, view, hear when I was part of fundamentalist Christianity, and I don't like it now, and I do not care who the “moral authority” is who is doing this.
Thinking About Media and Art:
I wonder, do I consider "media" a protected class that just should not be protested? Or "art"?
Art is a really loaded word for people. Some people think you can do anything in the name of art and remain above criticism.
Art is never above criticism.
I think media is a less loaded word (I could be wrong).
No media is above criticism.
But is it above protest?
No. Nothing is above protest. Well, OK, funerals should be above protest.
Some Thoughts About Protest:
Is it true that the more a work is protested, the more people are interested in it?
This is something I am unsure of, and I'm not sure how this would be measured.
I do know that I tend to lend an ear to the “imp of the perverse” which is drawn to controversy rather than away from it. I think most people share this motivation. I could be wrong.
Will my protest of a work give it more indie cred, despite the reason I am protesting it?
Who the hell understands indie cred? Whoever you are, please explain it to me.
Offensiveness:
I am a fan of offensive movies
Can I be a fan of offensive movies and fight for the right to make/see offensive movies and then say “not this one” because “this one” is offensive to me?
Still pondering that. I'm thinking that my reasons for being offended are important. But then, I'm me, so of course I think that.
Are there people who must not be offended?
The minute I say yes to this, I am ensuring that someone will now have to offend those people. So the answer is no.
Is there a difference between a film that offends people of greater privilege than the maker of the film and a film that offends people of lesser privilege than the maker of the film?
Yes. It is the difference between speaking truth to power and oppressing your neighbor.
However, it should be noted that the people of greater privilege will feel like they are being oppressed and will tell you so.
Does being offensive to people of lesser privilege than the maker of the film negate the film's right to exist?
No, but it does make it a target of valid criticism.
Troma and Me:
As a Troma fan, I have to question myself as to whether I have the right to criticize anything for being offensive.
However, thanks to a bit of discussion over on twitter, I now have an answer to this question.
Troma is unabashedly offensive about people of all types on purpose every freaking day.
Some filmmakers, however, are offensive to the people they are supposedly writing about with empathy. These filmmakers have not taken the time and energy to immerse themselves in the lives of their subjects and they depict their subjects in marginalizing ways with ignorant stereotypes. Often, these people are horribly unapologetic when the offense is pointed out.
It is those people who need to be called out.
What I'm Going To Do Now:
I maintain that if I'm going to support the right of films that are offensive to any group that I am not a member of to exist, and I have, then I sure as hell better support a film's right to exist when it's me being offended.
I also support my own right to criticize a film. But I remain very wary of criticizing a film I have not seen.
However, I can criticize the hell out of the title of this film, which this cis-man does not have the right to, and the trailer, which is marketing a campy revenge film using the names and stories of actual fallen transfolk.
I will criticize the holy crap out of the title, the trailer, oh, and this comment right here from the author: "That's a story we've seen all too often," Luna says. "I wanted to do something more modern and I thought 'Whose story do you never see on the news these days?' It's not gay men-it's transgenders."
Mister, you have called me out of my name. "Transgender" is not a noun, it's an adjective. I can see how much research you've done.
I call bullshit. We are not exotica to be exploited. We are not excitingly more modern. Do your own damn revenge story. Let us do our own.