Killer Dolls: Examining the Transfeminine Slasher
A woman showers in a motel. A dark shadow approaches from behind the shower curtain. The figure pulls the curtain back, revealing itself as an old woman. The Old Woman stabs the woman in the shower to death. We soon learn this Old Woman is actually… A MAN?
This year has been one of the most frightening years for queer people in recent history. The government has officially compared Trans people to terrorists, with our current administration threatening to neutralize “radically pro-transgender” groups. Transgender existence is being targeted across the globe, from documentation to sports. This widespread discrimination makes this one of the most dangerous years for transgender people in recent history. Transphobia relies on baseless and hateful stereotypes that paint transgender people as monsters. This stereotype is nothing new, but has been especially prevalent recently.
Transphobic narratives frequently insist that transgender women prey on cisgender women. The image of the nefarious crossdresser in the bathroom who stalks young women feels very familiar, cinematic even. It’s easy to visualize because this scene has appeared on our screens for decades. It exists in our minds and in our fiction; slasher films have featured predatory crossdressers for decades. In fact, gender confusion has become a staple for many slasher villains. From Norman Bates to Buffalo Bill, gender confusion is usually equated to a bloodthirsty sexual perversion. This perversion is inspired by the mother of all slashers, Ed Gein.
Ed Gein was a murderer and grave robber from Plainfield, Wisconsin. His story sent shock waves throughout the country in 1957 when police found the corpses of multiple womenin his home. It was reported that Gein had a fascination with women who resembled his mother, and was making a suit out of the female body parts that he would wear to look like her. Though there is no evidence that Gein was gay or transgender, news outlets insinuated that his obsession with his mother came from a place of gender confusion. Rather than identifying him as an abused, mentally ill man, Gein’s disturbing fascination with women was conflated with transgender identity.While transphobia certainly did not start because of Gein, his story was the perfect vessel for transphobia in America, and it made for a shocking story. The idea that gender dysphoria is perverted and causes violence is incredibly dangerous, and one that transphobes love to tout.
When it comes to film, Ed Gein is your favorite slasher’s favorite slasher. The subgenre’s history is rooted in Gein’s crimes. Norman’s motherly love, Leatherface’s fleshy creations, and Buffalo Bill’s skin suit would not exist without Ed Gein. Whether these films intended to or not, they had an incredible influence over the public perception of transgender identity. Take Psycho, for example, one of the earliest and most influential slasher films. Norman’s crossdressing and obsession with his mother are based on Gein’s story. While Hitchcock directly stated that Bates is not transgender, the implications of a crossdresser targeting a woman in the bathroom are hard to ignore. Many Gein-inspired films insist that their antagonists are not transgender, but general audiences still often mistake these characters as Trans. Intentional or not, when crossdressing is used as a trait of killers it can be easily confused with transgender identity. When the majority of Americans have their first interactions with queer identity through media, it’s imperative that the queer representation is authentic. Trans identity is often used as a tool to show that a character is hiding some kind of dangerous secret. In reality, the majority of killers are much closer to Patrick Bateman than they are to Buffalo Bill. Most murderers in real life are straight, cisgender men—oftentimes with families and children.
The fear expressed in these films is almost always specifically about transfemininity. There aren’t many mainstream films villainizing transgender men, with Homicidal being a rare example. While transmasculine people also face an incredible amount of discrimination, Trans women in particular are perceived as violent and dangerous. Conservatives have spread the harmful idea that Trans women are just pretending to be women to access women’s spaces. Famous pedophile and serial rapist Donald Trump issued a presidential order to “protect women” that defined gender as one’s assigned sex at birth. This order stated that Trans women “self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women.” Despite having over 25 sexual assault allegations from women and children, Trump insists that he cares about the safety of American women. Republicans seem to believe that men can only be violent and predatory when they’re queer. They don’t seem to be concerned about protecting women from straight cisgender men, and often vote against actions to support victims of domestic and sexual abuse. Currently, Conservatives are pushing an action to take away women’s right to vote. Republicans only seem interested in “protecting” women when it comes at the cost of Trans freedoms. Which begs the question: do they really care about protecting women, or do they just want to oppress anyone who questions the gender binary?
The transfeminine is often illustrated as the wolf in grandma’s clothing. Slashers have used this imagery for decades. While I don’t think it was necessarily the intention of slasher filmmakers, villainizing the transfeminine upholds dangerous stereotypes. I am in no way denouncing these films. I don’t think slashers are to blame for transphobia, nor should we do away with the genre. Psycho should not be removed from film studies curriculums, but there do need to be more discussions about the weaponization of the ideas it presents. These films do not exist in a vacuum. It is important to discuss the biases that are formed and strengthened by these movies, and the way those stereotypes can be weaponized. The ideas perpetuated by these films have real-world applications and consequences. While conservatives scream from the rooftops about their fear of seeing a transgender woman in the bathroom, transgender people face actual dangers for just existing. GLAAD has reported that the number of hate crimes against transgender people has risen dramatically in the past year. In the past two years, Donald Trump has issued multiple transphobic executive orders that include banning gender affirming care for minors and requiring one’s assigned gender at birth on passports to enter or leave the country.
The fear of the transfeminine affects cis people too. In 2023, Michelle Peacock was murdered outside of her apartment after being mistaken for a transgender woman. A UFC fighter just publicly declared that Michelle Obama is a man on the White House lawn. “Transvestigation” blogs have popped up all over the internet accusing celebrities of being secretly transgender. While slasher films are not the cause of transphobia in our culture, many people’s only exposure to Trans people is through media. While the tide is turning, Trans people are almost exclusively portrayed as psychopaths or sex workers. Their identity is often fetishized or played for comedy or shock value.
In reality, Trans women are much closer to being final girls than they are slashers. Being openly transgender in America is, unfortunately, an inherently political act. Your body and your rights are constantly up for discussion by people who want you dead. Politicians are using Trans people as the monster in the closet to distract us from the real enemy of corporate greed. Fascists are counting on us believing their scapegoating. Do not let them get away with it.
Supporting Trans voices in horror is more important than ever. It is also important to recognize these tropes when you see them. Filmmakers like Alice Maio Mackay and Jane Schoenburn are fighting back against transphobic stereotypes in horror. We’re still incredibly lacking in Trans representation in the horror space, especially for Trans filmmakers of color. This is where you can come in. Hollywood bets on filmmakers who make money. The recent success of indie filmmakers like Curry Barker could be extended to transgender filmmakers as well. When you see films with transgender representation both in front of and behind the camera, support them! One of the most powerful things we can do as film consumers is to spend our money supporting films with proper representation. Post about them online, review them on Letterboxd, and watch them in theatres! This can also mean not supporting media with bad representation, like a particular Netflix series that insists that Ed Gein was queer… cough cough. The queer-coded slasher is overdone and boring at this point. However, there are some queer filmmakers poking fun at this trope. Though not horror, Shioban McCarthy’s recent comedy She’s The He was a hilarious take on the predatory queer stereotype. That’s exactly why representation matters. Queer creatives can take these harmful stereotypes and turn them into beautiful, thoughtful art.
This is all to say, please support queer horror as much as you can. It’s important now more than ever. Horror is and always has been queer. As horror fans we can give back to the community by supporting queer film all year long. This genre would not exist without the work of incredible queer creatives, and queer people will continue to push the genre to thrilling new heights.
