Go to sleep a princess, wake up a frog

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May 14, 2026

Mmmmmno.

Frankenstein is transphobic, claims non-binary director

Frankenstein is not tranphobic for the same reason Hamlet is not transphobic. There was no trans to be phobic about when the works in question were created.

Frankenstein is transphobic because it is about “a constructed body”, a non-binary filmmaker has claimed.

Jane Schoenbrun, an American director who describes herself as trans and queer, said the Frankenstein adaptations, based on Mary Shelley’s 1818 gothic novel, are an example of older horror films featuring a “trans monster”.

“This image of the trans monster kept coming up, whether that be Norman Bates or Buffalo Bill or Frankenstein as a constructed body, and there was this lineage of trans people having really complicated feelings about those movies,” Schoenbrun told The Hollywood Reporter.

That’s a less stupid claim – typical news media trick to make the story sound more provocative than it is.

“In one sense, those are the places where they saw representations that felt familiar or comforting in some way to their own experiences – but also, those movies are super f—ing transphobic and problematic,” the filmmaker added.

Maybe that’s because trying to escape your own body is not a healthy impulse, so stories about it make it sound like an unfortunate choice.

Comments

4 responses to “Go to sleep a princess, wake up a frog”

Omar

May 14, 2026 7:15 PM

Maybe that’s because trying to escape your own body is not a healthy impulse, so stories about it make it sound like an unfortunate choice.

Except that the monster played by Boris Karloff in that classic film had no say at all in his own creation, nor control over his perceptions, both of himself and of others. In one memorable scene he joins happily with a little girl, helping her pick flowers, and finishes up murdering her because he sees her as just another flower there to be picked.

Transwhatevers are self-created, unlike the monster created by Dr Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s novel and the horror-film featuring good old Boris.
What a Maroon

May 15, 2026 6:25 AM

Jane Schoenbrun, an American director who describes herself as trans and queer….

So, a heterosexual man who’s into lesbians?
Mostly Cloudy

May 15, 2026 8:41 AM

Jane Schoebrun’s origin story:

“World’s Fair” was filmed before Schoenbrun began physically transitioning, and most of the people involved did not know they were trans. However, during filming, Cobb did a tarot card reading for Schoenbrun disclosing that they needed to embrace their feminine side.

https://archive.ph/nKnV6

So this person began physically transitioning because of a random set of cards drawn during a “divination” session. No surprise Schoenbrun has some ultra-wacky opinions.
Freemage

May 15, 2026 11:00 AM

Even if one accepts the base notion of trans ideology, and therefore can agree that Buffalo Bill and Norman Bates (and, for that matter, Dr. Robert Elliot from Dressed to Kill) are examples of transphobic depictions of transwomen, then you STILL can’t get across the gulf of logic to claim that Frankenstein is transphobic without the aid of a jetpack fueled by narcissism.