#it was shorthand for “person with atypical gender presentation”

[femalewhumper701]

Feeling like shit, so it's comfort viewing hours. Time to cross another Argento off my bucket list, The Bird With the Crystal Plumage.

I love the small tiny bits of progressivism that wander into Argento's work. I don't think it's super intentional, or done with any particular agenda, it's just refreshing.

In Deep Red, the mc doesn't have much more than a "wow, okay" reaction to his friend being gay, treats his friend's partner the same as if he'd been a straight female, and leaves. The person I was watching it with and I looked at each other after that scene and went "...did that just happen? In this genre?" [Spoilers in the tags]

In Tenebre, the interviewer starts talking about how the book in question takes a stand against perversion because the killer targets gays, and the author goes "...he's the killer. He's insane, you're not supposed to agree with him." Despite the female reporter being a caricature of what men of the era believed a feminist is. Nobody's perfect.

Now, "Bring in the perverts," says one inspector, "we can't rule out that the killer may be a pervert." A row of sex offenders files in, exhibitionist and rapists and a child molester. The last to enter is a either a drag queen or a trans woman, it's unclear. "No, no, no!" says the other inspector, going on to call her by her chosen femme name. "For the last time, Ursula is a transvestite, not a pervert!" (Ursula clutches her purse indignantly. "Well, I should hope so!" she says, and storms off.) Find me another giallo - or much any 80s media - that doesn't consider "transvestite" to be a kind of pervert. I'll wait.