![Sleepaway Camp (Robert Hiltzik, 1983)
Despite knowing all about the ending of Sleepaway Camp, its final 5 minutes still managed to blow me away. Easily some of the most unnervingly handled imagery I’ve seen since sitting through Inland Empire. I can’t talk about this much right now because I’m not sure what to make of, among many things, the homoerotic subtext, the film’s transphobic potential and what it has to say about the male gaze in slasher films. Either way, I’m amazed and will offer you this interesting piece of writing in the meantime - which you shouldn’t read if you want to ensure your experience of this 1983 Friday the 13th ripoff stays entirely spoiler free:
In Sleepaway Camp, “Angela’s transgender status is the penultimate lie in a long line of lies the filmmakers have heaped upon us. The audience is deceived by a villain disguised as a hero. The murderer has deceived the campers by being a quiet, unassuming girl whom they think they can bully with impunity. The girl has deceived everybody by being a boy. And the boy is deceiving himself and everyone else by pretending to be someone else entirely (i.e. his sister).
But Angela’s not deceiving everybody because she’s a trans* person. She’s deceiving everybody because she’s a (fictional) trans* person created by cissexual filmmakers. As Drakyn points out, the trans* person who’s “fooling” us on purpose is a myth we cissexuals invented. Why? Because we are so focused on our own narrow experience of gender that we can’t imagine anything outside it. We take it for granted that everyone’s gender matches the sex they were born with. With this assumption in place, the only logical reason to change one’s gender is to lie to somebody.
Thus, so many trans* characters in fiction are really cissexuals in disguise. Men only dress as women to hide out (Some Like it Hot) or trick their enemies (countless Bugs Bunny cartoons). And women only dress as men to break through the glass ceiling–Mulan does it to join the army, Yentl does it to study Jewish law. This view of transition is simplistic, cissexual-centered, and, like the characters who exemplify it, entirely made up.” […]
- “OMG! I’ve Found the ‘Transgender Agenda’!” via feministfilm
Because how does Angela’s gender even begin to justify her killing spree? Or is the whole thing ultimately a cautionary tale about imposing gender identification? I shall rewatch this in less drowsy and more clear-headed state soon, as I definitely to need to clarify some things before proposing a reading. Also, to be clear, the asterisk following trans (above) is used as an inclusive term, derived from the use of asterisk as a wildcard character, in search engines per example. Correct me if I’m wrong.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lu9vgrTwWi1qzyw6so1_500.jpg)
Sleepaway Camp (Robert Hiltzik, 1983)
Despite knowing all about the ending of Sleepaway Camp, its final 5 minutes still managed to blow me away. Easily some of the most unnervingly handled imagery I’ve seen since sitting through Inland Empire. I can’t talk about this much right now because I’m not sure what to make of, among many things, the homoerotic subtext, the film’s transphobic potential and what it has to say about the male gaze in slasher films. Either way, I’m amazed and will offer you this interesting piece of writing in the meantime - which you shouldn’t read if you want to ensure your experience of this 1983 Friday the 13th ripoff stays entirely spoiler free:
In Sleepaway Camp, “Angela’s transgender status is the penultimate lie in a long line of lies the filmmakers have heaped upon us. The audience is deceived by a villain disguised as a hero. The murderer has deceived the campers by being a quiet, unassuming girl whom they think they can bully with impunity. The girl has deceived everybody by being a boy. And the boy is deceiving himself and everyone else by pretending to be someone else entirely (i.e. his sister).
But Angela’s not deceiving everybody because she’s a trans* person. She’s deceiving everybody because she’s a (fictional) trans* person created by cissexual filmmakers. As Drakyn points out, the trans* person who’s “fooling” us on purpose is a myth we cissexuals invented. Why? Because we are so focused on our own narrow experience of gender that we can’t imagine anything outside it. We take it for granted that everyone’s gender matches the sex they were born with. With this assumption in place, the only logical reason to change one’s gender is to lie to somebody.
Thus, so many trans* characters in fiction are really cissexuals in disguise. Men only dress as women to hide out (Some Like it Hot) or trick their enemies (countless Bugs Bunny cartoons). And women only dress as men to break through the glass ceiling–Mulan does it to join the army, Yentl does it to study Jewish law. This view of transition is simplistic, cissexual-centered, and, like the characters who exemplify it, entirely made up.” […]
- “OMG! I’ve Found the ‘Transgender Agenda’!” via feministfilm
Because how does Angela’s gender even begin to justify her killing spree? Or is the whole thing ultimately a cautionary tale about imposing gender identification? I shall rewatch this in less drowsy and more clear-headed state soon, as I definitely to need to clarify some things before proposing a reading. Also, to be clear, the asterisk following trans (above) is used as an inclusive term, derived from the use of asterisk as a wildcard character, in search engines per example. Correct me if I’m wrong.
