Welcome to Trans Tuesday! Tillyvision can’t be stopped as we dive into THE UNINTENTIONALLY INTENTIONAL TRANS ALLEGORY OF LISA FRANKENSTEIN, part 3! This week we see what loved ones not being accepting can do to us, and see if a little trans energy can wake us up!
You’ll want to read PART 1 and PART 2 first, because that just makes good sense.
Let’s go!
9:21 – Flashback to Lisa and her mom playing a board game, and look at the board and pieces. Blue and pink! Red. Yellow. Transness, with fear and danger. Lisa’s got pink flowers on her shirt and a pink band in her hair, all gender conformity. Whaddaya think that all means?
Taffy: “Like two years ago, Lisa was home alone with her mom, and this psycho broke in.” A man with an axe enters the house. He… he’s carrying an axe and wearing a Bride of Frankenstein mask!
No, really. Let me lighten it up for you.
There’s so much going on here.
You’ve already seen the movie, right? Right?
What is Frank? A man.
What does Frank kill people/reject the idea of being those people with? An axe.
If a man and woman pair are this movie’s symbol of a trans person accepting themselves, and they are (as established in the opening credit animation), who is the “bride” of Frank?
LISA.
This is Lisa “breaking in” to the happy home to tell her mom that
she
is
a
trans
man!
Listen, this mask alone makes me want to remove the “unintentional” part of calling this an Unintentionally Intentional Trans Allegory. Because why else would you put a Bride of Frankenstein on this guy who has an axe?!
I’M JUST SAYIN’.
Lisa’s mom freaks out, sure that she’s defending her child in doing so, because transness is bad and evil. And what does Lisa do?
9:37 – She runs to hide in the closet.
This is metaphor for Lisa previously feeling safe and comfortable with her mom, and telling her she was a trans guy, and it basically killing her mother (or making her mother feel dead to her, or made her mother treat her like Lisa was dead, etc), and sending her back into the metaphoric closet, “killing” the man she truly is.
This is why Lisa left her mother’s rosary, full of her mother’s fear, despair, and danger, at Frank’s grave. Those are what caused her to bury her true self.
9:42 – Now another person is sitting next to Laurie and hearing the story. The rumors of Lisa’s transness spread.
9:51 – The guy “escaped,” and “by the time [Lisa] came out, it was too late.” Lisa came out, but her mother couldn’t accept it, and the guy disappeared. I tolllld youuuu.
9:59 – Yet another girl is now next to Laurie, listening. Rumors spread fast. Laurie: “I’d be screwed up if I were her, too.” Can you imagine thinking you’re really a man? Can you imagine being a weird tranny?! That’s so fucked up! (those girls can go to hell)
10:07 – After that, Lisa “kind of just wandered around like a zombie.” Suppressing yourself makes you dead inside. In a lot of these essays I’ve even described it as “a waking death.” Y’know… like a zombie.
10:28 – Yet another girl is listening to the story. Taffy explains how Lisa’s dad met Taffy’s mom six months later and got married and Lisa “had a new mom right asway.” You can’t not have femininity in your life, Lisa! You need it to conform and be a good “girl!”
10:52 – Tamara asks if Lisa wants a sip from her green-blue cup. Michael says he does, and Tamara says “why would I assume [Lisa] parties?” Look at that weirdo who’s not fem like me, I’ve heard the trans rumors, why would I think she’d conform to the “cool thing” teens are “supposed” to do?
11:02 – Pressured, not wanting to be further ostracized and othered, Lisa drinks from the dysphoria cup. She coughs and gags, while Tamara laughs. Michael takes a sip and spits it out, the liquid is the same color as the cup. Michael: “What is this?” Tamara: “I’m not really sure.”
Michael got a taste of dysphoria (maybe from seeing Lisa’s reaction to it) and found it gross, maybe even drugged. Tamara can’t even identify it. Cis people have no idea what dysphoria even is, and cannot imagine anyone having it.
11:28 – Taffy runs to check on Lisa. Lisa’s vision is blurry, her hearing distorted. Taffy asks if they gave her something, and Lisa nods (yes, dysphoria). Taffy is upset… with Lisa. “This isn’t what I expected from you. You have so much potential.” Lisa’s face is awash in yellow even though she’s nowhere near the firelight.
How could you feel all dysphoric because of what other people did to you? This is your fault for being trans, and not the fault of the world that treats you like shit because you’re trans.
Sad tale as old as time.
11:52 – One of the kids, dressed in clothes with pink and that dysphoria green, plays a ukelele and sings part of the chorus of “I Can See Clearly Now” by Johnny Nash. This song’s pretty well known, but again look at the full lyrics:
I can see clearly now, the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
I think I can make it now, the pain is gone
All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is the rainbow I’ve been prayin’ for
It’s gonna be a bright, bright
Sunshiny day
Sure sounds like coming out of a dysphoric funk to accept the truth, doesn’t it? Guess what’s about to happen for Lisa?
12:00 – Lisa stumbles into a girl who says she’s psychic and she thinks it’s going to rain. Lisa looks up at the storm clouds… and all that dysphoria green-blue.
12:07 – Outside and inside this house, the lights are all fear, the dysphoria fairy lights border the room.
12:25 – A dude comes to check on Lisa, asks if she’s okay. She touches and squeezes his face. This… how do I get… how do I become… this?
She asks who he is, he says he’s Doug (I fuckin’ hate Doug). “Doug” comes from “Douglas” which means, no shit, “dark river.” More darkness in the water, dysphoria dysphoria dysphoria.
He’s her lab partner, in is in a red, yellow, green-blue, and blue shirt. All the bad things, wrapped up into one. (I fuckin’ hate Doug).
He says he’ll find somewhere for her to sit and she takes his hand, he leads her past yellow light streaming down on a boy and girl making out on the couch. Lisa looks at them with wide eyes. Doug says he’d rather watch movies. What kind of movies, Doug??
There’s nothing wrong with adult entertainment, mind you, as long as it’s consensual and everyone’s treated fairly and not exploited, but bringing it up when talking to someone who’s not your partner is a weird and bad thing to do.
13:04 – Doug leads her down a hallway with yellow lights, and yellow wallpaper, still pretending he wants to talk about movies. He asks her favorite director, and she says “Pabst.” Doug thinks she just read his beer can, asks what kind of movies he made. Lisa says: “Silents.” Which Doug takes as “silence” and is a great gag, but also Lisa is right and knows more about movies than slimy skeezeball Doug (I fuckin’ hate Doug). G.W. Pabst was a director of silent films!
Anyway, remember Pabst for next week’s installment.
13:21 – Lisa looks at a painting on the wall that seems to be moving, of a ship (with large bells fore and aft) sailing turbulent blue seas, red and yellow, sea monsters lurking, under a green-blue dysphoria sky.
This is a real piece of art (as in, it was not created specifically for this movie), but it’s actually an engraving that exists only in black and white. Meaning the color was added just for the film, so think about why they’d make certain things those colors and what that’s telling you.
The text on the bottom Is Latin:
Navita Erythraeum pavidus qui navigat aequor,
In prorae et puppis ummon resonantia pendet
Tintinnabula: eo sonitu praegrandia Cete,
Ballenas, et Monstra marina a navibus arcet.
Via Google translate, it reads:
The sailor who sails the Erythraean waters, afraid of the wind, On the prow and stern hangs the echoing bells: with that sound he keeps away the enormous whales, and sea monsters from the ships.
I’ve asked a few people who know some Latin to translate it for me as well, because translation is an art and humans can much better discern intent and meaning, and they came up with these:
(credit to AB):
A sailor sailed the fearful Erythraeum/Red Sea – In the bow and highest stern hangs a small bell/windchime, ringing: I go to make a noise to ward off colossal Dolphins, Whales, and Monsters of the sea from the ships.
(credit to Mo Ryan):
From the bow and stern, the frightened Eritrean sailor navigating the sea hangs the loudest of bells
With that sound, he drives from the ships the enormous whales and sea monsters
“Navitae” means sailor, that much is clear. So this could be about an Erythraean sailor, or a sailor on Erythraean seas.
But get this:
The Red Sea appears red due to a bacteria in the water, Trichodesmium erythraeum. “Erythraeum” is derived from the Greek “Eruthraî” or the related Latin term “Erythraeus”…
Which means “red.”
So maaaaaybe what we have is a red sailor.
If the sailor (a man, “navitae” is gendered male I think?) is red, they are wearing red, meaning they have love for themselves. So what you’d have is a self-actualized Lisa-as-Frank, sailing through despair, with fear and danger all around, dysphoria looming overhead… and only the bells, a loud proclamation (of her existence), can keep those things at bay.
You gotta transition, man! It will help you!
Look at what’s staring you in the face, Lisa.
I was sure the Latin on it was something added for the film, but it’s part of the original.
Dang, that piece of art was a find.
13:23 – The room Doug’s leading her toward is red inside, blue light on the door. Lisa barfs into the trash, as he holds her hair and says it feels like easter grass (what color is that, usually? A… greeny-blue maybe? Mmhm.)
Doug reacts to the smell. Sure, it smells bad. But maybe there’s more to it… I wonder if smells ever come up again?
13:38 – Doug calls her “kiddo,” infantilizing her. Not only is she 18 and an adult, we learn later that she’s older than he is. But because he’s a cis white man, society tells him he has authority over everyone. “Kiddo” is a recurring theme in this movie, watch for it.
13:50 – The lights in the room are yellow, but the light on Lisa’s face is blue, as she tries to steady herself. Doug sits next to her on the bed.
14:00 – Thunder and lightning outside the window behind them, the light that green-blue color that lightning actually isn’t (its color is very intentional, is what I’m saying).
14:11 – Doug says the thunder is “the angels bowling,” and Lisa says her mom used to say that. Doug is reminding her of her mom, which means this guy who offered to help is not going to be actual help… and so here comes the turn.
14:21 – Doug has his hand on one of her breasts and asks if that feels good. Takes her other hand and puts it right on his crotch. “Come on, you can’t stop once you’ve started. It’s the rules.” Never mind that he instigated this, and didn’t ask if it was okay, and she’s done nothing to make him think it was okay, and in fact is in an altered and vulnerable state. Since he started the rules are she owes him sex.
Doug’s even more toxic than the jocks were. (I fuckin’ hate Doug).
14:26 – Lisa’s horrified, there’s blue light on her face, and suddenly red light outside the window… for no reason whatsoever? But she is in danger, isn’t she. And there’s your reason.
14:30 – A haunting cover of “I can see clearly now” plays as Lisa’s mind reels. She doesn’t want to be a bro jock, she doesn’t want to assault women, why can’t she just be a guy like Michael? (Michael is also shit, but we’ll get there eventually).
Lisa gets off the bed and says no, as Doug pleads with her. There’s more red outside the window, but also blue, the yellow lamp, the very green wallpaper with hints of yellow. This is a torture chamber for Lisa.
Doug: “You know it’s not nice to lead people on, Lisa.” You’re supposed to let me sexually assault you, I’m a man.
And if you were a man, this is the kind of thing you’d do, too. It’s what society says we do.
14:50 – Lisa stumbles through the hallway and into more danger, look at the bright red angel behind her, a reminder of the dangers of coming out and how it means death (change), and possibly losing those you love.
14:57 – She stumbles through the dark, only the now-blue light from the lamp surrounding her.
15:05 – Look at the way the footage here gets choppy, like it’s sped up to be unnatural, it seems like there’s frames missing. Everything is surreal and inscrutable.
Lisa looks up, face awash in pink and blue, awash in her own transness, as the green-blue dysphoria lightning strikes through the clouds.
15:16 – She’s in the forest, heading toward Bachelor’s Grove. As she walks beneath the gate and turns around to look at it, the sides of her face that are pink and blue switch. They flip opposite of how they seemed before. Multiple times. They change. They transition.
15:24 – The green-blue lighting flashes inside the cemetery, leading the way to Frank’s tomb, which stands apart and above the others.
15:29 – Lisa: “It’s you.” Look at the lighting on the statue, still holding her mother’s rosary, he’s been chained by her mother’s transphobia, where she left him. She touches the statue’s face. “I wish I was with you.” Supertext. There’s a bright flash of white, and then:
15:55 – Lisa stumbles into her house, but it’s allll blue. There’s a mirror on the wall by the door, as she enters and steps forward, the reflection fractures around the mirror’s border. More continued problems with mirrors for her, but also foreshadowing what’s to come shortly.
16:07 – In the bathroom, all these girly things are now all blue. Despair. She sees her reflection clearly in the bathroom mirror.
16:09 – We flash between Lisa and Frankenstein’s statue, pinks and blues all over Frank, we flash back and forth, until there’s another electric zap (remember Lisa in the tanning bed?).
16:10 – Lightning strikes, but it’s not that unique blue/green of dysphoria. It’s blue, and white, and there’s pink in it too. It’s pink, white, and blue! Have you… ever seen lightning like that? That was a choice that was made by the filmmakers. Hmmmm.
Lisa screams and smashes the mirror. Why is my REFLECTION so wrong?! Supertext.
16:11 – The instant the mirror shatters, the shot switches to the statue of Frank, specifically his face. And then the light radiates out from behind him in the same circular pattern the mirror glass fractured in. This is the face she wishes she saw in the mirror.
16:15 – We cut back to Lisa, looking in the mirror, her face entirely fractured.
16:20 – That green-blue dysphoria fills the sky as groaning is heard from the cemetery at Bachelor’s Grove. Signs of life of someone long thought dead! From within her heart!
16:22 – This is the first time we’re in Lisa’s bedroom, which remember represents her subconscious. There’s lots more to talk about here, but we’ll get there when we can see more of it.
Lisa wraps herself in blankets, all blue, the light from the window forming bars across the bed, she’s jailed and boxed in by trying to be the woman society says she is. Her eyes have blue eye shadow, her lips are extra pink. White light flashes across her face. Transness, babe!
From her makeup we can tell she’s been crying, and her mascara runs down beneath her eyes. The mascara is black. The first bit of black we’ve seen her in so far. Remember that in this film, black equals death, death equals change, and change equals transition. She’s begun the journey!
Why is Lisa all wrapped up in her blankets here. It’s foreshadowing of where this journey of change will take her! We’ll refer back to this later.
And you want to get to later, right? Yeah you do. So come back next week as Lisa dreams of a better future, and we see if her step-mom follows the same path Lisa’s mom did.
Tilly Bridges, end transmission.
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