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Rocky Horror on its own is about the queer-coding of villains in movies. It parodies the “good straight couple” vs Evil Gay Coded Villians. & highlights that the “good straights“ are often Not So Straight & how opening the doors to to gender non-conformity is a new world
this is like pretty obvious to me and is why I legitimately think it is good as a movie. It’s a good parody of sci-fi movies but it does this specifically though the lense of acknowledging and embracing the queer coding
the fact that riff raff, magneta, & frank are all there in the background of the wedding is because queer people are & were always here in real life, disguised, we don’t all live in gigantic gay mansions in space
brad & Janet represent heteronormativity pretty blatantly.
Many people stuck & raised in this “typical american” lifestyle haven’t even CONSIDERED the possibility of THEM being gay or trans because it’s different!
It parodies the typical sci narrative however with this in mind
Many people stuck & raised in this “typical american” lifestyle haven’t even CONSIDERED the possibility of THEM being gay or trans because it’s different!
It parodies the typical sci narrative however with this in mind
then we get Frank, who was the template for basically every Golden Age Disney villain . And they straight up acknowledge the queer coding by just Giving him a Sexy Boyfriend
but when frank & the hets meet, they & (the audience) see the side of Frank’s world that is not often shown in these movies- people, queer people, & queer love. and it’s scary. It’s crazy. It’s A LOT.
but when Brad and Janet are introduced to it, they immediately start to question themselves, their identities, and everything they’ve been taught to base their values on
& Even though Frank, Riff & Magenta are all “aliens”- there are humans among them too. People like Columbia and Eddie, who were taken in by this world, estranging them from their families who could not accept this
But even at the end, it’s shown that Dr. Scott- the conservative doctor/schoolteacher who pits himself against Frank and everything he stands for, is not completely immune to “the thrill”
Frank dies, Magenta & Riff go back home, sci fi movie ends. But Janet, Brad, and Dr Scott are left the lone survivors of what they just witnessed, and will be forced to internally question their identities in ways they (& most straight people) had not previously had to
In the end, the narrator then laments that many people will never discover this, and spend their whole lives searching for meaning in this false society.
“And crawling into the planets face,
Some insects called the human race.
Lost in time,
Lost in space,
And meaning.”
“And crawling into the planets face,
Some insects called the human race.
Lost in time,
Lost in space,
And meaning.”
anyway I thought this was all pretty obvious from initial watch but maybe that’s just because I’m gay
