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| An animated short film from 2017 deals with some of the same issues as Glen or Glenda. |
As I was rewatching Glen or Glenda (1953) recently, I took note of just how many earnest heart-to-heart conversations this one film contains. Let's see here. Inspector Warren (Lyle Talbot) talks to Dr. Alton (Timothy Farrell). Glen (Ed Wood) talks to his fiancée, Barbara (Dolores Fuller). Glen's sister Sheila (Evelyn Wood) talks to her unnamed female coworker. Glen talks to Barbara some more. Two unseen foundry workers, Jack and Joe, talk to each other. Glen talks to his friend Johnny (Charles Crafts). Glen talks to Barbara a third (!) and fourth (!!) time. Finally, Dr. Alton talks to Glen and Barbara. That's a lot of conversation for a film that's barely feature-length.
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| Some Glenda-esque poster art. |
Glen or Glenda deals with some sensitive and highly controversial topics, including cross-dressing and gender reassignment, and writer-director Edward D. Wood, Jr. obviously felt the best strategy was to have his characters sit down and exchange their thoughts and feelings about these things. In Cult Movies 3 (1988), critic Danny Peary even compares Glenda to old-fashioned soap operas in which women talk through their problems with friends over the kitchen table. It's a nice thought, isn't it? Maybe more of the world's problems could be solved if we'd just stop shouting at each other and started a calm, reasonable dialogue instead.
That's the theory, anyway. Your results may vary.
I thought about all of this as I watched Jim's Introduction to Gender Identity aka My Friend is Transgender (2017), a short film by New York-based animator K. Kypers. A video like this might have flown under my radar, despite garnering over 800K views, but Kypers recently began posting to an Ed Wood group on Facebook that I also frequent. In one thread, Kypers mentioned that the poster art for the short film was directly inspired by the iconic, instantly familiar Glen or Glenda poster. As I watched the film itself, I noticed that it contained numerous references to the Ed Wood canon, making it a prime candidate for coverage in this series.
The plot: Jim, 17, is a typical American high schooler who loves his car, playing basketball, and his "hot" girlfriend Cassie. One day, Cassie asks Jim to drive her to the mall so she can buy clothes for a friend. This friend was born with a male body, Cassie explains, but identifies as female and is sometimes embarrassed to buy women's clothing in public. Jim doesn't understand any of this "gender identity" stuff but correctly guesses that Cassie's friend is Glen Davis, whom he has known since preschool. When Cassie says Glen now wants to be called Glenda, this leads to a spat between Cassie and Jim. Later, Jim ponders all of this while practicing free throws at a local basketball court. Glenda approaches Jim and asks if Jim will be discreet in talking about this delicate situation. Now at least somewhat sympathetic to his friend's dilemma, Jim agrees.
I mentioned that there are some Ed Wood references in this film. Obviously, we have a character named Glen who renames himself Glenda. But there are some more subtle references, too.
- On his basketball jersey, Jim wears the number 53, a nod to the year Glen or Glenda was released.
- In a scene set at a fast food restaurant, Cassie tells Jim that "chickens are raised in test tubes to turn us into the undead," and we see brief glimpses of aliens, zombified chickens, and even a chicken rising from the grave a la Tor Johnson in Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957).
- One of Jim's teammates wears a jersey that says "Plan 9."
- The mall has stores called "Criswell" and "Tor Johnson's."
- Cassie emerges from said mall in what looks like a pink angora sweater.
- During the final scene, Jim says, "Glen/Glenda, I don't fully understand this, but, sure, I won't tell anyone." Compare this to Barbara's line from Glen or Glenda: "Glen, I don't fully understand this, but maybe together we can work it out."
But these are just superficial details, fun little Easter eggs for the Ed Wood fanatics of the world. There are deeper thematic connections between Glen or Glenda and Jim's Introduction as well. When Cassie mentions that Glenda is uncomfortable shopping for women's clothing at the mall, for instance, we are reminded of the scene in Glenda in which Ed Wood attempts to buy a sheer black nightie at a department store, only to incur the wrath of a judgmental sales clerk. Cassie also tells Jim (and the audience) that Glenda has difficulty talking about her situation, even with the people closest to her. This is the same dilemma that Wood's character faces in Glen or Glenda. Fortunately, in both films, the characters have friends in whom they can confide. In Glen or Glenda, it's Johnny; in Jim's Introduction, it's Cassie.
It has now been 71 years since the release of Glen or Glenda and seven years since Jim's Introduction. How are we doing as a society on the issue of trans acceptance? That's a tricky question to answer, especially in the current political environment. In the last couple of years, I feel that LGBT rights have stagnated and may have even made negative progress. I chalk it up to the intensifying "culture war" that dominates public discourse. These days, when you see a rainbow flag, it's often being used as part of far right propaganda, along with dire warnings about how our children are being brainwashed by a vast, sinister LGBT cabal.
Transphobia, in particular, is a prejudice that people seem proud to have and strangely eager to announce to the world. Some people even build their entire personalities around it and generate online content based on it. After I screened Jim's Introduction to Gender Identity on YouTube, the site's algorithm suggested some related videos to watch next, many of which were vehemently anti-trans. That's a shame, because Kyser's film is not didactic or pushy in any way. Jim doesn't immediately become a trans ally; he simply learns to treat his longtime friend with the understanding and respect that any human being deserves. Is that too much to ask?