Transcript:
Page 1:
Panel 1: Shows a small panel of a movie theater and a bright red screen displaying the title ‘Longlegs’. “On July 2024 the highly anticipated movie Longlegs was released into theaters throughout the US to divided opinions.”
Panel 2: Shows Lee Harker a brown-haired white woman holding a gun looking nervous as she says “Oh Boy I sure hope I don’t see any Long Legs!”
Panel 3: Shows Lee Harker silhouetted looking at evidence from the Longlegs case.
Panel 4: Shows Lee Harkers shocked reaction to something happening out of sight “The film follows FBI agent Lee Harker in the 1990s as she investigates the notorious serial killer Longlegs.”
Panel 5: Shows a close-up of the bottom half of Longlegs face “Prior to the film’s release it drummed up excitement through an innovative and interactive AD campaign. They chose to hide Longleg’s face.”
Panel 6: Shows Longleg’s face he is a very pale man wearing florals and a brown coat “Upon the movie release it became clear why: Longlegs is a long-haired man with botched plastic surgery who preys on young girls”
Panel 7: Depicts a silhouette of Longlegs and a young girl standing in a snowy field she’s looking up at him “While the advertising was innovative the film itself was regressive.”
Page 2:
Panel 1: Shows the longlegs poster, it’s bright red and depicts a distorted nun. The image is dated 2024 “The Film is heavily influenced by the classic 1991 movie “The Silence of the Lambs”
Panel 2: Depicts “The Silence of the Lambs” poster which is a close-up of a woman’s face with a moth covering her mouth. The image is dated 1991.
Panel 3: Depicts Buffalo Bill in a blonde wig and red robe, he’s glaring. “A movie Notorious for the character of “Buffalo Bill” a man who flays women and uses their skin to construct a woman-suit for himself”
Panel 4: Shows Buffalo Bill standing over his sewing machine where a stitched-together face is lying. “While the films aren’t identical it’s hard to not compare their antagonists when they both fall into transphobic tropes through their androgyny being tied to their terror.”
Panel 5: Depicts the actor Nicolas Cage as he’s quoted from Entertainment Weekly saying “I see Longlegs as neither male nor female the character is very androgynous”
Page 3:
Panel 1: Depicts the White House an American flag waving as a series of different anti-trans bills sit in the foreground. “Now more than ever the way trans folks are represented in media is important. As trans rights continue to be lobbied away every day.”
Panel 2: “There’s been a dramatic rise in anti-trans legislature since 2020.” Below is a bar graph showing the drastic rise of bills from 2020 until 2024, going from 80 bills in 2020 to 658 in 2024. “In 2024 there were 658 bills proposed and 45 passed.”
Panel 3-5: Three colored circles each labeled a different category of anti-trans bill. The first is labeled “Education” with 31% followed by “Health” with 26% and Sports with “10%.”
Panel 6: Depicts three trans individuals huddled around a book which is shown to be Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage. “An aspect shared among these bills is the perception of transness as predatory.”
Data source: Translegislation.com
Page 4:
Panel 1-4: The first panel shows a silhouette of Norman Bates holding a knife it’s labeled “Psycho.” The next panel depicts Angela Baker screaming labeled “Sleepaway Camp” followed by Alex Hammond in a ski mask holding a knife the panel is labeled “Prom Night” The final panel shows Buffalo Bill again and is labeled“The Silence of the Lambs.” “The myth of the trans monster has transcended horror fiction and has become the basis on which anti-trans laws are pushed.”
Panel 5: Shows a silhouetted figure in a snowy field casting a shadow with the trans symbol inside it. “From Psycho to Silence of the Lambs to Longlegs-”
Panel 6: Shows a young person holding a tub of popcorn with a solemn expression while watching the movie. “The last thing horror needed was another androgynous monster.”
