Even though the 1991 Oscar-winning thriller “The Silence of the Lambs” explicitly stated that the deranged psychopath Buffalo Bill was “not a real transsexual,” LGBTQ activists have persistently condemned the film as a work of transphobia. During this week’s episode of CBS’ “Clarice,” which chronicles the life of Clarice Starling after the events of the film, LGBTQ activists were given a voice when a character on the show repeated the same talking points.
According to Newsbusters, in the May 13 episode, “Silence is Purgatory,” Clarice reaches out to a transsexual pharmaceutical worker, Julia, for help in an investigation only to be blamed for how the media portrayed Buffalo Bill as a representative of trans people. Full transcript:
Julia: Buffalo Bill was clearly a monster, a-a-a killer, and I don’t know what their story was, but they got labeled transsexual. And whether it’s true or not, that word was then in every headline, every story, every gruesome tabloid photo right next to ‘Murderer,’ ‘Maniac.’ ‘Psycho skins women, driven mad by transsexual desire.’ That was the front page of the Baltimore Herald. Overnight, suddenly, the biggest story on everyone’s minds was that transsexuals were monsters.
Clarice: And this affected you personally?
Julia: Clarice… I’m transsexual. And… I have to keep that part of myself hidden because I could lose my job. My life. I have to hide who I am because of stories like Buffalo Bill. And at the center of all of those was… you. You made my life harder.
Clarice: I didn’t write those articles. I didn’t say those things.
Julia: No, but the press were listening to you. And people like me don’t have a voice. You had the power to say something, and…you never did. So I needed to say something now.
“Clarice” showrunner Elizabeth Klaviter previously promised that the show would explicitly address the alleged transphobia presence in “The Silence of the Lambs.” During a panel, Klaviter said that the original movie reinforced the negative stereotype that transgenders covet the female bodies they seek to transform themselves into.
“If we think back to 1993, the transgender community was largely invisible and there weren’t many stories that were being told about the transgender community,” said Klaviter. “That meant that any portrayal of people who were trans had a weight to it and it informed the public’s opinion of what it means to be trans. So when a character like Buffalo Bill popped up in an extremely popular movie as a trans person who is also a serial killer, doing horrific things to women, it reinforced a stereotype that already existed that transgender women were people who coveted and wanted to harm women and were part of a misogynistic culture, rather than human beings with an authenticity who are moving through their lives with the same desires and needs as any other human being.”
Jen Richards, who played the character Julia, said that friends would immediately mention Buffalo Bill when mentioning sexual transition.
“I told a colleague of mine that I was about to transition and…she looked at me kind of quizzically and replied, ‘You mean like Buffalo Bill?'” said Richards. “That was the only thing that came to mind when she heard ‘trans.’ That’s not exactly what you want your friends to expect when you’re going to transition.”