I just wanted to tell the cynical feminist and trans person in you (and indeed any others reading this who might have their own personal anxieties seeing someone walk out over this film) that if I do walk out of the cinema (and I hope I am able to face my demons long enough not to), it won’t be in disgust about sex reassignment surgery, but because of not being able to cope with what look to be some very personally triggering themes, graphic or not. I’m just one person, but I wanted to say something to tip the balance the other way as I figure there’s enough fucked up hatred in this world without us all being conditioned by experience to fear or assume it to be where it is not.

(I got nothing to say about the movie. I have never seen an Almodovar movie in my life and I wouldn’t if they paid me)

There are all sorts of issues, here, but the fear of being physically attacked for not conforming to masculine expectations is both real and rational.

The thing that sticks most in mind about this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Son-Man-Sf-Collectors-ebook/dp/B005K8GZOM/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314878010&sr=1-1 is that, at one point, the protagonist has his sex changed by the Skimmers (who have no idea that he might find this distressing). I think that Mr Silverberg depicted feelings on this with nerve-jangling accuracy. It’s a book that remains with me decades after reading it.

I definitely don’t think it’s his most accessible introductory film – that would be All About My Mother or Talk to Her, for me, and on balance i think I prefer him when he has fewer bells, whistles and stuff being eye-searingly colourful and studded with loud bangs. The quieter moments were definitely the best for me. But that’s just me, of course (like the ‘kirsty’ at the top of this comment doesn’t already tell you that!)

But i did think there was some really interesting stuff going on, especially in comparison with something like Marnie or Vertigo (famously Almadovar’s favourite film) – Banderas really reminded me of Marnie’s hot-but-very-rapey-and-control-freaky Sean Connery, and it’s an interesting take on the woman-creation of the second half of Vertigo. To have the Kim Novak / Tippi Hendren character ‘start out’ as a cis man is a great reinterpretation of that whole genre…

It also gets really interesting when you look at how cis-males who may have been raised with strict expectations of masculinity then panic about being *seen* as female, with years of baggage where appearing more feminine than others could get you physically attacked.

All in all, that movie sounds goddamn triggery for just about everyone :)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dead-Tales-Adventure-Exploration-Africa/dp/B0007DSS6I/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314868463&sr=1-4

It might, perhaps, be regarded as a radical extension of the theme of enforced cross dressing, which is a very common one in transvestite pornography.