Silence of the Lambs: Deep Thoughts About Misogyny, Transphobia, and the Psychology of Fava Beans

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Podcast

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On today’s episode of Deep Thoughts, Emily revisits what is arguably the most influential pop culture of our lifetime: The Silence of the Lambs. Although director Jonathan Demme and lead actor Jodie Foster illuminate the spectrum of misogyny women experience, from casual workplace putdowns to the violent treatment of women as objects, the film does this at the expense of our trans siblings.

To its credit, the movie attempts to differentiate the murderous Buffalo Bill from “real” trans women via exposition, but we can draw a straight line from the chilling depiction of the film's villain to current hysteria over trans women in bathrooms. And though Demme and Foster avoided the “men writing women” aspect of Thomas Harris’ novel that was the source material for the movie, our culture once again remembered the psychopathic psychologist Hannibal Lecter and forgot the dynamic and fully human badass Clarice Starling.

Put some lotion on your skin and prepare to listen in…

Content warning: Discussion of gendered violence toward women, fatphobia, homophobia, transphobia, cannibalism, serial killers, rape, and other really really unpleasant stuff. Just…this movie is a lot, y’all, and we talk about it all.

Mentioned in this episode:

The line in the book that made Emily throw it across the room
Before we knew better: Silence of the Lambs is a win for women—but fails LGBTQ culture
The cultural impact of The Silence of the Lambs
Why The Silence of the Lambs is a feminist fable
The Loud Feminism Of The Silence Of The Lambs

This episode was edited by Resonate Recordings.

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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We are Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our family as the Guy Girls.

We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com

We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, and analyzing pop culture for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, and whatever else we find.

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Kapitel

1. Introduction to Silence of the Lambs (00:00:00)

2. The Power of Pop Culture Engagement (00:16:04)

3. Cultural Interpretations and Personal Reflections (00:43:13)

4. Overview of Key Characters (00:55:35)

5. The Strong Feminist Element of Clarice Starling (01:43:29)

6. The Storytelling vs. Transgressions Debate (07:27:43)

7. Conclusion and Future Episodes (14:31:26)

8. Balancing the Film's Legacy: Art vs. Impact (21:08:34)