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The Dangerous Transphobia of Roald Dahl's "Matilda" (Salon)

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/27/the_dangerous_transphobia_of...
fragrant maroon office
  10/27/13
To be fair, Mitt Romney: "Nice review, faggot."
concupiscible stage
  10/27/13
okay, it happened. i finally absolutely, genuinely, and uneq...
aqua doobsian reading party theater stage
  10/27/13
Agreed. But this is salon, no one reads this trash.
sepia laughsome trailer park famous landscape painting
  10/27/13
was sure this would be fake. lol and thanks, SHITLIBS.
lascivious dark casino degenerate
  10/27/13
is OP an evan39 alt?
Learning Disabled Mood Goyim
  10/27/13
Isn't George's Magical Medicine a worse influence?
Infuriating useless menage police squad
  10/27/13
really was hoping against hope that this would be fake
Hot den
  10/27/13
180
saffron boltzmann toilet seat
  10/27/13
holy shit. unabated 180.
Nubile Impertinent Internal Respiration Library
  10/27/13
jfc.
Plum mind-boggling pervert dragon
  10/27/13
omfg this one was real?
glassy naked friendly grandma
  06/30/14
...
Learning Disabled Mood Goyim
  06/30/14
...
180 pea-brained principal's office karate
  06/30/14
...
Curious hissy fit parlor
  06/30/14
...
Motley Brethren Party Of The First Part
  11/29/18
I miss these days when there was only a 10% chance that ther...
elite center
  11/29/18
...
razzle twinkling sex offender
  08/27/21
...
razzle twinkling sex offender
  08/27/21
lol, didn't expect a link
Crusty Sexy Location Alpha
  06/30/14
...
razzle twinkling sex offender
  08/27/21
180
maniacal at-the-ready box office faggotry
  06/30/14
...
low-t community account school cafeteria
  09/22/18
libs
poppy startled knife boistinker
  09/22/18
...
Olive electric ladyboy
  09/22/18
hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
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  09/23/18
...
domesticated stage
  11/29/18


Poast new message in this thread



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Date: October 27th, 2013 8:44 PM
Author: fragrant maroon office

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/27/the_dangerous_transphobia_of_roald_dahls_matilda/

The dangerous transphobia of Roald Dahl’s “Matilda”

The beloved book punishes Miss Trunchbull for acting like a man, and rewards the traditionally feminine Miss Honey

By Eliot Glenn

When casting began for “Matilda the Musical” two years ago, Director Matthew Warchus told the New York Times that he wanted a “psychological actor.” Bertie Carvel, the actor he eventually chose, wondered, “What does it feel like to wake up as Miss Trunchbull every day?”

Apparently, only a man would know. From Carvel on, only male actors have played the role.

To the naïve audience member, the casting might seem playful, silly, amusing, creative.

A queer audience would rightfully be more suspicious.

With this choice, Warchus is making literal the darkness at the heart of Roald Dahl’s seemingly light-hearted children’s tale. With a spoonful of sugar comes a transphobic message about the dangers of straying from traditional gender roles, a conservative parable about the “right” and the “wrong” kinds of women.

Dahl paints Miss Trunchbull as male inside and out. Her physique is “gigantic” and “formidable,” with “big shoulders,” “thick arms” and “powerful legs.” She has a “deep and dangerous voice.” Avoiding feminine dress, she wears breeches rather than a skirt, flats rather than heels, and in Warchus’ play, a coach’s whistle around her neck.

This athleticism is a further expression of Trunchbull’s gender identity. We know her by last name only, like a boy on a sports team. Her sport, too, is gender “inappropriate.” Carvel told reporters that hammer-throwing is called “the ballet of the big man.” The Olympics welcomed women to the sport seven years after “Matilda” hit shelves, but at the time of publishing, it had been open to men alone for 88 years.

Trunchbull’s masculinity is both the source of her insanity and the medium of her cruelty. She has a pathological hatred of femininity: “If there’s one thing the Trunchbull can’t stand, it’s pigtails.” She storms the halls as if playing football: “she ploughed right on through them like a tank, with small people bouncing off to her left and right.” For punishment, she tosses children like little athletic hammers, eliciting cheers of “Well thrown, Sir!” And when Dahl forthrightly calls her evil, he uses masculine metaphor: “The Trunchbull is the Prince of Darkness, the Foul Serpent, the Fiery Dragon.”

Her name in itself evokes masculine rage. “Trunch” (meaning small post) is a phallic reference and “bull” an emblem of unrestrained male aggression.

Dahl arranges the perfect foil for Trunchbull in Miss Honey. Honey is a paragon of femininity: demure, motherly, gentle, but most importantly, slender and beautiful “like a porcelain figure.” Throughout the book, her calm subordination and womanly weakness stand in stark contrast to the Trunchbull’s hot-headed masculine dominance: “Miss Honey stood there helpless before this great red-necked giant.” Honey not only exemplifies proper humility but also proper impotence; she is a damsel in distress. Trunchbull takes charge and charges forward; Honey appropriately waits for others to solve her problems.

The great irony of the tale is that it appears to empower. Matilda struggles to overcome her parents’ prejudices that “small girls should be seen and not heard” and that for women, “Looks is more important than books.” Matilda is defiant in the face of this gender predestination, and herein lies Dahl’s modest message of empowerment. Women should be “gutsy and adventurous,” even intellectual and literary. But they should still be women.

When they stray too far from the feminine path, they need to be put in their place. Ten-year-old Hortensia sprinkles “Skin-Scorcher” inside the principal’s gym shorts. When Trunchbull scratches her crotch, the child says she “realised exactly what was going on inside the Trunchbull’s pants,” a double-entendre.

The greatest reckoning, however, comes when Trunchbull’s masculine façade is finally broken. Matilda fells her nemesis by reviving a “real” man (Honey’s father) to discipline her. He calls the Trunchbull by her female name Agatha, and this Kryptonite reveals the falseness of her manly charade. This creepy, cosmic gender justice deposes the Trunchbull and rewards the porcelain doll Honey, who never strayed from her femininity, even in the absence of masculine guidance.

“Matilda” is thus a fable about the hubris of being transgender. Women should know their limitations and never imitate a man’s authority or physical prowess, lest he intervene to remind them who’s boss.

Many may have missed these politics, seeing little more than a playful, imaginative, and entertaining story about a smart girl who gets even. This subtlety is Dahl’s genius. By pulling at the strings of our unconscious prejudices, Dahl conjures in the reader a hatred for the enemy that is greater than the sum of her misdeeds.

One group of people will not miss Dahl’s underlying message, however. Little girls who love sports and not dresses, who are tall or muscular, who are boyish or even perhaps identify as boys, who long someday to possess authority. All of these children will see themselves in the Trunchbull, and they will watch closely as these aspects with which they identify are shamed.

This is not the message we want to send our children.

Eliot Glenn is a freelance writer and cultural commentator, and an MPA candidate at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#24318141)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 27th, 2013 9:10 PM
Author: concupiscible stage

To be fair,

Mitt Romney: "Nice review, faggot."

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#24318358)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 27th, 2013 8:46 PM
Author: aqua doobsian reading party theater stage

okay, it happened. i finally absolutely, genuinely, and unequivocally thought that there was no fucking way that the thread title was a real thing. no motherfucking way.

we are truly done here.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#24318144)



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Date: October 27th, 2013 8:47 PM
Author: sepia laughsome trailer park famous landscape painting

Agreed. But this is salon, no one reads this trash.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#24318155)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 27th, 2013 8:46 PM
Author: lascivious dark casino degenerate

was sure this would be fake. lol and thanks, SHITLIBS.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#24318146)



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Date: October 27th, 2013 9:05 PM
Author: Learning Disabled Mood Goyim

is OP an evan39 alt?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#24318321)



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Date: October 27th, 2013 9:06 PM
Author: Infuriating useless menage police squad

Isn't George's Magical Medicine a worse influence?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#24318325)



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Date: October 27th, 2013 9:24 PM
Author: Hot den

really was hoping against hope that this would be fake

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#24318491)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 27th, 2013 9:27 PM
Author: saffron boltzmann toilet seat

180

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#24318527)



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Date: October 27th, 2013 9:30 PM
Author: Nubile Impertinent Internal Respiration Library

holy shit. unabated 180.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#24318553)



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Date: October 27th, 2013 10:10 PM
Author: Plum mind-boggling pervert dragon

jfc.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#24318997)



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Date: June 30th, 2014 3:10 AM
Author: glassy naked friendly grandma

omfg this one was real?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#25843181)



Reply Favorite

Date: June 30th, 2014 3:11 AM
Author: Learning Disabled Mood Goyim



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#25843183)



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Date: June 30th, 2014 3:13 AM
Author: 180 pea-brained principal's office karate



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#25843192)



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Date: June 30th, 2014 3:15 AM
Author: Curious hissy fit parlor



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#25843195)



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Date: November 29th, 2018 12:52 AM
Author: Motley Brethren Party Of The First Part



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#37318738)



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Date: November 29th, 2018 12:59 AM
Author: elite center

I miss these days when there was only a 10% chance that there’d be a link to an insane thread title

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#37318749)



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Date: August 27th, 2021 2:51 AM
Author: razzle twinkling sex offender



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#43016893)



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Date: August 27th, 2021 2:50 AM
Author: razzle twinkling sex offender



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#43016892)



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Date: June 30th, 2014 3:16 AM
Author: Crusty Sexy Location Alpha

lol, didn't expect a link

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#25843199)



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Date: August 27th, 2021 2:51 AM
Author: razzle twinkling sex offender



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#43016894)



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Date: June 30th, 2014 3:17 AM
Author: maniacal at-the-ready box office faggotry

180

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#25843200)



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Date: September 22nd, 2018 11:32 PM
Author: low-t community account school cafeteria



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#36866842)



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Date: September 22nd, 2018 11:32 PM
Author: poppy startled knife boistinker

libs

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#36866846)



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Date: September 22nd, 2018 11:38 PM
Author: Olive electric ladyboy



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#36866889)



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Date: September 23rd, 2018 2:28 AM
Author: blue senate coffee pot

hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#36867897)



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Date: November 29th, 2018 12:53 AM
Author: domesticated stage



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2398652&forum_id=2#37318742)