Rocky Horror Sexy Show

Schuyler Lincoln Kerby

WST 3015

Jeaninna Perez

Blog 2

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a parody of B-movies (the second movie in a double feature). This film pays homage to the science fiction double features mentioned in the opening track. As we, the audience, follows the bizarre scenarios Brad Majors and Janet Weiss find themselves in, we are forced to challenge our own ideas of human sexuality. Gender-bending, dance routines, and lasers are just a few of the spectacles we see.

The opening scene presents us with a pair of voluptuous lips, serenading us the heroes of drive-in double feature movies (Science Fiction). This opening number implicitly gives us a prominent idea repeated throughout the movie. This idea, as stated by Audre Lorde, is the erotic “'as our most profoundly creative source'” (Kirk 149). Those lips, belonging to Magenta (played by the lovely Patricia Quinn), represent the creative power of the erotic. The lips are disembodied, a fragment of a body. Because they are not attached to a body, yet they still have an erotic quality, this demonstrates that the erotic does not solely reside in the whole body of a woman.

Unfortunately, the erotic and sexuality have been conflated in Western society (Kirk 149). Other grievances that so called “deviant” sexualities have against heteronormativity are subject to catharsis in the film. Dr. Frankenfurter is not ashamed of who he is, nor is he willing to be quiet about it (Sweet Transvestite). He has even go so far to deconstruct the male/female and heterosexual/homosexual binaries that he has created a new center. He demands a selfish hedonism in all of his guests (Rose Tint My World). He has successfully dynamited the patriarchy, but he has created a new, Transylvanian system. Eddie violates this and swiftly murdered to death with a pick ax (Eddie). Because of Eddie's masculine, rock and roll ways, he did not follow the path of least resistance (Johnson 70).

In the movie, Brad Majors is the “straight man.” This not only refers to his initial heterosexuality, but also the fact he represents the patriarchy as a whole. Several times throughout the film he makes judgements and stereotypes against the other characters. In the wedding scene, he remarks that the new bridge is “a wonderful little cook” (Dammit Janet). When he first enters the castle with Janet, he makes a classist remark, calling the residents “rich weirdos” (The Time Warp). During the party with the Transylvanians, he dismisses their different behavior by calling them foreigners (Sweet Transvestite). Brad, in any other context, would be considered the character with the most agency. However, he is discovered to have the least. Only until he submits to fellatio by Dr. Frankenfurter, is he accepted in the that new system.

The purpose of the film is to force the audience to reconsider their own opinions considering gender, body, and sexual identity.

Works Cited

Johnson, Allan G. "Patriarchy, The System". Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey.
Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. 5th Ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2009. 68-76.

"Women's Sexuality". Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives:

Multicultural Perspectives. 5th Ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2009. 149-164.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Dir. Jim Sharman. Prod. Lou Adler and Michael White. By

Richard O'Brien and Jim Sharman. Perf. Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn, Nell Campbell, Meat Loaf. 20th Century Fox, 1975. DVD.