The Subtle Transphobia of Life of Brian
By: Maximilian J. Gerber
Tags: Monty Python, Gender Identity, Life Of Brian, Gender Roles, Transgender

Upon first watch, one may not find transphobia in Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Heck, I’ve even seen articles praising the troop’s inclusivity in the film. However for some of you who have watched the movie, the scene at the gladiatorial match may have left a weird taste in your mouth, and you may be wondering “was that transphobic?” Don’t fret, I have an answer and an explanation for you.

Life of Brian (1979)

Yes, it’s transphobic. The scene is transphobic in the same way that internalized racism is still racism; it might not be mean-spirited, and it may not even be intentional, but the end result is the same. The language used and the message of the scene are meant to poke fun at an extremely oppressed group. It perpetuates the false belief that a man wanting to be a woman is mentally ill.

The scene may seem innocent as the group learns to ‘accept’ their trans friend, but give yourself a moment of thought. The purpose of the scene is to make a man wishing to be a woman a punchline. Now I personally think that if you’re funny enough, you can joke about anything. However, if you must make fun of an already extremely oppressed group for a punchline, you probably are not making a good joke. Edgy comedy comes from questioning and attacking the norms and the status quo, it does not come from punching down and attacking those that are oppressed. I think the Monty Python crew is funny, and they are comedians skilled enough to be able to be edgy, but when they must rely on using the trans struggle as a punchline in a movie full of good edgy comedy, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Especially because the movie is ripe with the comedic cross-drossing, as this scene exemplifies, the “Loretta” scene just does not sit right. Now they could have made a meta-joke about the character secretly wishing to be a woman juxtaposed with a scene with the same actor playing a woman, and that would have been funny. This would have made the joke about the gender roles forced upon them by society, as in the universe of the movie, female characters being played by men is already seen as normal. Instead, they decided to use the scene to try to make being trans a punchline.

I like Life of Brian and I thought it was funny for the most part. I just don’t understand why they would have tried to make being trans and inclusive a punchline in a movie that punches up and pokes fun at oppressors. But instead of bagging on the movie and saying that the entire movie is gross and bigoted, I can write with relative certainty that the transphobia in the movie is derived from ignorance and if they had known better they would not have made being trans a punchline. This certainty does not come from anything I’ve read or seen from the Monty Python crew that could prove to me that they are not transphobic (and honestly I don’t really care if they are or not the movie came out in 1979 so the damage is already done). My certainty comes from an internal belief, the belief that it is good for one’s mental health to try to, as they say, look on the bright side of life.

Now, I could go more in-depth on how the verbiage they used in the movie perpetuated bigoted stereotypes, or about how my own dismissal of the movie’s transphobia as ignorance could be damaging, but that can wait for another day.

Thanks for reading!