A Trans Reading Of Some Like It Hot

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Suggested by:

https://tinyurl.com/qu8yr8q‬

‪I re-watched Some Like It Hot and I can see how it’s amenable in a send up, tongue in cheek way, to a trans perspective. ‬

‪Tony Curtis, Joe, Josephine, maintains his masculinity throughout despite his necessary cross dressing. Even his assumed name is a derivative of Joseph. Meanwhile, Jack Lemmon, Jerry, originally calling himself Geraldine, takes the non derivative name Daphne and slowly but surely as Joe E Brown, Osgood, pursues him, becomes Daphne. ‬

‪Jerry/Daphne becomes totally immersed in her role as Daphne as s/he tangos the night away with Osgood, as all the while Joe/Josephine is getting very together with Marilyn Monroe, Sugar Kane. ‬

‪After the night of dancing, Jerry/Daphne considers herself engaged to Osgood and is excited at the prospect of marrying a millionaire. Joe/Josephine  has to  keep reminding Jerry/Daphne that “he’s a boy, he’s a boy,”(while on the train Joe has to keep reminding Jerry that he’s a girl, he’s a girl.) Joe, the voice of at least some conventionality, tells Jerry/Daphne that‬ s/he can’t marry Osgood, it’s just not done, there are laws, customs, conventions, it’s just not done. Jerry/Daphne is comically distraught at being so reminded. “I’ll never find a man who’ll ever treat me as well,” s/he intones. ‬

‪If we see the movie as (again, comically) Daphne becoming transgender, the movie’s ending is like a scene where a trans woman has to come out to her boyfriend, or is trying to break up before he discovers her trans identity. Osgood is the ideal guy who can’t care less. The ending may be seen as suggesting that Daphne and Osgood will go on and get married anyway (though I’m entirely unsure about them living happily ever after.) The ending of course, as the movie frames it, is an absurd joke, but a sly winking one. ‬