'Monster: The Ed Gein Story only fuels damaging anti-trans narratives'

"There's a school of thought in psychology about the relationship between intention and impact. The idea is, essentially, that the intention of an action is less important than the impact. You may not have intended to verbally harm someone, but you did, and that's what matters. I believe this holds true when creating art. To its creator, intent drives the concept and its themes, steering it towards its destination. To an outside observer, however, it doesn't matter who is behind the wheel, a car crash is still a car crash."

"Ryan Murphy made his intent clear when discussing Monster: The Ed Gein Story following the limited series' release earlier this month. His intent was clear when explaining that the horror series asks its viewers to question whether monsters are born or bred, and that he wanted to use serial killer Ed Gein's story to spark a conversation about mental illness. His intent was especially clear when he expressed the importance of dissuading the spurious rumours around Ed Gein's gender identity."

"Monster: The Ed Gein Story, rather than distancing itself from the deeply problemtic and misinformed depictions of Ed Gein as a trans fanatical cross-dresser, revels in it by having him obsessively dress in women's clothes and skin, wearing lingerie and a mask constructed from the skin of a dead woman as he masturbates."

Ryan Murphy stated an intent to probe whether monsters are born or bred, to prompt conversation about mental illness, and to discourage rumours about Ed Gein's gender identity. The series, however, depicts Gein obsessively dressing in women's clothes and skin, including sexualised scenes that link cross-dressing to deviance and violence. Those portrayals engage with transphobic tropes and perpetuate misinformation about gender nonconformity. Creator intent does not mitigate the harmful impact of such representations on transgender people. The portrayal therefore fails to prevent harm and instead amplifies damaging stereotypes.

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