LogFAQs > #974552981

spoilers because i didn't even watch it til yesterday so who knows others reading lmao

so yeah Curse of Chucky has the child of Chucky x Tiffany: Glen, where the issue of gender first comes up when they pee their pants, the parents remove Glen's pants, and they got nothin' down there. This is leads to the debate where Chucky insists their child is just a late bloomer, naming them Glen - but Tiffany believes their child is a daughter, Glenda.

To start with, their names are actually reference to a 1950s, Glen or Glenda. Again also incredible for its time but dated today as a story inspired trans woman but instead made on transvestism, more in line with the director/writer.

But yeah that's just background! Honestly it shows earnest insight to use such a reference. As for Seed of Chucky that beginning argument of Glen/da's gender based around their genitals is a reinforcement of the bioessentialist view that genitals = gender. Glen at the time isn't really introduced to be particularly androgynous, as the narrative defaults them as male throughout the film - but whatever it's silly but a springboard into the topic of gender identity.

At the same time though, Glen/da's perspective is treated as ambiguous. When asked which they are, Glen/da responds that they don't know. They were abandoned at birth and that wasn't a consideration they grew up to have. They respond further saying that they can identify with both, that they feel like a boy, but also like a girl. The conversation feels incredibly validating, that Glen/da isn't wrong to feel this way, and that any decision would be right for them. There are some crass jokes about it from Chucky sure, but I mean yeah it's Chucky and even then he's not exactly hateful about it.

Unfortunately the insightful references also lead into played out harmful tropes. Glen throughout the movie is depicted as an innocent child who til meeting his parents believed murder to be wrong. When they first embrace their identity as Glenda however, she is revealed as an unhinged murderer playing into the all-to-common crossdressing killer trope like the iconic features of Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, or even Rocky Horror Picture Show. At this point Glen/da is instead depicted not as one non-binary person, but as a split personality where the female identity is the unhinged lunatic as a counterpount to the default timid male persona, like Norman Bates transforming into his mother.

Part of it you can accept as this is a horror movie, they're the child of Chucky & Tiff, you *knew* they'd turn out murderous like their parents, but the way they did it is riddled with problems. And at the same time, they also portray insightful consideration for Glen/da's questioning identity affording validation to the different forms of expression. Unfortunately the form depicted in the end is of the harmful tropes and Glen/da results into splitting their soul into the bodies of two newborn children, one girl and one boy.