welcome
Condé Nast

Condé Nast

Entertainment

Entertainment

Is ‘The Substance’ a Stealthily Perfect Trans Allegory?

Condé Nast
Summary
Nutrition label

61% Informative

Emilia Pérez , the most nominated film at this year ’s Oscars , should be the transest thing I’ve ever seen.

The Substance is about a drug kingpin who transitions to live as an anonymous rich woman, with the help of an ambitious lawyer.

While ostensibly trans-forward, it's frustratingly bound by a lack of imagination when it comes to gender.

When I started transitioning, a younger woman I had put on ice in my brain suddenly woke up and started pestering me.

She wanted those years back, but she was stuck with me: her weird, adult self.

In this queer/trans reading, Elisabeth is someone who has come out late in life and mourns the years she should have gotten as her best, truest self.

VR Score

52

Informative language

45

Neutral language

31

Article tone

informal

Language

English

Language complexity

42

Offensive language

offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

not detected

Known propaganda techniques

not detected

Time-value

medium-lived

Affiliate links

no affiliate links