I am in awe of young abuse survivors who speak out and, like Sinéad O’Connor, refuse to be shut up
The next day, as I rummaged for something pink to wear to Barbie in my largely black-dominated wardrobe, I tried to remember the last time I got dressed up to go to the cinema. It must have been the night a friend persuaded me to go to the Rocky Horror Picture Show in Dublin’s Classic Cinema in Harold’s Cross. There were definitely fishnets involved.
The Rocky Horror, for those who need a recap, was a sexually subversive cult musical from the 1970s. It starred the supremely square couple Brad and Janet, who get tangled up with a gender-nonconforming character called Dr Frank N Furter, described as “a sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania”. For 21 years there were late night showings of the movie, where audience members knew every single word of the script and added their own asides or prompts for the characters on the screen.
At the time, the film was seen as “empowering”, “liberating” and “progressive” on issues such as sexuality and gender.. There are any number of thoughtful essays online dissecting the way the Rocky Horror not only glamorises but normalises rape and sexual assault. The things people shouted gleefully up at sexually inexperienced Brad and Janet would not be acceptable now. Over time, yesterday’s “empowering” can become today’s “problematic”, “outdated” and “unsafe” cultural offering.
A person signs a book of condolence for Sinead O'Connor at the Mansion House in Dublin, after her death at the age of 56. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
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