Pathos And Porn — Doris Wishman’s “Let Me Die A Woman”

Let Me Die A Woman, 1977

Let’s not kid ourselves, Doris Wishman’s Let Me Die A Woman is porn. But it’s porn with a shocking amount of earnestness and poignancy worth examining.

“What you are about to see is a true sex act performed by a man and another man who emotionally thinks and acts like a woman… the penis and testicles are clearly shown.”
— Narrator

I’ve had this movie sitting on my hard drive since before I had bottom surgery myself. I intended to do a review of it for my ongoing series of articles about trans representation I was releasing mostly in 2016, culminating in my Halloween 2016 article about trans horror tropes. It’s an infamous movie, one that took me a while to prepare myself to see with an open mind.

and not very subtle

It’s infamous for a few reasons. One is having a scene that is an early performance of porn star Harry Reems. It’s notorious for including actual footage of a sex-reassignment surgery. This footage gained further notoriety when it was inserted into South Park’s rabidly mean-spirited anti-trans episode to pad the run-time. The reason for this was, according to DVD commentary by episode writer-director Trey Parker, “because they ran out of ideas.” Great job jackass, laudable work ethic there.

The film has a lot of baggage. I wanted to see what could be salvaged from its exploitation past, and the answer is ehhh I’m honestly not sure.

“I am lonely, yet I feel wonderful because… I’m a woman now.”
— Leslie

Yeah, a couple years ago I wrote a piece earnestly imploring the audience to consider the underlying message of Glen or Glenda upon next viewing. I’ve also attempted to vindicate The Rocky Horror Picture Show, in all of its campy exploitative glory. It could and has been said that Let Me Die A Woman is descended in spirit from Glen Or Glenda. There is a similar confusion as to what sort of movie it’s trying to be, floating between exploitative thriller and somber documentary.