Not sure how I feel about Silence of the Lambs

I used to consider this film one of my favorites (and perhaps still do?), but after watching it an 8th time (with a considerable amount of time bwteen my 7th and 8th watch)—I see this movie with wiser eyes. The portrayal of Buffalo Bill is at the very least controversial, even though it wasn’t intended to be. People online are citing this conversation between Starling and Lector—

“There’s no correlation in the literature to transsexualism and violence. Transsexuals are very passive.”
“Billy is not a real transexual. But he thinks he is. He tries to be. He’s tried to be a lot of things, I expect.”

—as well as the repeated distinctions in the book (which I assume is true, but I haven’t read it) to argue that the movie isn’t transphobic. But the fact of the matter is that SOTL had a significant impact on the perception of transwomen for decades.

Modern day viewers may be able to easily understand how Buffalo Bill’s intense self-hatred and psychosis manifested into an obsession with Nazi paraphernalia and an erroneous, superficious belief that he is transgender. However, this distinction between a transgender woman versus a man who hates himself so much he crawls in their bodies was not a point that easily came across 30+ years ago. Reading articles and firsthand accounts by transwomen who suffered the societal consequences of the popularity of this film in the 90’s opened my eyes to the way this movie perpetrated transphobic tropes in Hollywood and encouraged the idea that all trans people are mentally ill and dangerous.

My next step is to watch “Disclosure” on Netflix, which was recommended as a resource to learn more about trans representation in media (+ apparently SOTL is also featured).

While I can enjoy many, many aspects of this movie (hannibal lector’s character is still a favorite of mine), the historical effect it had is non-negligible to me.

Edit: I learn a lot from your comments. I encourage people to discuss and disagree with me. Thats the point of this post. Thanks!