in the oneiric space, the phantom is a trans woman and christine the living abstraction of what the phantom wants to be. the phantom's "monstrosity" just a distortion of dysphoria, internalized transmisogyny, and the way the world sees her "difference." the world discovers her secret, invades the closet which is a tomb and torture chamber, bludgeons her, and dumps her body in a river, all while her femininity in the shape of christine is rescued by Men and a gothic mob. taken back from the "monster." and her own femininity recoils at the sight of her face, like every morning in the mirror tracing the line of my hair and the shape of my skull.

and this is why the Red Death mourns the dead in the midst of masquerade merriment: she can't forget our tortured siblings, dead.

repeat this reclamation process to announce your pain each time you are misgendered any time you go into public.

from another angle, the phantom might just be an entitled male nice guy monster who attacks women when he's friendzoned. but for today, I'm rubbing my glittery monster claws all over this movie. SHE'S OURS now. until leaving the house doesn't make us want to die and the closet is no more a coffin for restless sleep and vague horrors. until my own me can love me.