Rock Horror Picture Show Analysis

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Classified as a cult film, Rock Horror Picture Show (RHPS) now encompasses the basis of a dynamic subculture that reaches across international boundaries (TRHPS Official Fan Site, n.d.). During a time of many social changes called the Sexual Revolution, RHPS occurred at the height of the revolution in 1975 (PBS, 2001). Initially a box office failure (TRHPS Official Fan Site, n.d.), the film was quickly adapted by youth into a cult sensation allowing them to defy their parents and assert agency through drag dress and behaviour. Viewings of the film quickly grew into an experience-based culture in which participants from all walks of life come together for an evening (traditionally the film or play was to start at midnight) of celebration, anarchy, sexual deviance, drag, and dance. Later we can observe how “[t]he Rocky Horror Picture Show heavily influence the …show more content…
6). Janet’s song, “Touch Me” has since been utilized by media and youth as a form of sexual tease and rebellion against the social norms of single-partner relationships and abstinence until marriage. Playing into the animalistic behaviors; “I’ll put up no resistance” (Sharman 1975), Janet sings as she removes her outer clothing and grasps her breasts. These actions, often denounced by social norms in regards to sexual activities; her lyrics are used by youth both in the 1970’s and today, five decades later, to assert their control, or lack thereof, in courtship, dating, and sexual interactions. In the more modern example, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, character Patrick, played by actor Ezra Miller, expresses his drag identity by dressing up as Frank N. Furter and parading his homosexuality in the context of the RHPS