Red and Black Week 2014, Day 5: Creature of the Night

Day five - we're on the home stretch, readers!  For the fifth post, I want to celebrate something more personal - a phenomenon dear to me and probably many others out there on the fringes of mainstream taste and culture. Warning for those easily offended: this post contains tackiness, scantily clad men in drag and campy fun. I have no idea why you'd be on my blog if you didn't like those things, but just in case.



Photo by Steff.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is one of the few true cults in pop culture; there's a certain ritual in introducing friends, and it takes a few viewings before you 'get' it. Then there's the flare of joy, an instant recognition of a kindred spirit when you see another fan, because in that moment what makes you weird is something to be shared and celebrated. For something surprisingly (if wonderfully) bad, it unites people, with toast and newspapers and glitter. Maybe its endurance is because, as its creator Richard O'Brien suggests, it represents the archetypal fairy tale, as Brad and Janet enter the lair of the wicked queen or wolf and come out changed. Amanda Palmer describes it thus: "rocky horror has been a universal umbrella under which generations of punk rock theater [sic] freaks have bonded in weird solidarity. it’s the closest we get to a religious experience, a shared myth, the epic story we know by hear[t]... it’s church."

Eye make up for the night. Photographed before mascara, because I am an idiot.

We've been meaning to host a party on Rocky theme for a year now, and finally got around to it last week. It was a great night, and an even better end to the academic year; there would be more photos, but I don't want to feature lots of people on here who haven't agreed to be. I didn't have the time or money to put together a costume for a specific character, so I recycled my Transylvanian costume from going to see the stage show last year, painted my lips with glitter and backcombed my hair to the heavens (which then fell flat, as I did it in a rush). Ben definitely won best costume for his Frank N Furter effort - which hopefully is considered silly enough (and in good spirits) for featuring in Red and Black Week - but I'm happy with my own.

I should probably add 'willingness to cross dress and embrace non-masculine attributes' to my imaginary dating questionnaires.

I'd perhaps recommend that RHPS virgins don't attend viewing parties before seeing the film, as it's a bit of a sensory overload. We invited two poor medic victims friends to the party, who were somewhat shell shocked seeing Ben walking about perfectly casually in stockings and a corset top. Interestingly, some of our friends from the swing society who hadn't seen the film either were far too keen and loved every bit. I wonder if that says something about the difference between medics and swing dancers? Hmm.

Glitter lipstick , which worked 5000x better than I thought it would. 

Rocky Horror is an interesting examination of the red and black colour scheme. Visually, the pairing comes from the inspiration from terrible horror B movies and the themes of exploration of sexuality (red and black being the colours of choice of Anne Summers and its ilk), and fits with the glitter, sequins and rhinestones. It's a cliché of a colour scheme, and flies in the face of social norm, with its avoidance of overt sexuality and rigidity of traditional sex and gender roles (which encompasses everything from hypermasculinism to rejection of women displaying male characteristics).

Which, as we all know, TRHPS and the wave of punks and goth and queer culture it inspired rejoices in ignoring. Let's celebrate cliché and tastelessness.





Fee