SAINTS, SINNERS, AND SELF-MYTHOLOGIZATION: TRANSGENDER REPRESENTATION, CRIME, AND THE LIMITS OF GENDER PERFORMATIVITY IN EMILIA PÉREZ (2024)

Abstract This paper critically examines Emilia Pérez, a film that merges transgender narratives, crime drama, and self-reinvention themes into an operatic spectacle. Analyzing the film through the lenses of gender theory (Judith Butler, Simone de Beauvoir), psychoanalysis (Jacques Lacan), and political philosophy (Giorgio Agamben), I argue that the movie inadvertently reinforces reactionary tropes about transgender individuals while attempting to present a progressive narrative. The protagonist—a violent drug lord turned “redeemed” transgender woman—becomes an archetype of male self-aggrandizement rather than an authentic exploration of gender identity. The article deconstructs the film’s problematic framing, from its fetishization of transition as spectacle to its implicit assertion that gender is both a costume and a moral determinant.