Loretta from Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Secretary for anti-Roman revolutionary group the People’s Front of Judea. Her being transgender was played for laughs to make fun of how bureaucratic bickering gets in the way of liberation. I found the mockery to be affirming in a way. It was also one of the first times I experienced the overlap of reverence for the divine and comedic absurdity that still influences my practice today.
Here’s a transcript of her introduction:
REG: Why don’t you shut up about women, Stan. You’re putting us off.
STAN: Women have a perfect right to play a part in our movement, Reg.
FRANCIS: Why are you always on about women, Stan?
STAN: I want to be one.
REG: What?
STAN: I want to be a woman. From now on, I want you all to call me ‘Loretta’.
REG: What?!
LORETTA: It’s my right as a man.
JUDITH: Well, why do you want to be Loretta, Stan?
LORETTA: I want to have babies.
REG: You want to have babies?!
LORETTA: It’s every man’s right to have babies if he wants them.
REG: But… you can’t have babies.
LORETTA: Don’t you oppress me.
REG: I’m not oppressing you, Stan. You haven’t got a womb! Where’s the fetus going to gestate?! You going to keep it in a box?!
LORETTA: crying
JUDITH: Here! I—I’ve got an idea. Suppose you agree that he can’t actually have babies, not having a womb, which is nobody’s fault, not even the Romans’, but that he can have the right to have babies.
FRANCIS: Good idea, Judith. We shall fight the oppressors for your right to have babies, brother. Sister. Sorry.
REG: What’s the point?
FRANCIS: What?
REG: What’s the point of fighting for his right to have babies when he can’t have babies?!
FRANCIS: It is symbolic of our struggle against oppression.
REG: Symbolic of his struggle against reality.
A bit transphobic? Sure. What stuck out to me though is that “Reg” was outnumbered and the sincerity of Eric Idle’s delivery that had me really sympathizing with her. For the rest of the film her pronouns and name are respected. The group also starts using sibling instead of brother or sister. The switch from Stan to Loretta is casual, quick—impressive considering the group’s whole schtick is doing more arguing than activism. It’s also relatable watching now, having dealt with a lot of Reg’s 😅.
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