Analysis Of The Film ' Crossing The Borderlands Of Sexuality And Gender '

Drag queens have spent years performing for themselves and for many other people. Their shows today are a way to express themselves and make people question what they know about gender and sexuality. Rupp and Taylor in their book, “Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret” discuss this subject in detail, calling their performances a form of protest. They question the roles that society has put them into, and in turn provoke their audiences to question these things, such as gender and sexuality. This type of social protest is called “subversion.” Through this book, we can more specifically look at two types of subversion that played a major role in the 801 drag queen’s performances. The first, and most obvious, is the idea of masculinity versus femininity, and how the Queens use different techniques to break free from the traditional way of thinking about these concepts. The second is the overt way that the Queens portray sex and sexuality, in ways that are impossible for the audience to ignore. Both these types of subversion have an overarching theme of crossing boundaries, whether over the division of the gender binary, or the limits of what is socially acceptable to talk about regarding sex. Drag queens envelop the audience and take many of them out of their comfort zone.

The video material that I chose to view for this assignment were music videos, which was an unsurprisingly easy decision to make for writing about gender stereotypes. Music videos are watched by millions every day, and many of these provide misogynistic visual media that has been regulated and accepted by society. These negative connotations for women showing them in highly gendered roles mainly doing medial things such as dancing around in lingerie or fawning over a rich, famous, and/or successful man are dangerous towards equality for genders. Young girls and boys seeing this kind of harmful content could lead them to grow up believing they have to conform to these stereotypes and gender roles instead of living how they would prefer.

in the way women are portrayed in modern culture and society. The documentary forces us to

We recently watched the film Paris is Burning, a documentary about black drag queens in Harlem and their culture surrounding balls. Directly related we also read two feminist critiques, Gender is Burning: Questions of Appropriation and Subversion by Judith Butler and Is Paris Burning by bell hooks. Two areas of critique I focus on and question are the critiques regarding the filmmaker, audience and drag queens and how they participate to reinforce a heterosexual racist patriarchy. Furthermore I ask if this line of investigation is the most beneficial way to view and understand the film and its various participants.

The second factor that has influenced the popularity of drag is the recent increase in the voice of the LGBTQ+ community. Seeing that the majority of drag queens are either gay or transgender men to women, the gay community and drag culture go hand in hand. An article for the Huffington Post explains that “a series of events that happen in cities big and small that celebrates being gay in a straight world. It’s a powerful symbolic action that started after the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City when gays fought back against police brutality. Since then Gay Pride, which is usually the whole month of June, has expanded around the globe” (Wong 1). Now that more eyes and ears have turned toward the LGTBQ+ community, more people are starting to learn about concepts such as drag. Society is starting to understand that it is much more than sparkly outfits, but rather a creative outlet and a place where men can display an identity that they are confident in.

In class we viewed documentary titled Girlhood, the film surrounded two teenage girls named Megan and Shanae. Both of the girls have been in the system for years, Megan has been in and out of juvenile detention centers and foster homes for years and is incarcerated this time for attacking one of the other youth at her foster home with a box cutter. Shanae was incarcerated at the tender age of 11 for stabbing a “friend” to death during a fight. The film focuses on getting to know the girls personalities, family history, the journey of their rehabilitation and overall how they ended up in the situations that they are currently in. It also captures the girls in a different light (their funny personalities, them being hopeful, intelligent, and just needing support) instead of just portraying them as juvenile criminals who were just terrible people.

In many occasions, these women/men were in the television industry or in politics or school they are living these sexist and stereotypical lives that revolve around a woman. The men and women seem to be of a middle class and seem to be concerned with how women are being treated by the tone of their voice and concerned looks. speaker’s in the video really share their emotional experience to the issue as well as show their frustration, for example, a high school girl named Marie was shown explaining how the issue has made her younger sister insecure and bullied because she is not happy with herself, as she says, “she cuts herself because she gets teased in school” (09:09). This part of the video shows how real people are being affected in different ways. Men in politics or television industry also had things to say about how women are being treated unfairly, for example and educator Jackson Katz says” We are socializing boys to believe that being a man means being powerful and in control, being smarter that women or being better that women, or our needs get met first in relationship with women, that is not genetically pre- destined, that is learned behavior” men are realizing what the actions of the media is causing.

This shows how the film industries use sexuality to gain audience, since it is fairly common in our society nowadays. For this paper, I will be focusing on how gender,

Today’s filmmakers have three areas to focus on: the event or theme of the film, the audience who will be watching the film, and lastly, the individual characters and the roles they play and how they are portrayed and interpreted. Many of these films bottom line objectives are to focus on the “erotic needs of the male ego.” The focus on fetishistic scopophilia tend to slant the view such that we see the world as being dominated by men and that woman are

The movie subverts traditional gender roles through cross dressing and discuss the concept of marriage about homosexuality and marital monogamy. Two man cross dressed as women in film is the most challenged part of gender roles. Traditional gender roles included appearance, body language and character of family. The classic image of American women are beautiful and sexy, such as Sugar in film.

A documentary Born into Brothels, by Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman in 2004, about a non-profit foundation Kids With Cameras. The foundation teaches photography skills to the children in Calcutta. Zana a photographer from New York started taking photos of the prostitutes in the red- light district of Calcutta, India. While Zana was taking photos she eventually developed a relationship with eight children, both male and female, these children were fascinated with the equipment that she used. Over the years the children were able to learn through workshops with Zana, the children have created their own photographs with a 35mm camera. The children were able to create and capture the intimacy and color of everyday life within Calcutta.

In Confronting the Male Gaze: Neo-burlesque as Female Empowerment, Toby Renouf poses the question, has modern burlesque become a vehicle for female empowerment, or is it still simply a way to “cater to the male gaze?” (Renouf 58) More specifically, has this traditionally “erotic display for men,” experienced a transition that enables “female appropriation and empowerment?” (59) To explore this question, Renouf conducted “unstructured interviews” of eight dancers, a photographer and promoter, all located within the Edinburgh district of Scotland (59). However, due to “space constraints,” the author concentrated on one of the most popular performers, identified as “Aurora Winterborn” (59). All of these interviews were conducted between “February

The video Dreamworlds 3 is showing the audience how females are portrayed in music videos. Most times when women are presented in these videos, the focus is on their bodies. This picture shows the audience that the definition of female is sexuality. Women in the video were often wearing less clothes, dancing and playing with their own body to reach for attention. I agree with many of the claims about how women often are portrayed in this way. I regularly see this when watching music videos. No matter if the music video is devoted for a female or male singer, the video happens to have a specific pattern of how to picture women. When watching videos

This film is an intensely sympathetic and powerful account of one individual’s struggle to gain acceptance from her family, friends, and the people around her. Observational shots showing Marianna Klapczyńska’s life are intertwined with the documentation of a theatre rehearsal that is, reading the text of the screenplay. Instead of narrating the documentary, Karolina Bielawska allows the story to be told through a screenplay with two actors reading back and forth. Marianna Klapczyńska is a 40 year old women who has decided to sue her parents so that she can pursue her dream in getting sex reassignment surgery (Barraclough, 2015). She and her mother are not on good terms, her mother does not except her for who she is becoming, which is a woman.

Like most popular gender-bending films, Some Like It Hot calls us to critique constructions of sexuality and gender both within the context of historicized moment of the films production and from the perspective of later