Soldiers Girl is a heartbreaking film based off of a true story created in 2003. The two main characters including Army recruit Barry Winchell (Troy Garity) and Transsexual drag queen Calpernia Addams (Lee Pace) unexpectedly fall in love when Barry lays his eyes on her in the local bar that she works in called Visions. While their love flourishes over time, it becomes extremely apparent that this would be nearly impossible with Winchell’s nosey bunkmate, Justin Fisher (Shawn Hatosy) who strongly disagrees with their relationship. This film does an exceptional job representing a transgender woman as one of the main characters, however she is more so portrayed as the catalyst leading to Winchell’s death in the end. The dominant message in this film is how Binary Thinking (“viewing, interpreting and judging reality in terms of mutually exclusive categories (X is either “this” or “that” and cannot be both)” can affect people In the Transgender community.
Transphobia which is the “irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against transgender or transsexual people” is a large aspect of this film (Dictionary). The film’s plot heats up during the scene in which Fisher brings all of his friends including Winchell to the bar, Visions. This is a drag queen bar which is something that Fisher knew before taking them. In the time there, the men throw out a lot of transphobic banter continuously trying to find out if the drag queen was a “chick” or a guy. When Fisher “forces”
There has been much discussion about transgender adults in recent years but lately there has been a shift to the discussion of transgender children. Growing Up Coy (2016) is a documentary about a 6-year-old transgender. The documentary follows Coy and her family through a time where Coy’s parents fight for her rights as a transgender individual. This film discusses childhood gender-variant behavior, discrimination and prejudice, and proposes many questions about one’s opinions of being transgender, gender identity, etc.
While some issues are not given the amount of attention needed, others are given no time at all. Also, the movies less than positive relationship with transgender women is unfortunately absent. Even though the film is not as intersectional as it should be, it is still a fairly accurate portrayal of the Women’s Liberation Movement. This documentary is great for anyone who is new to intersectional feminism, as well as the history of the Women’s Liberation Movement. However, there is further research needed if one wants a full understanding of either
Sadly, the backgrounds that the girls have view them as the others enemy. One girl in the video states how even though she and another girl are friends, she is going to be the one wearing the enemy’s uniform. She describes the ordeal as “stupid.” I understand how it would be stupid because the girls’ backgrounds intervene with their friendship. Acceptance plays a role in their relationship heavily. The girls had to learn about each other and open their gates of acceptance to see that they are not so different despite where they came
The main setting of Trans-Sister Radio is within the small town of Bartlett, Vermont. The primary focus is set on Dana, a chromosomal-male college professor who is in the process of transitioning into the female gender. As a male, Dana is well-received by her community, even though she is perceived as strange and effeminate. She forms normal romantic relationships with women, has a fulfilling career, and is admired by those surrounding her, however she still feels incomplete. Unfortunately, what is missing from Dana is not externally noticeable, it is intrinsic happiness. From a young age, Dana suffered from gender dysphoria, a mental disorder that causes individuals to experience serious distress due to frustration with the sex and gender assigned at birth (APA, 2013). To alleviate the traumatic pain that has burdened her for decades, Dana makes the bold decision to partake in complete gender reassignment surgery. Trans-Sister Radio challenges the prototypical ideologies of character growth, morality, and relationships through its descriptive insight on transsexuality and thus gender.
In her book “Gender Outlaw: On Men, Woman, and the Rest of us,” Kate Bornstein goes over a lot of the major issues regarding gender awareness and identity politics. She talks about the ideas of labeling ones self, understanding gender differences, how people view laws, behaviors, and the medical and scientific privilege that make transitioning challenging for a lot of people. Bornstein touches on many of the issues today that affect trans people. She includes poetry, pictures, quotes, essays, and a play to raise questions and discuss the idea of gender. This is a great book to introduce and discuss the issues that affect the lives of trans people as they navigate and explore the lines that define gender.
All in all, the documentary The Middle Sexes covers many controversial topics. Some of these topics include the biology of middle sexes, the dangers of being a transgender, and societies outlook on transgenders. With much analysis, I’ve realized that this film has too narrow of a perspective on transgenders and middle sexes. The restricted perspective prevents the audience from being
Gender norms surround every person in every culture, even though they have variety in each culture, they are still real and still impact individuals who stand out from the norms. Leslie Feinberg's book “Stone Butch Blues” shows how hard it is to challenge gender in the 1960’s when homosexuality and the transgender movement was something that was just starting up. Leslie shows the reader that just by existing in a transphobic environment ze is challenging what it means to be a man or a woman, and more importantly, what’s in between. Leslie shows that gender isn’t just black and white, it’s a spectrum of colours.
Leslie Feinberg’s “Stone Butch Blues,” narrates protagonist, Jess Goldberg, through hirs bodily transformation as a transgender. Jess, born as a woman, went from identifying as a “he/she” to passing as a man, until ultimately identifying as neither male nor female. Jess’s journey as a trans was far from easy, due to the violence, from the police and peers, ze often fell victim to. Moreover, when growing up Jess never felt as if there was a place for hir in society. When Jess was around 16 years old, ze finally begins to search immensely for hirs “type of people.” Through the referral of a co-worker Jess was able to find a bar, Tifka’s, which possibly contained hirs “type of people.” Once inside the bar Jess describes it as “everything [ze]
There are a lot of people in the real world who are just ignorant about transgender people. We need someone to educate the world on this. An essay written by an 11-year-old transgender child named Sadie Croft has been circulating in social media, bringing its clear call for transgender equality to wider attention. The essay, titled "Sadie 's Dream for the World," envisions a time when the discrimination and stigma that transgender people face on a daily basis at every age will be over. Sadie writes, "It would be a better world if everyone knew that transgender people have the same hopes and dreams as everyone else. We like to make friends and want to go to school. Transgender people want to get good jobs and go to doctors like they are exactly the same. It really isn 't that hard to like transgender people because we are like everyone else" (Michelson, 2013). According to Huffington Post, Sadie began transitioning in kindergarten socially, and her moving words come on the heels of President Obama 's historic inauguration speech, in which he called for gay and lesbian people to be treated like anyone else under the law. It is so encouraging to see a transgender youth coming out at an earlier age and showing the world who she is. Her stories are piling up, and awareness is in the atmosphere. Sage has an awesome family, who supports her and gives an inspiration for other parents out there less ashamed of finding out their child is transgender. We still have a long way to go in
The “Lost Battalion” film was a great film about World War One. It showed a lot about the horrors of the war. It also brilliantly depicted the reality of the war.
During an episode of The Cleveland Show a man sleeps with a character who turns out to be transgender and is literally sickened by this fact. Although not a television show, The Crying Game is partially responsible for bringing this idea to the general public. Serano references this movie in “Whipping Girl”, which shows a similar repulsed reaction when the character reveals she is physically male. Serano also states “the media hypersexualizes us by creating the impression that most trans women are sex workers or sexual deceivers” (Serano, 16). They are either deceptive by tricking us with their penises, or they are pathetic and ugly, which makes them look like a failed woman.
In this paper, I will write about “Thelma and Louise” (1991) movie. I choose a last scene of the movie which the police came to arrest them in the Grand Canyon (from 122 to 125 minutes).
When you go to see a musical for free because their box office numbers are down, you have to adjust your expectations a little. I know that. But Tuck Everlasting was one of my favorite stories growing up. The book, the movie… the idea of a little girl whose curiosity and excitement for life could light up the never-ending world of four adults always struck a chord with me, and I was beside myself with excitement to see how such a whimsical tale could be brought to the stage. For the sake of this essay, I’m going to phrase my opinions in a brash, confident way that make me seem like much more of a know-it-all about this show than I, in fact, am.
Before the Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock made its way into theaters across the world, film was produced in a completely different way. Some of the elements that were in Psycho were things that nobody saw in movies before. According to Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman, when the movie came out, it took place in “an atmosphere of dark and stifling ‘50s conformity” and that the elements of the film “tore through the repressive ‘50s blandness just a potently as Elvis had.” (Hudson). Alfred Hitchcock changed the way that cinema was made by breaking away from the old, “safe” way of creating a movie and decided to throw all of the unwritten rules of film making out the window. The main ways he accomplished this task was by adding graphic violence, sexuality, and different ways to view the film differently than any other movie before its time.
Imagine if you were to be judged for who you were, or what you did, or even your gender type. In the world there are a lot of social injustices going on even to this very day. One of the most common and heard of social injustice would probably be the one of people being lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender. This issue has been going on for quite a long time now. Some people do not agree with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender projects. A lot of people suffer because of this injustice, and it also affects their whole lives. A lot of the people that go through this most likely end up fighting back for what they believe is right, which in their