Movie Analysis : ' Am I A Boy Or A Girl '

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.

Gender can be defined as “sex roles” which are conditions that one considers to be for men or women. People tends to mistake it with sex or thinks that they are both the same. We discussed about the patterns of gender which how the authors of The Kaleidoscope of Gender describes it as “regularized, prepackaged ways of thinking, feeling, and acting” (Spade and Valentino,2017). It becomes an identity for us. We believe that there is and can only be two genders, being masculine for men and feminine for women. These roles has been forced onto us since birth: blue for boys, and pink for girls. You can see the roles being push onto a person throughout one’s life, but we don’t notice it since it’s “normal” to us.

In Octavia Butler’s Dawn the idea of gender is deconstructed and reformed from the typical human’s definition. Often people do not consider the role of gender in society today. Usually the first thing one notices when meeting someone new is their gender or their presumed gender. However, there becomes a problem when the person whose gender we perceived identifies as a different gender. Butler forces the reader to examine how they judge and perceive gender. While the ooloi are actually “its” their personalities seem to imply a certain gender. The transgender community often brings up this issue because these assumptions of gender based on our judgments of what defines a male and what defines a female can skew how a transgender person is treated and addressed. In Chapter One of Gender Through the Prism of Difference by Anne Fausto-Sterling, the idea of expanding the number of genders based on one’s biological differences is examined through the five sexes theory. By now the concept of gender being defined solely by one’s biology has mostly been left in the past but the question remains of how do we truly define gender? How does being outside of the social norms that Michael Warner talks about cause us to feel shame when discussing our gender and our perceptions of gender? In this essay, I will argue that preconceived notions of gender create shame when a person’s own perception of their gender does not fit the social norms. This stigma around the limited and strict definitions

Gender coding is not a natural or biological characteristic. People are born with different physical and biological characteristics, but make sense of their gender roles through cultural influences. “Stereotypes are amazingly powerful, and we may not realize the degree to which our thoughts, beliefs, and actions are shaped by them” (Silverman, Rader, 2010). Boys and girls are labeled as masculine or feminine, which is considered the “norm” for society. Children are not born masculine or feminine, they learn these roles from parents, peers, media, and even religion. Concepts of gender identity are sometimes placed on children even before their birth, such as with the selection of paint colors for the nursery.” Children begin to form concepts of gender beginning around the age of 2, and most children know if they are a boy or girl by age of 3” (Martin & Ruble, 2004). From an early age, children are encouraged to identify with gender coding. Gender is formed at birth, but self-identification as being male or female is imbedded into their minds by parents and society. A child learns to understand their gender role and their identity by what is taught and expressed to them by others. Yet as a child grows, gender coding can cause cultural confusion, and insecurity issues throughout the course of their life.

We are all living in a society that is filled with social expectations of gender. From our early age, we seem to be able to response to these expectations accordingly. For example, we notice Barbies are for girls while robots and cars are for boys only. In the “Performative Gender”, “Doing Gender”, and “Nerd Box”, authors all indicate gender is learned instead of inherited. They bring out their insightful observation and critical personal experience to illustrate how the social expectations with punitive effects construct our gender unconsciously. These articles provide a great lens for us to understand the mental state and behaviors of the main characters in Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. In Fun Home, Alison Bechdel portrays how living in Beech Creek, Pennsylvania during the 1930s not only repressed both her father, Bruce, and her from coming out as a homosexual and genderqueer, but also trapped her mother, Helen, in her “women box”. Through the graphic memoir, Fun Home is able to present the struggling process that one may need to go through before admitting one’s unusual gender identity and sexual orientation.

A new and alarming trend that has been occurring in American society is the increase of violence committed by young women. The documentary Girlhood offers an insight on the emotional, psychological, and social reasoning behind the girl’s actions. Girlhood focuses on the life of two young juveniles, Shanae Owens and Megan Jensen both incarcerated for violent crimes. Shanae and Megan both experienced similar circumstances that yielded different outcomes. They were followed for a period of about three years which allowed viewers to really see what kind of role the justice system, family and peers have on the success of an at risk juvenile.

They should have the right to dress as they choose, love who they choose, and be who they choose. It angers me that people believe differently considering they’ve never been in their shoes. In the “Paradoxes of Gender” Judith Lorber states, “We need to change biological sex in order to uphold the principle that biological sex determine one character”(41). Lorber's’ preconceived notion that one’s sex dictates their personality is flawed. It proves that society is unaccepting of people outside of the “norm”. Middle Sexes speaks to a wide variety of people but is mainly directed to transphobic people. However, the film isn’t very compelling because it doesn’t take the audience’s outlook into consideration. Through biological evidence and personal stories, the film strives to persuade transphobic people to be more accepting. Thomas attempts to persuade his target audience by referencing the science behind people who blur the lines between female and male. His unique approach is more convincing than an argument that stems from one’s opinions. However, his lack of counterarguments makes it difficult for the audience to relate.

Year 11 English: AS 90854 (1.10) Form personal response to independently read texts, supported by evidence.

Richard Linklater’s Boyhood leaves the audience questioning, asking, and wanting more. The entirety of the film is a recollection of memories and experiences throughout the course of Mason’s childhood. Overall Boyhood is like an unsolved puzzle with missing pieces that aren’t enough to solve the puzzle. The entire movie is questionable and has so many gaps in-between each memory that there really is no plot. Since there isn’t a plot it makes you question if it is really about boyhood, about family, maybe Mason’s childhood, or girlhood. Certain questions begin to formulate like, why doesn’t Linklater use the typical format of storytelling during Mason’s childhood? How come we never know what happened between Oliva and Mason Sr? Why doesn’t

The cisgender casting in Ma vie en rose and Tomboy confirmed thoughts and feelings that I have long felt about youth when they are trying to figure their gender identity out. Dealing with a delicate subject matter, the film portrays the 10-year-old Laure (Zoé Héran) telling her summer playmates she is a boy for the summer while her father and heavily pregnant mother relocate with Laure and her six-year-old sister, Jeanne, to an apartment block in an ex-urban environment. The directness, honesty and tone of innocence in the film is heartwarming and depicts the unsureness youth have at that age when trying to figure out who they are. Tomboy shows the comfort for which Laure, in the identity of new kid on the block Michael, whose hair cut easily

My life in Pink is a film about the challenges of accepting gender identity. Ludovic Favre and his family just moved into a new neighborhood. Ludovic is the youngest child and he wishes to live as a female. At their family housewarming party, Ludovic shows up wearing heels, makeup and a dress. Right away other families were worried for their children.

Argued in Eckert and McConnell-Ginet (2003:15), living up to our gender is learning through a life-long process of socialization. Further supported in Kulick and Schieffelin (2006:352), one’s gender emerges over a lifetime through interactive process in which one accepts, rejects, or modifies the cultural and gender norms they are socialized in. These two arguments supported the idea of this essay’s research question in which cultural and social factors do contribute to gendering an individual, and in turn implicating the creation of a boundary that exclude transgenders from the society.

In this essay I discuss that "doing gender means creating differences between girls and boys and women and men...." (West & Zimmerman 2002:13) I am concentrating on the female perspective, how societyputs forth expectations of what is 'natural' or biological even though, in some cases, it can be quite demeaning and degrading. I am using some examples from the local media and also a few childhoodexperiences that have helped me to now strongly suspect that the quote from Simone Beauvoir (1972) "One is not born a woman, but rather becomes one" most likely has quite a bit of truth to it.

In this piece, we see that X, an unidentified child is raised without social constructs. As we proceed through the story, we see that adults and some children who came across X instantly assumed that they are a boy or a girl from the attire they are wearing; becoming uncomfortable when they are told that X doesn’t identify as neither. This story describes our society down to the tee. We have been taught since the day we were born that we are supposed to conform to the rules and regulations forced upon us by those in our society and the generations before them. We are consumed by gender roles.

The film “My Vie En Rose” meaning My Life in Pink tells the story of a seven year old boy named Ludovic who is convinced that he actually is a girl living in a boy’s body. He tells his parents that "I 'm a boy now, but one day I 'll be a girl." Even years before puberty, he knows that there was a mix-up when he was handed his gender assignment. The film deals of the stress that is not only dealt with by Ludovic but also how his family deals with his realization. The film which is part fantasy, part comedy, and part satire deals with the role of sexual stereotypes in today’s culture. In today’s society there is nothing socially wrong with a girl who is a tomboy. This is a girl who prefers