Brandon Teena being trans man, that is, he was assigned female at birth but his gender identity is that of a man. He wasn’t entirely supported by his family throughout his struggle as a trans man. He was evicted from his cousin’s trailer. Teena Renae Brandon,or Brandon is also enduring a sexual identity crisis. His cousin did not understand Brandon’s identity crisis problem and just said that he was a lesbian. Zooming in on the events that take place in the film Boys Don’t Cry, one can have a deeper understanding of gender identity, by applying the ideas of Foucault and Queer Theory. Such main points considered from Foucoult and Queer Theory are the construction of homosexuality, Queer knowledges/Queer Performances and Scienta Sexualis. Boys don’t cry is not a film that only caters to the viewer’s pleaser, but a film that shows ones struggle with gender identity in a Midwestern society. Foucault’s idea of the Construction of Homosexuality explains that homosexuality was born out of sodomy, the 16th century illegal act of sexual intercourse involving anal or oral copulation. Though there may have been homosexuals before then, he feels this constructed sexuality “was now a species.” (20) As opposed to a “temporary aberration.” (20) This idea of homosexuals being a whole different species plays a very similar role in Brandon Teena’s life in Lincoln, Nebraska where an entire city, including him, could not fathom what he was. It was as if he was a whole different species who
The hate crime of Brandon brought national attention to the ideal and possibility that someone would want to change their gender. For many people, this was their first time even hearing about trans people and the violence against trans people. After his death, his identity was challenged and argued even though there are quotes from him saying he felt like a man trapped inside a woman's body. As Karina Eileraas puts it “Transgender violence targets both men and women, but Brandon Teena's case highlights its particularly brutal effects on FTM transgender individuals. Boys Don't Cry provides a clear political incentive to integrate feminist, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender concerns in the analysis of violence against women...Serious risks accompany any attempt to invest the body with particular 'truths' about gender and sexuality”. Brandon was not fully accepted in life or given the support he needed but he is remembered in death and his story continues to inspire many people whether trans or not.
2. I picked this film because of the strong message it is meant to put across, considering that Lee wanted the world to acknowledge that while society had experienced significant progress up to the turn of the century, people still had a long way to go in order for the world to be a morally acceptable place. Reading more information about the girls killed during the 1963 Baptist Church bombing really shocked me and made me want to discuss this film.
The idea that gender inequality is still something that is a big issue in the modern era is shocking. Many women and men work at the same jobs and even do many things the same but women and men are not the same not only in individual’s eyes but countries as well. Many believe that changing the way counties think about genders will force or make a movement for the new ideas of gender inequality to be scratched off the list of issues of today. Lisa Abend’s article “Boys Won’t Be Boys”, talks about the idea of Sweden making these needed changes to achieve this goal. This article uses allusions, ethos, and logos to prove that Sweden is on the path of changing the idea of gender inequality to something humanism.
The film, Boys Don't Cry, Kimberly Pierce's brilliant work of 1999, is the true story of, Brandon Teena, born Teena Brandon, played by Hillary Swank, who created a male identity for herself. Brandon was born in 1972 and died at the hopelessly young age of 21. The actual story takes place within the last two weeks of Brandon's life, in 1993. The movie, a dramatized documentary, was released in 1999. Brandon is a transgendered individual; he was born a female, but feels that he would be happier living as a man. She leaves her brother and hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, where everybody knows her as Teena, to start a new life as Brandon. Brandon ends up in Falls City and his short life, as a man, begins. It is in essence, the epitome of
The film “The Brandon Teena Story” followed the story of Teena Brandon’s, who went by the name Brandon, death in Nebraska. Brandon lived in Lincoln, Nebraska, as a male, despite him being born as a female, at the start of the film. The audience was informed that Brandon had been behaving, acting, and living as a male for years. Brandon’s mother, Joann Brandon, had previously sent Brandon to counseling to treat his attempts and ideas about suicide, and presumably his gender dysphoria. However, after returning from counseling, Brandon’s want of being of man was only solidified. In the middle of November 1993, Brandon moved to Falls City Nebraska. It was in Falls City, Nebraska where Brandon met and befriended ex-convicts Tom Nissen and
In the very first scene of the movie Boys Don’t Cry, we see three immediate characteristics that contribute to Brandon Tenna’s new body image. The first action you see is Brandon fixing his collard flannel shirt, he then continues to fix his hair by licking his hand then flattening the top, and finishes the scene by stuffing his blue jeans with a sock. If we look at this scene in this detail we can notice a few key concepts that effect Brandon’s life, and one of those is Brandon’s strive for acceptance. Brandon’s acceptance was achieved by changing his body image from that of a female to that of a male. By wearing different clothes and acting a different as a male would, Teena Brandon has become Brandon Teena; this is not only an outward projection of body image, but also an internal acceptance of his own body image. Even though Brandon portrays a male to society, when he is found out to be a biological female, he is now portraying his body image to make a stand for survival. Brandon’s acceptance in society as a male is turned into survival when people turn against him when he is labeled, once again, as a female.
1. One of my favorite movies of all time is “The Kids Are Alright”. It centers on a lesbian couple, Nic and Jules, and their two children, Laser and Joni. Laser and Joni are biologically half brother and sister, sharing the same sperm donor father. Laser is only fifteen, but interested in getting to know his biological father. He convinces his older sister to look him up, knowing he would have to be eighteen to do it himself. The movie follows the repercussions of the discovery of their biological dad, and also examines Nic and Jules’ relationship, and Laser’s development of independence, self, and identity.
Boys Don’t Cry, a movie released in 1999, tells a story of events that took place in Nebraska during 1993. The movie chronicles the story of Teena Brandon, a 20-year old female to male transgendered person, who moves from Lincoln to Falls City, Nebraska, a small, rural town. He moves to Falls City to escape the sexual/gender oppression and violence he experienced in Lincoln. From his arrival in Lincoln, Brandon dresses and socializes as a male. He makes a group of friends, girls and men.
Reginald Rose’s play, Twelve Angry Men, examines not only character but America’s judicial system as well. It is a jury’s responsibility to find the defendant guilty beyond reasonable doubt; if there is not proof beyond reasonable doubt, it is the jury’s duty to find the defendant not guilty. However, not all doubt can be eliminated. The motif of doubt is introduced by the Eighth Juror. The Eighth Juror establishes doubt in his peers through the symbolism in the switchblade knife he obtained.
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 movie Mean Girls is set in a high school setting. The movie starts with a new girl coming to the school as a first time public school student. Cady, the new student, is immediately accepted into a group of friends, but later invited to another. The first clique she joins pushes her to become friends with the second group. This subsequently led to a typical high school drama scene. The ways these high school students go about their normal life seem very alike to the “typical” high school. Even though the movie Mean Girls by Mark Waters, uses humor to portray some questionable realism, it effectively depicts characteristics of ordinary high school life and uses realistic characters.
In the case of Spargo’s interpretation of Foucault the hegemonic ideal sexual subject is that of a straight man, who is presumably white and middle class. According to Foucault the category of homosexual emerged in the 19th century out of the development of the field of sexology, when medicine replaced religion as the primary producer of discourse on sexuality, and enforcer of (hetero)sexual norms . Foucault argues that despite their relative position individuals categorised as homosexual were able to create their own discourse (or counter-discourses) to the narrative on unnaturalness promoted by sexology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, thus finding agency within constraining discourses . In this way sexuality and sexual subjects are constructed, understood and questioned through the discourse produced by those individuals and institutions with access to power.
The film Boyhood takes its audience on a unique journey of human development as it is captured over time and presented in the span of the film. Boyhood follows the life of a young boy named Mason, Jr. (Ellar Coltrane) and his family over the course of 12 years. The same amount of time that it took to make this film, giving it a unique and creative perspective. The film focuses on how time progresses, social conditioning, and the how the small things in life are what make up the bigger picture. Boyhood’s director Richard Linklater reminds his audience that they have very little control over what happens in their lives, since it moves at its own pace. We can see time changing through current events, popular songs, hair styles, and fashion rather than a time stamp. As an audience we see how the days linger but the years fly by. The characters have no control over time. It does not matter if they want to slow it down or speed it up, time moves at its own pace.
This film provides a number of practical themes that arise in everyday life that include: moral courage, critical thinking, the value and importance of human life and varying stereotypes. One of the main topics in the film involved organized communication within a diverse group.The purpose of this paper is to analyze the importance of cooperative communities while providing different aspects of leadership.
Homosexuality is defined as a predominant sexual attraction to persons of the same gender. For example, men being sexually attracted to other men and women being sexually attracted to other women (Exodus Global Alliance, 2017). Heterosexuality however, is the opposite of homosexuality. A heterosexual person has a sexual attraction to a person of the opposite sex, as opposed to an individual of the same sex. In Western society, heterosexuality has been constructed to be viewed as the norm, this however was not always the case. Sociologist Michel Foucault coined the term ‘homosexuality’ arguing that homosexuality was not discovered but produced. “Homosexuality appeared as one of the forms of sexuality when it was transposed from the practice of sodomy onto a kind of interior androgyny, a hermaphrodism of the soul.” Following on from the invention of the term known as homosexuality, medical doctors invented a counter-position, heterosexuality. Although same-sex relationships existed prior to the invention of this terminology, it encouraged people to identify themselves and others differently (Angel Daniel Matos, 2013). As a result, the judgment of gender and