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The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

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In the Perks of being a Wallflower the main character Charlie struggles with not only his sexuality, but also the complications of sexuality of those around him. The movie portrays Charlie, Patrick, and Charlie’s love interest Sam, going through one long mischievous bonding trip, while exploring their own sexualities .It opens up with Charlie writing to a friend about his daily struggle in trying to find people to accept him for who he is. Charlie, like many people in society, is uncomfortable in his skin, and he feels judged by those around him. According to Sara Ahmed in “Queer Feelings”, homosexuals always feel uncomfortable because they cannot fit in. Charlie may not particularly be gay, but Charlie meets a man named Patrick who is in fact gay, and they become quick friends. Throughout the movie, introverted Charlie encounters the bad side of sexuality through molestation, bullying, fornication, and domestic violence. For example, Patrick’s lover in the movie, Brad, is a popular football quarterback, who desperately tries to suppress his sexual feelings for Patrick out of fear of what his father, and friends, might think of him. In the past, Linda Garnets states in “ Sexual Orientations in Perspective” that sexual orientation was understood as an old paradigm, so in Brad’s case people would label him as gay, simply because of what he does with his reproductive organs. But, Garnets believes that the new paradigm would say that people can act differently than they

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