In my
opinion, the movie we watched this week, Boys
Don’t Cry, had a very powerful message especially considering it is based
off of a true story. Brandon Teena, the
main character, faces many hardships and struggles because of his transgender
identity. In the beginning of the film,
he is running around to different bars and meeting new girls by pretending to
be a male. By the end of the film he is
in love with only one girl, Lana. In
“Brandon Teena, Billy Tipton, and Transgender Biography,” Judith Halbertstam
discusses background information on transgender individuals. She says, “For instance, you may find that a
transgender male is a female-born subject who has had no sex reassignment
surgery… and lives mostly “as a man” but is recognized by his community as a
transgendered man.” (Halbertstam) This sentence
relates to Brandon Teena because he did not have surgery although he wanted it,
because he could not afford to have the procedure done.
I’m sure
this film had a wide variety of opinions and views on Brandon’s character
because he is transgender. I feel as
though those who opposed his character in the beginning of the film may have
had a different perspective by the end of the film because of the harsh
circumstances Brandon goes through. Not
only is he raped by two of the other main characters, John and Tom; he is
killed at the end in front of Lana.
Brandon and Lana had been planning out their life together just before John
shoots Brandon.
Our society seems to become less
anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, but there are still many people
who are very much against those specific individuals. In addition, I think that if this film were
created before 1999, you would find more people siding against Brandon’s
character. John and Tom were both
characters in the film who were against Brandon and his transgender
identity.
I think our society’s
views will change even more in the future.
Hopefully no more terrible incidents, like Brandon Teena’s, will occur
ever again. The way John and Tom handled
the situation was very horrifying and shouldn’t have happened, whether they were
upset with Brandon’s decisions or not.
Brandon’s life has sparked attention in many different ways. Judith Halbertstam notes later on in her
piece of writing, “I will allude here
to a few of the multiple narratives that collect around the name Brandon Teena
and lay out some of the battles about gender identity, regionality, class,
sexuality, and violence that have been produced by this incident.” (Halbertstam) All of the themes that Judith Halbertstam
listed in the quote are themes I believe we need to improve on in our society.
Lexi made some very interesting points throughout her blog post. One part that I agree with is that many peoples opinions probably changed about Bradon from the beginning of the film until the end. At first while I was watching the film I felt a little uncomfortable with Brandons transgender identity but as the movie progressed I realized that he was the was he was for a reason and that shouldn't make or break someones opinion on him. I was also shocked by the hatred crimes against him that took place throughout his life especially in the last few weeks of his life when he was raped and then murdered. I also agree with Lexi that our society has definitely become more welcoming to lesbian, gay, and transgendered individuals in the years following the making of this movie. I also hope that the hate crimes will decrease even more and transgendered individuals will be comfortable to tell the world who they are.
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