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A Boi’s Life | Amaris Blackmore & Heidi Petty

“An intimate look at a slice of the new generation of queer identity: bois. Boi is a term used in the queer community to refer to a person’s sexual and gender identity, and it may include: a person who looks and acts like a young, heterosexual male, a transman, an FTM or female to male, a submissive butch, or a bisexual gay with effeminate traits.”

I found it interesting that this little short film was from Current TV. It kind of gives the film a trendy tone, which is interesting. It’s like they’re trying to make being trans or identifying as a boi really trendy and hip…not that it can’t be? But maybe that shouldn’t be the focus of the film… I think there’s a weird line forming in these new “looks” at gender nonconformity in modern queer life - between displaying people and lifestyles as trendy or “normal” or like some sort of spectacle to look at (kind of like the freak show thing Eli Clare had talked about) I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I think it’s something to look out for and be aware of - that is the angle from which these films and tv shows are made.

-Lani

The UK film, Billy Elliot, won over many hearts in the U.S. Billy Elliot is a boy who loves to dance and gave up his boxing gloves to do so without his father’s consent. His father is particularly against this once he finds out and definitely does not want to pay for his lessons because as he describes in the scene attached, “Lads do football, or boxing, or wrestling but not friggin’ ballet.” Billy’s dad seems to be worried that he is a “poof”-slang for homosexual. When characters do actions that are gender non-conforming, they will often have their sexuality in question by the audience and usually by other characters as well. When gender performativity “crosses” or goes outside of the boundaries of their “natural” gender, it’s seemed to be indicative of communicating a type of sexual orientation, not gender identity itself. Billy Elliot also has a gender non-conforming friend who seems to also be homosexual— he kisses Billy on the cheek in one scene and also wears makeup and a tutu in several scenes. All of these gender non-conforming characteristics seem to indicate that he is gay, and in the final scene of the movie he has a partner with him, solidifying that he grew up to be gay. He also mentions that his dad sometimes dresses in women’s clothes. Whether this is supposed to mean that he turned gay because he saw his father doing it, it’s not exactly clear, but it does make me think of how we view white children who are gender non-conforming as innocent and adults as criminal. NPR and news specials have been covering more stories about trans or gender non-conforming people—all of them white children to help prove the humanization of being trans. Children are desexualized in innocence, and this creates a problematic dichotomy of the innocent versus the guilty. This is a false dichotomy that is the basis of our criminal justice system. Individual punishment is how we find justice here in America, as opposed to addressing the institutions that uphold oppression.

-Laura

Psycho is the classic example of the pathological/tragic gender non-conformer. Norman Bates, the killer in this film, has split personality disorder and dresses up as his mother, who kills whoever Norman is attracted to. One of the most famous and shocking scenes is when at the end, you see that his mother has been dead in the basement and he is the one dressing up in a wig and dress while he stabs people (usually young, attractive white women) to death. His cross-dressing is literally a part of his pathology, in this case. It’s equated with mental instability, illness, and impulsiveness to the point of extreme danger. The clip attached is a scene from the movie towards the end when Norman has been convicted of murdering his mother and her lover as well as three other women and shows how his thoughts are consumed by his identity as his mother. This story, again, is loosely based on a real serial killer, Ed Gein, who also inspired similar characters who wear women’s skin—Buffalo Bill, from Silence of the Lambs, and Leatherface from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series. Why is it that we have obsessed over this trope, and why is it so scary to us? Why is it still thought of in our culture as one of the scariest films ever made? Many people find the ending surprising, but really it’s following a very particular formula and narrative that we’ve seen time and time again of gender non-conforming as criminal and mentally ill.

-Laura

As mentioned below by Deedee, Boys Don’t Cry is another example of trans/gender non-conforming person as tragic. You’ve already been told the general story by Deedee, along with the trailer below. Boy falls in love with girl, boy is outted as trans, boy gets raped and killed. Again, when there is REAL queerness going on, usually the story ends a little bit more than tragically. The last 50 minutes of the film are dedicated to showing the violation and violence of Brandon’s character. His bags are gone through, his experiences are criminalized and dehumanized, his body violated multiple times, and in the end, he is killed. Yes, this is based on a true story. This is the film’s (and everyone who helped produce it) way out of seeming like they are stereotyping or fabricating the story, but this is an interpretation of a true event. There are also many stories that are not made into movies; there are hardly any about trans people of color, and when they are, they are usually portrayed as very deviant. The filmmakers can say, well, he was raped! It happened, it’s true! But the story is fictionalized and they chose which parts to include and exclude and how they portray his life while they tell the story of Brandon for him. This is a story in which, as far as I know, no trans people were involved in. The last hour of the movie is triggering to say the least. It is not about Brandon, although there is one attempt at showing an out of body experience that lasted about 1 minute. By watching this movie and feeling bad for the violence, the audience can feel good that the perpetrators (the ones who raped and killed Brandon) were caught and punished by the state. Problem solved, right?? Not quite. This erases the structural and instituionalized violence that trans people still experience. And as I watch Hilary Swank (a ciswoman who played Brandon)’s acceptance speech, after they announce Brandon as “a girl living as a boy” not a boy or even trans, in her gown and sparkling necklace while she says “We have come a long way” I have to ask, have we really? I don’t think so.

PS: Skip ahead to 1:50 in the video to see Hilary Swank

-Laura

Angel from Rent, based on the musical broadway production by the same name, is another good example of the tragic gender non-conforming character. If they are happy in life, even while they are being harassed, they will most likely die at the end of the film. If not by brutality and violence, such is the case in Boys Don’t Cry, then most likely from AIDS. Angel dies of AIDS and there are a few scenes from the funeral and the graveyard.

The problem with these tropes go much further than their individual stance and context in the story and end up engaging in a much larger context of social narratives. When the only stories we see are depictions of death, violence, horror, or comedy, we must realize how that affects our views of cross-dressing and gender non-conformity as a culture. Most likely it’s comedic, when it’s not it’s frightening, and when it’s real they die.

-Laura

Now for a change of pace (for my posts): gender non-conforming character as pathological/tragic. These gender non-conforming characters are not temporary cross-dressers, but have a prolonged experience, usually chosen. There are a few really great examples that have already been posted below by Hannah and Deedee.

In this case, the character from the horror movie Sleepaway Camp was raised as a girl while she was male biologically. The audience & the other characters do not find this out until then end when it is revealed that not only is Angela a pathological killer, but she is also, biologically, a male. Two characters from Sleepaway Camp find her, holding the severed head of Paul, a love interest of Angela’s earlier in the film. Angela is also completely naked with a horrifying facial expression. The nakedness seems to be so that the characters, as well as the audience, can be shocked that Angela is not only the killer, but also has a penis. It seems to be Angela’s choice to be naked and reveal herself this way. This is problematic because obviously it shows that people who are gender non-conforming are dangerous, perverted criminals. Nakedness can be vulnerable for many people because we are taught to be ashamed of our bodies but it can be especially scary for people who may experience violence because their biological body does not “match” their gender performance, or perhaps is ambiguous. It also seems like her body is not her own, she is putting it on display as a way of outting herself for the other characters and the audience. Afterwards, it is learned that Angela, who’s family was known to have died in a boating accident while swimming, was born Peter. The “original” Angela is Peter’s sister, who died in the accident. Peter’s aunt chose to raise Peter as a girl and switched her identity over to Angela.

It is similar to the trope of disguise because people seem to believe that Angela (Peter) was “faking” her identity and “passing” for a girl, as well as outside forces as reasoning for Angela to be gender non-conforming.

-Laura

Deedee: Another well-known representation of a transsexual in film comes from the 1994 film version of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. In the film, Terence Stamp portrays a transwoman, Bernadette, who embarks on a road-trip across Australia with two drag queen friends. Bernadette is a calm woman who has tired of the drag scene. She agrees to accompany her friends for old time’s sake, but wishes to be free to live her life without reference to her past as a drag queen. Bernadette is shown as being more mature and dignified than her male traveling companions. Compared to the two men, both wild, profane, and sometimes immature, Bernadette is by far more respectful by heterosexist terms, despite her gender non-conformity. This is because she is assimilating into heterosexual culture – desiring to fit the ‘proper’ mold of femininity as opposed to the drag queen’s appropriation of female attire whilst retaining their male identities. In addition, the inevitable reference to Bernadette’s past life as “Ralph” continues to come up due to the younger drag queen, Adam. The film does attempt to portray the non-confirmative lifestyle of drag queens and transsexual in a positive light; unfortunately, in this attempt, the film plays into existing stereotypes of trans people as wanting to become a part of the heteronormative culture.

One movie that has the disguise-by-dressing-in-drag trope did it a little bit differently…that movie would be The Birdcage. A remake of the french film La Cage aux Folles, this movie also has Robin Williams in it, but this time his partner is the one in drag. Robin Williams’ character, Armand, owns a drag club, and one of the stars is his partner, Albert. Albert is very feminine, and at one point even says he is a woman, but for the most part he seems to identify as man. His feminine qualities seem to be more indicative of his sexual orientation than his gender identity. Armand’s son, Val, is getting married to the daughter of a conservative politician. They put on a facade of heteronormativity and Albert ends up dressing in drag to impersonate Val’s mother. In the end, the whole conservative family is forced to dress in drag to escape the paparazzi, which would be bad for the polls as a conservative politician…In this case though, they end up seeming to enjoy their roles a little bit more than most characters do that fall under this trope. The politician is the one in the white dress and wig, his wife in a black, wig, get up, and hat.

-Laura