Representing Gender in FIlm - Essay Example

These oppressed people possess normal heterosexuality; they are not artificial but express unnaturalness due to a mixture in genders. Butler argues that this unnaturalness can be changed through performativity with the help of either psychologists or close family members. Performative acts are repetitive. They show the behavior of a person. The behavior of the gender a person is comfortable with. The person may represent a different biological gender while the actions performed by that person may be different from the behavior of that gender.

Performativity is mostly experienced in children who lose a parent of the opposite sex. The lose hits their mental status and they are compelled to repeat the actions of that parent and they perform the actions they used to do out of love and devotion. Performativity The movie “Boys Don’t Cry” was directed by Kimberly Peirce in 1999. The story was scripted by Judith Butler. It is based on a true story of a girl who experiences gender transformation. She wants to change her physical appearance to that of a male but cannot afford to undergo a surgery.

She then changes her looks to resemble a male which attracts Lana, a girl who herself is not very feminine. Teena/Brandon is shown to be a quiet and sensitive individual with a bit of masculine characteristics. Lana falls in love with Brandon and shares her secrets related to him with her friends which proves that she is fully convinced that Brandon is a male. Lana believed Brandon to be a male and was ready to accept him with whichever gender he wanted to follow when she started to suspect him of his gender.

Later on in the movie Lana’s ex boyfriend John who is a psychopath and his friend Tom, suspect Brandon of being a female and inform Lana. Lana does not respond to them and tells Brandon that she would accept him even if he was a female. Brandon and Lana were forced to accept that they were lesbians but they refused to do so. Later on Brandon was sent to jail and her identity was revealed there. As John was jealous of Teena/Brandon, he raped her and shot her. After analyzing the film “Boys Don’t Cry” one notices the performativity expressed by characters in the movie scripted by Judith Butler.

At the very beginning of the movie, Teena Brandon who is born as a female but biologically has the gender of a female, expressed her wish to undergo surgery to change her gender but could not due to lack of financial support. Teena or Brandon is seen to play the role of a transgendered person. This movie expresses performativity of gender through the character of Teena/Brandon who wants to live life as a heterosexual male and believes himself to be one. Although being a female it was hard for her to act as one.

Due to difficulty in have the sources for gender transfer, she decided to dress up and act like a male. It was easy for her to express her masculine characteristics as she inherited the male gender more than the female one. When a person has a mixed gender, the person expresses that gender which is more prominent. Therefore, even though Teena had the organs of a female, her behavior was masculine and there was no reason for her not to be a male except for her misfortune of not being able to arrange for the gender transfer operation.

From the very beginning, Teena/ Brandon’s assumption of being a male represents gender to be performative while on the other hand