The Film Boys Do Not Cry - Essay Example

The social life of humans, therefore, helps build up the element of sexuality.
The film, boys do not cry, presents a social misfit whose gender is not readily determined physically. Born Teena Renae Brandon, Teena is torn between two sexes. He is a young female to a male nonfunctioning transgender man. This implies that Brandon has both female and male organs. The two organs do not function sexually and the young man cannot possibly define his sexuality. Through him, the film depicts the theory of the social construction of gender as he utterly refuses to be a woman. He acknowledges himself as a man and carries himself all through the movie as one. All through the movie, Brandon does naturally masculine things. He even falls in love with a woman and is the man in the relationship.
However, his happiness does not last long as he soon after engages in a bar fight and is evicted from his cousin’s trailer. Reassuring himself of his manhood, he moves to falls city where he meets two men and cultivates a friendship with them. The director uses the friendship between Brandon and the two men, John Lotter and Tom Nissen, to elaborate on the claims of the social construction of gender. With the duo, Brandon shows reluctance in in engaging in overly strenuous activities as his other two friends. Men are supposed to be more active than women are; they have more physical energy and therefore generally stronger. Their strength is depicted in the kind of activities they engage in and the way they behave in social spheres. Brandon does not exhibit overly aggressive traits and lacks the physical strength of a man.
His two friends find out about his unusual sexuality and henceforth it becomes a torment for him. Homophobia is a term in gender studies that refer to animosity against or negative attitudes against homosexuality. It is a general group comprising anybody engaged in any form of same-sex or transgender romance. This includes such people as gays, lesbians, bisexuals, or transsexuals. This animosity is a natural reaction among sexually normal people. Society is constructed in such a way that it is acceptable for a man to sleep with a woman; this is the natural law of copulation. Society thus instills this sense into the minds of the normally oriented persons. This enables the brain to give a mental blockade to any sexual orientation that dictates otherwise. This, therefore, explains the natural animosity that the two friends express against Brandon once they discover that he is transgender.
Homophobia is expressed differently but it is a feeling that entails resentment of such people. This is an aspect that normally results in discrimination in such cases and violence in some extreme cases. The two friends become hostile against Brandon; they humiliate him in public and force his new girlfriend to watch while they strip him. They later kill him purely because of his sexual orientation. This type of homophobia is rare, especially in modern-day societies but it is the peak of such animosity. The two do this not because they feel threatened by Brandon but because they cannot comprehend the nature of his sexuality. They thus feel it is better to do away with their friend altogether than try to understand him, which would have possibly happened.
In her book, Suzanne Pharr refers to homophobia as a weapon of sexism. This claim is validated in the film as the two friends discriminate against their other friend and even plot to kill him. The animosity expressed by the two is the weapon that Suzann infers to; this animosity against people with unique sexual orientations gives sexuality a sense and an upright orientation.
Sociologists who understand that sexuality is more social than it is physical agree that people can easily change their sexuality if only society would permit that. It simply takes some persuasion and public acceptance to make same-sex marriage legitimate. “If the society can remove all the stereotypes surrounding homosexuality, the act would not be noticed among the people a feature that would allow people to shift their sexuality at will” (Pharr 55). However, for the sake of orderliness, society defines normal in most aspects of human life and casts several stereotypes that result in such animosities as homophobia merely to keep the balance. Read More