Blog #10

For this weeks class we watched the movie Boys Don’t Cry. This movie portrayed the life of a transgendered individual. Famous actress Hillary Swank plays the role of Brandon in this film. Brandon who is originally named Teena Brandon is a women with the gender identity of a boy.  Brandon finds himself in a small town in Nebraska where he finds a group of friends and falls in love with Lana. Brandon fits right in with the guys while drinking, smoking, and fighting with them. For once in Brandon’s life he has people that love him for who he believes he is an do not know that he is actually a woman. When his friends found out his life was changed forever. He was raped, beaten, and eventually murdered. In my opinion, this film embodied not only the story of Teena Brandon but the larger issue of gender identity crisis many are facing. This film opened my eyes to the reality that many are not accepted for who they believe they are. Brandon’s friends John and Tom were the ones who shot him after finding out about his true identity. They were not only upset that Brandon had lied to them but they were not accepting that Brandon had female body parts. One scene that really caught my attention was the rape scene. Brandon was brutally assaulted after exposing himself as a transgender. Although there were many scenes in this movie that made me feel uncomfortable when watching this scene portrays the bigger picture. Hate crimes occur often in our society and something needs to be done to prevent another murder like Brandon’s from occurring again.

The story of Boys Don’t Cry is based off of the true story of the real Teena Brandon. In the article written by Anderson we read about another film created to share the story of Teena Brandon. The documentary titled The Brandon Teena Story shared many interviews with those who dated Brandon during his life. One ex-girlfriend described Brandon as “Brandon was every woman’s dream- he knew how to treat a woman.” Brandon displayed all aspect of being a man and when girlfriend Lana found out he was actually a woman she still loved him for who he was. These two films are examples of hate-based violence.

Another article read this week was one written by Judith Halberstam. This article opened my eyes to what terms such as “transgendered” or “queer” really mean. It also opened my eyes to the realization that there are other ways of identifying yourself rather than a male, female, straight, gay, lesbian, or bi. Everyone has a way of defining themselves and we need to learn to be more accepting of this in our society.  This article also depicts Brandon Teena’s story and helps to explain the way Brandon presented himself as a man and how women chose him over men who women typically chose to be with.