Society writes unwritten “norms” of what’s expected in communities. And most communities fear anything or anyone that could be considered outside the “norm”. This fear can be found around the world, in all different cultures. In the movie, Ma Vien en Rose (My Life in Pink), director Alain Berliner highlights a family shunned by their own community in retaliation of their seven year old transgender son, Ludovic. There are several interesting aspects within this film that highlight the “fear” of difference. Also, the confusion and anger embedded throughout the movie in regards to misapprehended gender based expectations. The question that Ludovic continues to question throughout the film is, “Am I a boy or a girl”? This analysis will examine the reactions that occur from both the community, and the family.
The film’s opening scene which displays couples in a community preparing for a welcoming party for the new family, the Fabre’s. The new couple have four children, three boys and one girl. The atmosphere surrounding the party is carefree and happy. When the Fabre’s
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In parts of the film Hanna’s discombobulated concerning her mother’s behavior. At one point in the movie when Elisabeth changes the music from a slow dance, to an upbeat one, Hanna remarks that her mother is “acting like she is young”. This is an important statement within the movie. They view the grandmother as “acting”, and they view Ludovic as “acting”. Although, for the characters themselves their behavior is illustrating what they believe is right for them. Elisabeth dreams of being young again, and shares her fantasies with Ludovic. She is the one character that is without judgement, and tells the parents that regardless of the circumstances Ludovic is still their child. The symbolic message between the Elisabeth and Ludovic is, “time is short. You have to be
The definition of gender has become way more revolutionary and expressive compared to the twentieth century. Gender used to be similar to sex where someone would be identified as a male or female based on their biological genitals however, this day in age it is way more complex. Someone can be born a male but mentally they feel like a male. In “Sisterhood is complicated” Ruth Padawer explains the journey of different transgender males and the obstacles they face while attending Wellesley college. Wellesley is a women’s college that has been around for a very long time and is in the process of the battling the conflict of whether they should admit transgender students. Ariel Levy author of “Female Chauvinist Pigs” tackles the stereotypes and
I watched the foreign film Ma Vie en Rose (My Life in Pink), a Belgian film by filmmaker Alain Berliner. It is a warm, startling, funny, and realistic study of what happens when a seven-year-old boy is convinced, beyond all reason and outward evidence to the contrary, that he is really a girl. His certitude is astonishing in one so little, and his gender conviction is so strong that his belief can't be laughed away as the result of a “phase” or an “active imagination.” Yet the crux of Ma Vie en Rose is not a study of trans-gendered children per se, despite the fact that such sensational subject matter would seem to be surefire material for attention-grabbing moviemaking. You're never even quite certain about the long-term psychological ramifications of young Ludovic's obsession: Is he trans-gendered, a transvestite, gay, or straight? Such determinations are not the movie's concern. What Ma Vie en Rose is interested in is what it means to be a “difficult” child, a child who whose difference always sets him apart, and what it means to be the parents of such a child. Here we see some cultural differences with the characters.
Is being attached to something in a great abundance a bad thing? Well, it can be in some cases. Undoubtedly, many people in today’s society live constantly in angst with the fear of losing their loved ones and cope with their anxiety in a variety of ways. However, while many methods are accepted by society’s standards as of dealing with their stressors, some individuals have more extreme methods of coping with their separation anxiety. For instance, in “A Rose for Emily”, the main character, Emily Grierson, loses her father and fears a similar event will occur with her assumed lover. For that reason, it is easy for readers to assume that Emily has a separation anxiety. In this story by William Faulkner, she takes what modern day society would consider drastic measures to make sure the two never leave her.
Sex exists in a binary system of male and female, and people can be forced into this binary. A mother of an intersex child states that the surgery comes from “the message that a child’s body is not acceptable as-is and should conform to what the state thinks it should be” (“Their Baby Was Born”). Sex, just like gender, exists in a binary, and when individuals do not fall into the two categories, society becomes uncomfortable. Sex, like gender, is socially constructed (Fausto-Sterling). This means that sex is a spectrum and not the binary it has been made to be. However, society continues to see the binary as normal and will attempt to force individuals to fit the already established system. Because they are in the middle of the sex spectrum rather than at the ends, most intersex individuals in the documentary experienced and continue to experience the same pressures to conform described by the mother and Fausto-Sterling. One person identified with the female gender, but her mother raised her as male. Despite her gender identification, she was continually told to be more masculine and to conform to her assigned male sex and gender. Others also had their appearance shaped through surgery and other means to fit into the sex-gender binary but now choose to identify as neither male nor female. However, this lack of gender-sex identification can leave them socially isolated since
America, if not the world, has always been infatuated with murder stories, movies, and shows. There are countless shows that revolve around solving crimes and finding killers and it seems like more and more keep popping up. There’s something about learning about a killers motives and why they’ve committed the crime that draws people in rapidly. Most people would think of killers as psychopaths. There are two stories that we read throughout this semester that, to me, seemed to have a psychopathic or somehow psychologically disturbed killer in them. “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell show us two women who are seemingly harmless that end up being killers.
“Boys will be boys, and girls will be girls”: few of our cultural mythologies seem as natural as this one. But in this exploration of the gender signals that traditionally tell what a “boy” or “girl” is supposed to look and act like, Aaron Devor shows how these signals are not “natural” at all but instead are cultural constructs. While the classic cues of masculinity—aggressive posture, self-confidence, a tough appearance—and the traditional signs of femininity—gentleness, passivity, strong nurturing instincts—are often considered “normal,” Devor explains that they are by no means biological or psychological necessities. Indeed, he suggests, they can be richly mixed and varied, or to paraphrase the old Kinks song “Lola,” “Boys can be girls and girls can be boys.” Devor is dean of social sciences at the University of Victoria and author of Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality (1989), from which this selection is excerpted, and FTM: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in Society (1997).
Mental health professional have tried to correct their ‘‘gender identity disorder’’ with brutal aversion therapies. Tran’s youth who came out often faced crises throughout their family and social systems. Once out, developing a sense of realness about their new gender became extremely important. An urgent need develops ‘‘to match one’s exterior with one’s interior’’ In ad...
In their publication, “Doing Gender, ” Candance West and Don H. Zimmerman put forward their theory of gender as an accomplishment; through, the daily social interactions of a man or woman which categorize them as either masculine or feminine. From a sociological perspective the hetero-normative categories of just sex as biological and gender as socially constructed, are blurred as a middle ground is embedded into these fundamental roots of nature or nurture.To further their ideology West and Zimmerman also draw upon an ethnomethodological case study of a transsexual person to show the embodiment of sex category and gender as learned behaviours which are socially constructed.Therefore, the focus of this essay will analyze three ideas: sex, sex
Around the world gender is genuinely seen as strictly male or female. If you step out of this “social norm,” you could be considered an outcast. This disassociation includes, biological males/females, interssexed, and transgendered individuals. These people are severely suppressed by society because their gender identification, behaviors, and even their activities deviate from the norm. Most Americans are exceedingly devoted to the concept that there are only two sexes. Therefore, the constrictive American ideals of male and female gender identities inhibits growth and acceptance of gender expression.
Ma vie en rose (English translation: My Life in Pink) is a 1997 Belgian drama film directed by Alain Berliner. The film is about Ludovic, a young transgender girl who is seen by her family and community as a boy, but chooses to express herself as a girl and her family's struggle as they attempt to accept her gender. It comes as no surprise to me that a film like this would come out of Belgium. As it has frequently been referred to as one of the most LGBT friendly countries in the world, even as far back as the 1700s.
In society, people have an issue with things that are different. Individuals want to know who a person is and what they are all about. When human beings cannot figure out what a person is they become confused and often times angry. If a person does not fit into any gender category that someone is familiar with that person becomes an outcast. Being a part of a group is essential in society and those who do not are made to commit societal suicide. If a person is not part of society it is extremely difficult for that person to be able reap the important benefits of society. These individuals are forced to belong to a group that shares the same experiences and lifestyle choices. In this essay, I will be discussing this idea in the form of a documentary called Southern Comfort. It is based on transgendered living in a rural area in Georgia. I will discuss summary, main points, and the importance of cohesion of gender.
Concerning the contextualization of A Rose of Family as a sign of the times of women at that point, where cultural norms of women lead to a life in domestication. The recognition of the rose here as it is carefully placed in the title of the piece as well bears significance to the physical rose and what it meant to the young women in the South during the 1800s (Kurtz 40). Roses are generally given as tokens of love and affection by males to females. There are even remnants of it today where young lads also profess their love to women with roses; women still see it as an act of endearment towards them.
In this article, Shaw and Lee describe how the action of labels on being “feminine” or “masculine” affect society. Shaw and Lee describe how gender is, “the social organization of sexual difference” (124). In biology gender is what sex a person is and in culture gender is how a person should act and portray themselves. They mention how gender is what we were taught to do in our daily lives from a young age so that it can become natural(Shaw, Lee 126). They speak on the process of gender socialization that teaches us how to act and think in accordance to what sex a person is. Shaw and Lee state that many people identify themselves as being transgendered, which involves a person, “resisting the social construction of gender into two distinct, categories, masculinity and femininity and working to break down these constraining and polarized categories” ( 129). They write about how in mainstream America masculinity and femininity are described with the masculine trait being the more dominant of the two. They define how this contributes to putting a higher value of one gender over the other gender called gender ranking (Shaw, Lee 137). They also speak about how in order for femininity to be viewed that other systems of inequality also need to be looked at first(Shaw,Lee 139).
Aaron H. Devor talks about how society places the idea of masculinity and femininity in the minds of men and women, making them everything but genetically tailored. Moreover, Devor states that no man or woman is born to fulfill a certain role, but cultural influences lead to such actions. He believes that society presents gender as “binary or permanent”, meaning that there is no room to identify with anything outside of one’s gender group. Just like race, things are taken from external attributes, as young children we assume that based on outer appearance a male would look one way and a female another way. Women who cut their hair short were considered manly and unwilling to follow ‘normal’ behavior; men who wore their hair long were considered sissies and too feminine to call themselves men. These interactions and opinions are formed from a very young age; according to Devor children acquire gender roles and begin making statements that show a separation between a boy and a girl by the wee age of 5. Gender roles are widely applied all over the world; many people are unable to grow out of old ways due to what they were taught, and then they continue to teach to their kids those same things. Some families are very unaware when they say something like, “you can be whatever you want, but you just can’t…” It happens and it is becoming an ironic phenomenon as time goes
The narrator of the woman’s rose starts by describing the content of a wooden box which has been kept with special care over the years. This box is special because it contains a rose which is unique. Among the rose once belonged some other flowers but none are as important as the rose which resisted the test of time. The narrator moves on by describing the story behind her rose. When she was still fifteen, she visited a village where single men constituted the majority of the population. The narrator describes the only girl who was seen there and the young girl had power to seduce the men. Every one of them was falling for her. As soon as the narrator made her apparition in the village, the young girl became