Paradise Bent Film Analysis

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In the films Paradise Bent, Muxes–Authentic, Intrepid Seekers of Danger and the Gender and Sexuality section of Explorations in Cultural Anthropology explore the identification of gender and sexuality (Croall and Altmann 2000)(Islas 2006)(Boyd and Lassiter 2011). The introduction to gender and sexuaity in the book Explorations in Cultural Anthropology, Boyd and Lassiter (2011) discuss how once a baby is born, they are being socialized “into one of the two ‘appropriate’ roles- male or female” (Boyd and Lassiter 2011: 218). The baby is expected to meet the expectations he/she is born into (Boyd and Lassiter 2011). For example, in the films, it is greatly commented by the muxes and fa’afafines that they didn’t follow the gender ideologies, the …show more content…

The pregnant woman said she wished that the baby was a boy so her husband could “rejoice” implying that in her culture’s society, boys/men are seen as more valuable and/or respected (Muxes 00:00:25). Not only that but many times the muxes were beat and rejected by their fathers as their mother was more understanding. (Muxes 00:19:31) Although it is also very common to have muxes in the family, many weren’t as expressive and didn’t attempt to look like a woman as much as fa’afafines did. One of the muxes stated how he felt embarrassed when people would address him as muxes (Muxes 00:21:49) It is quite obvious that some muxes know and understand they’re not women and would rather not look like one (Muxes 00:25:50). The rejection and, sometimes, embarrassment does not give them the positive atmosphere that the fa’afafines have in their …show more content…

They are working as men and in the house they are housekeepers (Paradise Bent 00:09:24). Fa’afafines believe that In the western world they aren’t respected today as they are labeled “Drag Queens” and are considered a different sex as they are known as transgender in the United States (Paradise Bent 00:09:00). In Samoa. fa’afafines are not classified as gays which is what the western world would classify them (Paradise Bent 00:45:05). Moreover, the fa’afafines are aware that the modern world would not be very accepting of them and that they would face racism and homophobia. (Paradise Bent 00:44:45) They perceive the western world as always trying to label people into social groups such as gays, transvestis, and/or transexual and doesn’t explain what a fa’afafines is. The lack of acceptance from the modern world of people different from the common gender ideologies would be detrimental for any fa’afafine (Paradise Bent 00:45:11) In the eyes of the fa’afafine, the western world is seen as closed minded as they attempt to label/analyze

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