The Dutch Girl Movie Review: The Danish Girl

2512 Words6 Pages

“You’re not your gender. You’re not your sexuality. You are a human being above all else. In the end you aren’t known for your gender, you 're known for who you are.”(Anonymous). Maybe if ideas and people 's mindsets would have been like this in the early 1920’s than Lili Elbe would not have had such a hard time transitioning from a male to female. The Danish Girl tells a story based on the true life of Lili Elbe, a transgendered woman, and her wife Gerda Wegener. Throughout the movie we get to see the turmoil that transgender people felt during this period of time because of things like sexoligists, who misdiagnosed people, mental institutions, and so called “treatments” to help cure the disease of being transgender. This movie also explores …show more content…

In the United states during the 1920’s, or roaring twenties, through the 30’s was a time of vast African American musical and artistical expression. This movement called “The Harlem Renaissance” gave way to new ideas about homosexuality and transgenders. This movement was also, “Marked by the attitude that homosexuality was a personal matter”(Gibson 52). In other words, they thought that being gay, lesbian, or transgender was a personal choice and should not be against the law. Although a lot of attention was being given to gays and lesbians during this time, not much was written about transgenders until later on in …show more content…

Many people will still argue and say that a trans woman should have played the part of Lili and I would agree that the movie would have been better if this were so, but we also have to think about the movie as a whole and how Eddie did a fantastic job depicting the life and journey of Lili Elbe. The director himself said that he thought Eddie had a great feminine side, which is why he chose to cast him in the first place, and while Eddie in not trans, he must have an amount of femininity to him to be able to play this part so well, and I think that is something to consider. All in all, this movie did a fantastic job in recreating the story of Lili and Gerda, and of pulling in a lot of historically accurate things, such as the sexoligists and thier

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