Analyzing The Spectators In Boys Don 'T Cry'

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The queered spectator; New Queer Cinema and gender representation
New Queer Cinema aims not only to represent gender as a spectrum, but also to queer the spectator’s views of the hetro-normative model of sexuality. Queering the spectator can be seen as placing the spectator in a position where they are forced to reassess hegemonic heteronormative assumptions. Anat Pick claims that Kimberly Pierce's film Boys Don't Cry (1999), effectively achieves this through the Exposure and sex scenewhich present and subvert notions of gender.
New Queer Cinema has often been thought to mean cinema for/about homosexuals, however it is not characterised as films that have homosexual subjects, rather it is identified by its objective to 'queer' the spectator (making the audience uncomfortable), and their spectatorial position, by forcing viewers to reassess gender in relation to the …show more content…

66).
'Queer' films adopt an insidious strategy, seeking to undermine such rigid categories as gay and straight… Brandon alert to all the ambiguities, is not a lesbian though he has sex with women. while he has adopted some of the physical attributes of a man (clothes, hair-style, certain mannerisms), Brandon has retained a softness and sensuality which implies a critique of conventional masculinity, and which is the secret of his sexual success with women
Queer Cinema exists to substitute the constraining hetronormative model to include models of homosexual, transgendered and intersexual subjects, dispelling myths of gender (Peta Bowden, 2009). Gender difference also serves to empower men. Peta Bowden states; ...But they should desire that which gives males pleasure, and they should see all other sexual pleasures and practices and deviant (Peta Bowden, 2009, p.