This paper will explore in detail, the way in which masculinity and femininity are challenged in the films Boys Don’t Cry (Pierce, 1999) and Mildred Pierce (1945, Curtiz) by looking at how both concepts are represented in each film. It will identify the way in which both characters Brandon Teena and Mildred Pierce defy the traditional notions of femininity adhering more to masculinity in their own way.
Firstly, the film Boys Don’t Cry follows the true story of Brandon Teena, a young female-to-male transgender who leaves his hometown for his own safety who then falls in love with an aspiring singer, Lana. Both plan a future together, but Brandon meets an untimely end when his secret his found out some of Lana’s old friends in which they eventually
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Brandon Teena identifies as male and wants to be accepted like all other men and not be treated the subordinates and stereotypes that society have made out of women. But then the men in his life, John and Tom, when they find out his secret, they strip any sense of masculinity that Brandon feels by raping him and then eventually murdering him. It is almost a power struggle to re-enforce their masculinity. Both see Brandon male at first, but when they find out that he is not, they feel somewhat inferior because he is dating Lana in which then they feel envious of him for it and so by raping him it’s a role reversal in which Brandon then feels inferior. But murdering him is purely driven by this hegemonic masculinity and homophobia as John and Tom both feel that Brandon doesn't deserve to live in this world because he isn’t normal. And by doing the unthinkable John and Tom again feel this dominance. Because of this, the film “draws attention to both the kind of sexism and gender stereotyping that gives rise to such erroneous ideas about women, and to the dominance in this society of a machismo culture that represses any manifestation of a more ‘feminine’ sensitivity in men” (Phillips, 2006: