8th October, 1999, Boys Don't Cry was released...
Freedom, acceptance, identity, sex and love is something all teenagers desire. In the case of Brandon Teena, it was something that wasn’t always as straight forward to find. Fifteen years after the film’s release, the topic of transgender is still rarely represented in the media, especially in the film industry. The film’s successful reception is arguably because the film’s motive was not to target a specific audience of transgender or homosexual individuals, it was to share a tragic story about an inspirational person. The film doesn’t represent itself as sensationalistic or subversive, it displays three-dimensional characters that a varied audience are able to relate to and understand.
During the 1990s, there was a movement occurring which was coined ‘New Queer Cinema’ by B. Ruby Rich in Sight and Sound. This movement categorized a selection of films that represented themes and ideals of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Rather than simply disposing these themes, the films rejected ideals of heteronormativity and subverted gender boundaries. The movement initially involved more independent filmmakers, however, these ideals started to be adopted in more mainstream Hollywood features such as Thelma and Louise (1991) and Philadelphia (1993). Finally, there was a space where the LGBT community were able to be represented on screen in a positive light by subverting dominant stereotypes.
starts to dissipate after Brandon starts to date Lana, whom he seems to have treated better than any other man she has dated possibly against her will or due to her naiveté. After a few setbacks it is revealed to the group that Brandon was born female. John and Tom, two of the local thugs, don’t take well to this news and abuse Brandon into confession about whether he’s a lesbian or has “real” male genitals. After finding out that Brandon has female genitals they both rape and beat him in order to assert their dominant masculinity. The need to categorize gender and sexuality is an extremely common discourse within society, even today.
This film really manages to conceptualize this cultural fear of the unknown and unaccepting nature extremely well.
Transgender is still barely represented in the media because this cultural fear of not being able to categorize gender is still rife. Within recent years, representations of lesbian and gay people have started to become more positive and more diverse, rather than stereotypical. This outspoken and honest film inspires to break the ideological conventions of gender and sexuality, and at 15 years old, it really was ahead of its time. It’s a shame that we don’t get to see more films of this theme in our local cinemas today.
by Jennifer Lyne
It’s difficult to associate Boys Don’t Cry with New Queer Cinema because it doesn’t adopt similar conventions to other films within the movement. Boys is more of a tragic love story, displaying similar narrative structures to that of romantic and historical dramas. It’s debatable that very few queer films are able to represent gender and sexuality as fluid and without clean cut binaries, which shows that New Queer Cinema too has adopted its own ideologies. This is not to dispute films that represent gender crisis extremely well (Transamerica, A Girl Like Me), as Boys isn’t about attempting to define Brandon Teena’s condition.
The audience meets Brandon as he’s finishing getting a haircut before heading out on a date. This moment has been sculpted to create the impression that this is the turning point in his life, where he’s finally been able to become confident in himself and truly identify as male. The effect of this powerful outburst is unsurprisingly negative as he’s soon being chased down by a group of men calling him a “dyke”. Brandon’s nonchalant attitude inspires real joy as he expresses “they say I’m the best boyfriend they ever had”. However, this unveiling of Brandon’s “true” self causes him to escape to Falls City, Nebraska, where he falls into a group of social outcasts who accept him as Brandon Teena.
Brandon doesn’t adopt “different” traits that are identifiable as homosexual within the media, he adopts a masculine identity, making it seemingly difficult for the male characters to differentiate between him and other men around him. However, he still challenges the stereotypical values of men, by being respectful and appreciative of women. The groups’ acceptance
