The homework left by teacher
Xiaoshou went home and picked a homosexual movie to write queer position objects in this film how to alter or challenge the heteronomative understanding~
So this film review was born~
Throughout Alexander Doty's dialogue 'There Is Something Queer Here', we understand deeper the meaning of 'queer' and 'queer spectatorship'. He discussed gender isn't equal to sex, and the way queer spectators looked at the film is different than straights. I really like a movie called Beautiful Thing (1996 Jonathan Harvey). It uses ordinary thing to describe the most beautiful queer story. Queer position objects in this film combines with Doty' ideas and uses real and irony situations to alter the heteronormative understandings.
This film lets us realize everyone has double attributes of gender. It the same as Doty's discussion that sex is unequal to gender. There are some characters that represent this idea successfully. For instance, Sandra, the lady who always uses 'bird' to call women, fights with her son, brave as a dragon lady to provide a home for Jamie, but she also has her soft parts inside. She cries after her fight with Jamie(her son), she needs Tony(her lover) in her life and she love to wear many skirts. Jamie is a boy who doesn't like soccer. He likes to watch romantic TV shows. He wears round glasses when he reads a magazine before he goes to sleep. Also, Ste who loves sports and is good at cooking, does housework and buys a gift for Jamie. Sandra, Ste and Jamie show the that nobody's inside is completely a man or woman.The definition of gender in heteronomornative understanding is do you have penis or not. In fact, people's habits are all partly like a man and partly like woman, we'd better choose the one we prefer and acting it and not fetter our mind. The inside of people likely to be a man or woman is more important than their body. Queer position objects in this film remind us, human beings should be free to make decisions to their sexual orientation. I remember a dialog in a Chinese homosexual film called East Palace And West Palace (1996), 'Are you a man or a woman?' 'This is the most unimportant thing in the world. If you want to love someone, then you are a man, and if you want to loved by someone , you are a woman.'s habits are all partly like a man and partly like woman, we'd better choose the one we prefer and acting it and not fetter our mind. The inside of people likely to be a man or woman is more important than their body. Queer position objects in this film remind us, human beings should be free to make decisions to their sexual orientation. I remember a dialog in a Chinese homosexual film called East Palace And West Palace (1996), 'Are you a man or a woman?' 'This is the most unimportant thing in the world. If you want to love someone, then you are a man, and if you want to loved by someone, you are a woman.'s habits are all partly like a man and partly like woman, we'd better choose the one we prefer and acting it and not fetter our mind. The inside of people likely to be a man or woman is more important than their body. Queer position objects in this film remind us, human beings should be free to make decisions to their sexual orientation. I remember a dialog in a Chinese homosexual film called East Palace And West Palace (1996), 'Are you a man or a woman?' 'This is the most unimportant thing in the world. If you want to love someone, then you are a man, and if you want to loved by someone, you are a woman.'Queer position objects in this film remind us, human beings should be free to make decisions to their sexual orientation. I remember a dialog in a Chinese homosexual film called East Palace And West Palace (1996), 'Are you a man or a woman? ' 'This is the most unimportant thing in the world. If you want to love someone, then you are a man, and if you want to loved by someone, you are a woman.'Queer position objects in this film remind us, human beings should be free to make decisions to their sexual orientation. I remember a dialog in a Chinese homosexual film called East Palace And West Palace (1996), 'Are you a man or a woman? ' 'This is the most unimportant thing in the world. If you want to love someone, then you are a man, and if you want to loved by someone, you are a woman.'
Beautiful Thing combined with Doty's expression of ' queer spectatorship' leads us to learn that male gay spectators are the same as female spectators to enjoy the male characters in the movies and they also can see things that straights never see. For example, when Ste changed clothes in the washroom, the shot of his naked buttocks and back. Queer audiences use Jamie's vision and were attracted by the male character. In addition, the shot when Jamie help spreading medicated lotion on Ste's back and the first time they sleep in one bed because Ste was chased out from his home. If straights don't know this is a homosexual movie they might think they are just friends, but queer spectators are more likely to see a dubious relationship between two males.These shots give queer spectators a visual pleasure that straights can't feel. Straights are more likely to gain visual pleasure from the relationship between Sandra and Tony or the dirty joke between Sandra and her new boss. According to Laura Melvey's essay 'visual pleasure and narrative cinema', we realize male spectator were attracted by an exhibitionist role of female characters. The queer spectators have opposite feeling than straights. The exhibitionist role for them is the same sex characters, the queer position objects. Altogether, Human beings always have a desire to get what they want, so the function of queer position objects in homosexual movie is same as female characters' exhibitionist role in classical Hollywood films. It means there aren't too many differences between queer or heterosexuals,This result will alter heteronormative understandings.
This film exposes some dark sides of this world and compared them to the queer position object. It shows to heteronormative people, there are lots of things other than queers that people should pay attention to and punish. We can see domestic violence from Ste's family. Because Ste loves sports, and he doesn't have a pair of nice sport shoes. He wears his brother's Nikes. After Trevor (his brother) knows, Ste was beaten by him and didn't allow him to come back home. Also, Trevor has drug problem. Leah is a girl who is discriminated by others because of her race and her dream. Queer position objects in this film compared with these things, it becomes more acceptable for heteronormative understandings. The most splendid shot is after Sandra realizes Jamie is gay, she was crying in the hallway. Suddenly, Leah's shot cut into the film. She looked like she was insaneness or high on drugs, and believes herself is a super star and was singing loud. Then she was standing on the windowsill and almost ready to jump. It is not only funny but it's also a irontic that tells the heteronormative people there is someone else that people need to take care of, and homosexuals are just normal innocent people.
Family support and understanding is a better way to help queer position objects alter heteronormative understandings. In this film, there is a character that touched me a lot. She is Sandra, the mother of Jamie. When Jamie skipped the soccer class, on the one hand Sandra said she wants to use a gun to shot him, on the other hand Sandra lied to Jamie's coach that he was having stomachache and too ill to came to the class. While she knows Jamie is a gay ,and she was fighting with him again. After she saw him crying (because of fight), Sandra hugged him and said 'don't cry'. As a mom, She knows her son is going to have a difficult life. His love won't accepted by social. He was bullied by schoolmates. He could have gotten ADIS (An old opinion). However, Sandra still told Tony that Jamie is the cutest boy in the world.she can robbery when she had no money to buy food for her son. She held a glass of champagne and comfortably tell her friend ' I won't have a grandson anymore.' All of these little things show a ordinary mother how to love, support and protect her child. She is also supporting gay rights. There is nothing to be afraid of if you have such a strong mom. At the end of the movie, Jamie and Ste dance together. Sandra and Leah are the first couple join to them. She was never feel ashamed of her son. It gives an acceptable feeling to heterosexual spectators. In the film, we can see more and more people join them on the dancefloor. This shot reflects how the heteronormative understandings were altered by Jamie, Ste , Sandar and Leah in the film. More and more people accept queers. Although they are queers,their true love touched straights inside. Families often have done the best job to show love and understanding. I believe straight audiences also gain the same feeling and it is going to alter the heteronormative understanding gradually.
From Sandra's love to showing the dark sides of the social, from sex is unequal to gender to different vision between queer spectators and straights. Beautiful thing use details to describe an acceptable queer position in the heteronormative understandings. At the same time it touched whatever queer spectators and straight spectators' hearts, and alter their understandings. This is a great movie.
Work cited
Beautiful Thing. The Internet Movie Database. An amazing.com Company. 1990-2011. Web. http://www.imdb.com/ title/tt0115640/
Beautiful Thing. Tudou. 2005-2011.
Web. http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/rZz3Yce07do/
Doty, Alexander. Making Things Perfectly Queer: Chapter One
'There's Something Queer Here'. University of Winnipeg WebCT. Web.
http://webct.uwinnipeg.ca/SCRIPT/WGS-2262-050_U11F/scripts/serve_home
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