Doubts began as soon as Hilary Swank played Brandon Teena. This handsome guy, the man who cut his hair said: If you were your man, I would want to sleep with you... so he was stunned. What, he is a woman? No way? Why shouldn't a man pretend to be a man? Psychological perversion or have the last resort? We are full of doubts.
If you use one sentence to explain, then this is a movie about a woman suffering from a'gender role crisis' looking for life and true love. The so-called gender refers to men and women. Whether a person is a male or a female depends on whether the person has testicles or ovaries. As for the gender roles of human beings, society uses symbols to express: men are powerful and powerful, women are sensitive and gentle; in terms of role allocation, men are the rational and authoritative roles that govern and triumph, and women are dependent and passive sensibility. Fragile role. The default rule is that physiological structure determines gender roles. Human society does not accept monsters, even if the yin and yang people are caused by innate factors, they will eventually have to confirm their gender roles through methods such as transgender.
The problem with Brandon is that his physical structure is female, but his mental structure is male. He is so eager to be a man, with his hair cut extremely short, he wears a shirt on his chest, and a fake male penis on his lower body. In short, he has done everything possible to disguise his appearance, attire, speech and behavior as male. , And then set off to pick up girls at the bar and do what all men would do. But Brandon is not a person who has been hurt or even has some kind of psychological perversion. He just has an extremely strong desire to be a man and put this desire into action. He is unwilling to accept that he is a woman. In this regard, Brandon's explanation is that he has a gender role crisis. He is a woman, but he wants to be a man. This may be nothing to him, but if it concerns others and society, it is a kind of crisis. From this perspective, no matter how the film will develop later, Brandon's misfortune is already doomed.
If you were your man, I would want to sleep with you—this sentence implies the identity of Brandon's cousin, and implies his homosexuality. Gay men like men, so how will Brandon be treated? The cousin's words have already shown that he still doesn't like Brandon, the fake man, no matter how much Brandon pretends to be, fake is fake, and he can't be true. Later, when Brandon was chased by the bar girl's brother, his cousin shouted: You are not a man! The fault is that you are not a man... He knows Brandon's problem, but he doesn't agree with Brandon's pursuit, because in his opinion, Brandon is a woman. Women just can't fuck other women like men, this is the answer he gave Brandon. An ironic answer.
If this answer is not convincing enough, then the addition of John and Tom makes this answer firm and powerful, and cruel. These two men who once regarded Brandon as good friends resorted to their suspicions to obtain the truth by rude means. They dragged Brandon into the room, tore off his clothes and took off his pants. What the hell are you? John yelled and asked, Brandon with a pained look only covered his face and wept. What the hell are you? Man or woman? In fact, he himself didn't know. After all, he was just a poor man who was not favored by God.
What happens when a woman wants to be a man? The actions of John and Tom gave an answer. After Brandon left Lana's house, they forced him into the car, took him to a remote place, took off his clothes, and gang-raped him-his physiological structure has determined his position as a woman in the eyes of men. Regardless of whether his heart is male or not, if he is gang-raped, he is a woman. Feeling fooled and exasperated by his ex-girlfriend Lana and Brandon, John used his vile body to prove that Brandon is not a man. What about in the eyes of women? The strange eyes from Lana's mother and friends also gave the answer. Brandon was abandoned by both men and women and became a monster.
It can be seen that the director is full of sympathy, just like the female doctor who treated Brandon when he was taken to the hospital after being raped. She said: I believe you! However, this doctor is only sympathizing with another raped woman as a woman, not sympathizing with the embarrassment and pain that Brandon considers to be a male character. There was nowhere else to go to the huge earth, and in the end the director had no choice but to let Brandon die—especially tragically and sentimentally, he was shot and stabbed to death by John first.
Thinking about it carefully, the intersex identity cannot be recognized by the society, Brandon is destined to die, and Lana is destined to be alone. This principle is just like why King Kong died in "King Kong", because the actual human society cannot and will not accept the combination of humans and beasts. So Brandon, like King Kong, was eventually killed by a man, leaving a crying female lover speechless to ask the sky!
View more about Boys Don't Cry reviews
