Boys Don T Cry Film Analysis

In Kimberly Peirce’s 1999 movie, Boys Don’t Cry was based on real life events of Brandon Teena (Hilary Swank) who is a young female-to-male transgender individual. In the opening scene of Boys Don’t Cry, Brandon leaves his hometown because his ex-girlfriend’s brother discovers that Brandon is biologically a female. In the same night, Brandon gets into a bar fight where he met John (Peter Sarsgaard) and Tom (Brendan Sexton III). Eventually, Bandon ends up traveling with Tom and John to a small town of Fall City, Nebraska. This where Bandon falls in love with Lana (Chloë Sevigny), a karaoke singer. Brandon and Lana began dreaming of their future together; however; Tom and John found out that Brandon is a female. After, Brandon’s secret is revealed that Brandon is a female. Brandon is sexual assaulted by Tom and John; ultimately; Brandon is murdered by both of them. Brandon’s gender identity and sexual orientation identity are different from the Unit 1 materials. Unit 1 material dealt with how to operationalize a definition that would create an understanding for gender identity and sexual orientation identity. According Nagoshi, Terrell, Nagoshi & Brzuzy (2014), the meaning of “transgender” is breaking gender roles and gender identity that goes beyond from one gender to another gender (Nagoshi, Terrell, Nagoshi & Brzuzy, 2014). Brandon was in per-transition stage from female-to-male, and fully committed to role of being a male. To fulfill this gender role identity Brandon was seeking surgery to physically and mental becoming a male (Vachon & Peirce, 1999). This was explained by Nagoshi et al (2014), that some transgender individuals feel it is important have their body match their gender identity. Brandon had a strong need to be a male and to behave in a masculine way. There is a complex relationship between gender identity and sexual orientation identity while being transgender. There needs to be more research done on per-transition stage and how it relates to gender identity and sexual orientation identity. In the very beginning of the movie, Brandon is shown getting a haircut while dressed as a cowboy (Vachon & Peirce, 1999). Further along the same scene Brandon stuffed a sock down into his pants, which in his eyes made him more manly and gave him confidence to meet his date. Brandon does play into a lot of stereotypes regarding trans people. Brandon is shown as someone who is uncomfortable …show more content…
To me it seemed Brandon was portrayed a naïve individual who would travel with any individual just because they helped him. His inability to judge his surroundings and individuals around him might have been one of reason for his death. In addition, Brandon was portrayed as a “lazy” individual who is constantly surround by alcohol and drugs. However, it was mentioned in the film that Brandon went to therapy because his mother forced him to go. I wanted to know more about Brandon’s relationship with his sister and mother. Maybe his relationship with his mother might have impacted his ability to trust anyone because he wanted to feel safe. Overall, this film educates people on emotional, physical and psychology issues of the transgender individuals. Furthermore, this film should be included in this course for future semesters. This film shows how violence against transgender individuals can escalate and how violence committed against transgender individuals perpetrate by someone they