Boys Don't Cry Analysis

Boys Don't Cry Analysis Brandon was deffinately a very confused person, but yet seemed to have everything under control most of the time. This is the only reason that she was ever eve able to trick everyone into thinking she was a he. Brandon was able to apply most of the male social norms to her every day life, for example: Drinking and driving, neither of the women were asked to drive after they had been drinking, it was the least drunk male that drove them all, and that illegal social norm is usually attributed to males only. Brandon committed many deviant acts through out the movie, some illegal, and others just kind of weird. An illegal deviant act was her stealing cars, a non illegal deviant act was her trying to drink like a real man, when there was no doubt in her mind that she would be able to. Because deviance refers to socially disapproved behavior, which is basically what Brandon did through out the movie.

The normative view of sexuality is one of scorn and hatred; Tom and Jon had normative views of sexuality. They did not understand it, therefore they did not like it, and it's as easy as that. While on the other hand the reactivate view of sexuality has a much more broad and opened mine about the subject. Lana was a reactivate when it came to sexuality, she understood what Brandon was feeling for her, and no matter what the consequences were, and she would live with them. The normative view of sexuality is definitely the perspective that best applies to sexual identity. That is really kind of what sexual identity is any way, how you as a human want to look, feel, and act.

The medicalization of deviance in this movie ran ramped; almost everyone had some sort of problem that could be considered an illness. With Tom, Jon, Lena, and her mom, it was drugs and alcohol. For Brandon, it was her sexual identity problem, she just did not comprehend that she was a female, and has to live with it. Medicalization of deviance, and conflict theory go hand in hand, because all medical model does is create conflict, right? It is just like our justice system out there, the number of poor people getting arrested in the United States out numbers the more wealthy and respected by three times. Should that be telling us something about how we are running this country. That is the same reason for all of the characters in the movie; they drink, swear, steal, and lie, basically because that is the way that they like to live in the lower classes of society.

I would have to say that what Brandon has is not a result of bad parenting, but rather a medical deviance problem. I am sure that Brandon's upbringings were not great by any means, but it did not turn Brandon into what she had become. So basically what I believe is that, yes parents do need to show their children both rewards and punishment, but in moderation, but neither of those will help that much when it is as bad as Brandon's case There were many examples of Brandon conforming to male roles through out the movie; some were pulled off better than others. One that she did pull off quite well was her ability to sexually please a woman with out her knowing that Brandon actually had no penis. Another male role she played well was her ability to slip little messages in to conversations or situations that would back up her manliness. Like getting in a fight at the bar, or waiting at the door until the girl had gotten in to make sure she was ok, or the suggestion of Brandon having a baby of her own, but while still keeping the masculinity in the subject. One of the hardest challenges that Brandon faced was riding the truck; she took a tremendous beating for a woman and shook it off like a man would do. When you know she hurt much worse than she showed, because that would not be very manly to show your pain.

So in conclusion I would have to say that any woman that could pull off being a man for that long with out even her closest friends knowing about it for that long of a time period is a very strong willed person, and maybe deserves to live as a man, or what ever she wishes to be.