The Crying Game
¡§Texts both inform us of the social identities available to us, and problematize them; both police our social selves and subvert them.¡¨
Both texts, The Crying Game by Neil Jordan and Loaded by Christos Tsiolkas, use
characters within the discourse to project social identities that have been
problematized due to social constraints. Throughout this essay, I will focus on
sexuality, as this type of social identity has been depicted as a central theme in both
texts. The characters from the texts work to, police and subvert their own sexual
identities within their social milieu.
¡§To claim an identity as a homosexual is to claim a place in a system of social
regulation¡¨ (Connell & Dowsett, 1992). I would firstly like to establish the fact that
homosexuality, in its most general sense, has been argued to have been socially
constructed, therefore sexuality, in this case homosexuality, has to be considered a
form of social identity. I support this with Freud¡¦s theory that sexuality is a result of
social processes whether it be within the family, cultural, class etc., all such processes
assist in forming a particular sexual identity, ¡§ sexualities are not received as a
package¡K.is arrived at by a highly variable and observable process of construction,
not by an ¡¥unfolding¡¦ of the natural; and that social process is deeply implicated into
this construction.¡¨ (Connell & Dowsett, 1992).
The Crying Game and Loaded, exhibit sexual identities yet in different ways. ¡§Liberal
Humanism¡¨ was concerned with universal humanism which tended to homogenise
various types of gays and lesbians. It was ¡§Identity Politics¡¨, which was bench-
marked in western countries throughout the 1960¡¦s, that appealed to Liberal
Humanism and saw that everybody had a right to express themselves and their
identities. It was this recognition that distinguished identities within the ¡§homosexual
identity¡¨.
Both texts, The Crying Game by Neil Jordan and Loaded by Christos Tsiolkas, use
characters within the discourse to project social identities that have been
problematized due to social constraints. Throughout this essay, I will focus on
sexuality, as this type of social identity has been depicted as a central theme in both
texts. The characters from the texts work to, police and subvert their own sexual
identities within their social milieu.
¡§To claim an identity as a homosexual is to claim a place in a system of social
regulation¡¨ (Connell & Dowsett, 1992). I would firstly like to establish the fact that
homosexuality, in its most general sense, has been argued to have been socially
constructed, therefore sexuality, in this case homosexuality, has to be considered a
form of social identity. I support this with Freud¡¦s theory that sexuality is a result of
social processes whether it be within the family, cultural, class etc., all such processes
assist in forming a particular sexual identity, ¡§ sexualities are not received as a
package¡K.is arrived at by a highly variable and observable process of construction,
not by an ¡¥unfolding¡¦ of the natural; and that social process is deeply implicated into
this construction.¡¨ (Connell & Dowsett, 1992).
The Crying Game and Loaded, exhibit sexual identities yet in different ways. ¡§Liberal
Humanism¡¨ was concerned with universal humanism which tended to homogenise
various types of gays and lesbians. It was ¡§Identity Politics¡¨, which was bench-
marked in western countries throughout the 1960¡¦s, that appealed to Liberal
Humanism and saw that everybody had a right to express themselves and their
identities. It was this recognition that distinguished identities within the ¡§homosexual
identity¡¨.
Bibliography: „h Loaded, Christos Tsiolkas, 1998 „h The Crying Game, Neil Jordan, 1992 „h Cultural Studies and the New Humanities, Fuery & Mansfield, 1997 „h Rethinking Sex, Connell & Dowsett, 1992 „h Gender As Seriality: Thinking About Women as a Social Collective, Iris Marion Young, 1997 „h The Internationalization of Gay and Lesbian Identities, Dennis Altman, 1998