Queer Review: Victor Victoria

Victor Victoria is notable for being one of the first American movies to show a gay character in a positive light. The movie is an absurdest quasi-musical, that relies on a fair amount of slapstick to keep the plot moving. It came out in 1982 - the same year as Tootsie, another picture about cross dressing.

The setting is 1930's Paris. Victoria Grant (Julie Andrews) is a high-class singer who can't find a job because all the clubs are not looking for the kind of act she's offering. She becomes so desperate that she tries to scam her way out of paying a restaurant bill by sneaking a cockroach into the salad. This allows her to meet Toddy (Robert Preston), a flaming, yet gentle queen. The day after the two meet, Toddy becomes inspired to try a different kind of scam. Dress Victoria up as a man and have her play a male-to-female impersonator. At it were, female impersonation was a well respected form of entertainment at the time Victor Victoria was set, as it was considered very difficult for a man to pull off such an illusion.

In any event, Victoria - now Count Victor Grazinski - is introduced by Toddy to a talent scout, and soon her/his opening night is a smashing success. This is when she catches the eye of Chicago mobster King Marchland, who immediately sees right through Victor to see Victoria. Naturally all sorts of complications arise, as the other Chicago mobsters now think Marchland is gay, which they don't like. Meanwhile, his burly body guard "Squash" Bernstein (Alex Karras) is also inspired to come out of the closet and the owner of another night club who has a beef with Toddy and suspecting that all is not as it appears, hires a private investigator to look into the matter.

The movie features a fair amount of low brow slapstick (such at the misfortunes that befall the private investigator), some nicely choreographed song and dance numbers by "Count Victor", and suitably witty dialog. The acting jobs are all well done, with Alex Karras's performance being my favorite, despite his character being secondary. Julie Andrews is fun to watch, ethier when she's playing Victor and Victoria. Even though it's pretty obvious to the audience watching that Victor is really a woman, Andrews carries herself with enough of a swagger to make the ploy seem plausible. On the production side, Blake Edwards provides the sort of low key direction needed for the movie to work.

Thematically, Victoria's cross dressing allows the movie to address a variety of feminist topics. At one point, Victoria openly confesses that she has many more doors open to her, now that she's playing a man, than when she was a woman. The movie doesn't belabor too many points, but they are there for those who want to look for them.

Victor Victoria was made in the 80's, but feels more like a well aged classic thanks to the historical setting and high caliber production values. In the end, this is simply a fun and very enjoyable movie.

Queer Issue: The Results of the Uterus That Never Fell Out.

Sometimes parents can be really embarrassing. Come on, I'm sure we've all been down that road, haven't we? Your mom asks you to go to some function to honor her track coach from high-school and you agree, because she asked all the while thinking "how bad can it be?"

Then you get there, there's your mom's classmates and fellow track runners and naturally your mom just has to introduce you to everyone as "proof that cross country running does not cause a women's uterus to fall out". I wanted to put a bag over my head while she went on to talk about another myth from that time. This one apparently was used to prevent women from running more then half a mile by claiming that they were guaranteed to collapse after more than two laps around the track.

Actually, I should admit that my embarrassment at the "proof the uterus won't fall out" comment was momentary. I also found out at the event that my mom was also the first female cross country runner at Unatego Jr. Sr. High after the passing of Title 9, which forced schools to allow equal access to sports for both genders. Which probably shouldn't come as much of a surprise to me. After all, my family has something of a history of women breaking down the gender barrier. For instance, my grandmother was the first women on my mothers side to attend and graduate college and faced, as I recall from the stories I was told, huge resistance from her parents in order to do so.

In any event, this all got me thinking about the lies being spread about the LGBTQIA community by newly inducted groups onto the Southern Poverty Law Centers List of Anti-Gay Hate Groups, such as the American Family Association and Americans For Truth About Homosexuality.

Lies such as Homosexuals molest kids at higher rates or have shorter lifespans than heterosexuals. Every group that attempts to challenge the status quo, to shake things up, is going to get push back. Or blow back, if we go with CIA terminology. Society never appreciates the rebel.

Misinformation about the physical inferiority of women was made up to prevent them from directly competing against men in sports. "Your Uterus will fall out" is no more legitimate then claiming that being raised by a same sex couple will cause psychological harm to a child.

The above lies about the LGBTQIA community are still being propagated to prevent the repeal of DADT, marriage equality, or same sex couples from adopting kids. Using scare tactics to promote oppression will probably never go out of style. In short it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Queer Review: Boys Don't Cry

Boys Don't Cry falls into the general category of films that can be very difficult to watch, but that should not necessarily a reason to avoid watching it. Two scenes in particular stand out for there uncomfortably graphic presentation of a rape and multiple murder. This movie is a downer and I came to the end of it feeling unusually depressed. What makes this movie redeemable is that this is a non-exploitative presentation of a real trans female-to-male individual who was brutally violated and then later murdered for daring to live according to his true identity.

The story follows Teena Brandon, who at the beginning of the movie, has just moved to a small rural Nebraska town. At the start, Brandon seems to fit right in. He wins over the girls with his sensitivity and the guys like him as he appears to be just like one of them with his drinking, cussing, and bumper riding. Then its discovered that Brandon is not biological male and events spiral out of control towards their tragic and inevitable conclusion.

The movie's cast is headed by Hilary Swank, who gives the most memorable performance. Swank presents Brandon as cocky and fearless, yet her performance also shows subtle moments of uncertainty and fear beneath the swagger. Chloë Sevigny and Peter Sarsgaard also give strong performances as Brandon's lover and main antagonist respectively.

Kimberly Peirce directed Boys Don't Cry and - other than a few pretentiously surreal shots and short scenes - provides a firm grounding for the film. She does a very good job of building a sense of dread and making the audience acutely aware of the danger Brandon is in once events have reached a tipping point.

A couple of scenes stand out that I want to mention. One, where Brendon is being cruelly forced to expose himself (to determine his biological gender) he looks up and sees himself standing outside the bathroom he's in, watching himself being violated. It's a brief, yet powerful moment and made me think about how many people undergoing traumatic events often report having an out of body experience.

The other scene, is where Brendon is raped. The scene is not presented any more graphically then is necessary, but this is the point where most people will find themselves involuntarily looking away from what is happening on screen.

I am recommending this film in spite of it's depressing and disturbing content on the grounds that it is telling a worthwhile story and told it rather well. The only negatives are the aforementioned surreal scenes. Overall, this film deserves to be seen for Hilary Swanks superlative performance and the strength with which it tells the story of Teena Brandon.

Queer Issue: The Feminine Insult

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association recently wrote an article entitled "The Feminization of the Medal of Honor" which angered pretty much everyone who read it, feminists and those who felt that Bryan Fischer had insulted Medal of Honor recipients. Which Fischer pretty much did by using feminization as a pejorative.

Before I get into the larger point I want to make, I am going to point out that I am not sure which is worse, Fisher's grasp on theology or his grasp on basic logic. I can not help but shake the feeling after reading this article that I somehow skipped the part of the Bible where Jesus decided to introduce the Roman Centurions to his "little friend" before mowing them all down in an epic blood bath.

I personally think Fischer needs to put down the X-Box 360 remote and realize that the Medal of Honor is not a video game that can be won by destroying the most lives. Killing people is easy. In this day and age, technology has given us a myriad of ways of doing so without putting ourselves in danger. Killing should not be considered the mark of a hero or proof of masculinity.

However, I'm ignoring the larger point I wanted to get at. While Fischer equates killing and destroying things as marks of manhood, he uses femininity as an insult to imply weakness. This not only insults all women serving in the armed forces, it also begs the question of why the feminine can be used as a sign of weakness to begin with.

What I want to say is this. Just because someone is male, female, or any other gender, does not mean that they are weak or cannot fight or risk it all for a worthy cause. Courage, honor, integrity, and strength are all characteristics that no gender has a monopoly on.

Queer Issue: DADT Commercial that Fox News Refused to Air

In case people haven't noticed, I'm rather opposed to the very concept of censorship. If it's that worth censoring, it's that much worth viewing. So, be sure to enjoy the repeal DADT commercial that Fox News refused to air.

Queer Review: Hedwig and the Angry Inch

It's obvious that the soul of every lover longs for something else; his soul cannot say what it is, but like an oracle it has a sense of what it wants, and like an oracle it hides behind a riddle. -From Plato's Symposium

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a roaring quasi-musical about a transsexual rock singer - Hedwig/Hansel (John Cameron Mitchell) - who tours the U.S. giving concerts in run down venues while pursuing his ex-boyfriend Tommy Gnosis (Michael Pitt) who has gained fame and popularity by stealing Hedwig's songs.

The plot is little more then Hedwig giving his performances, with interludes where he describes his back-story of growing up in east Berlin to his band mates. Desperate to escape the terrible conditions behind the Berlin wall, he ends up falling in love with an American GI, and then having a sex change operation that goes horribly wrong and leaves him with an "angry inch". After that, he sees all of his efforts wasted when his lover leaves him on the same day the Berlin wall comes down.

The Berlin Wall of course functions as an obvious metaphor for Hedwig/Hansel's divided life. He does not know if he is male or female and like Aristophanes explanation for the origins of love in Plato's Symposium - which the Hedwig tells at one point - he is searching for his missing half. The story of Hedwig therefore, is a story of her odyssey to become whole.

This is a bawdy film, with John Cameron Mitchel's furious - yet quite nuanced - performance being the most memorable. The musical scenes are wild and over the top, with a couple of sentimental numbers to balance things out. This is the good stuff, hard classic rock-n-roll, with no over synthesized auto tuned crap to be found.

This is a great movie, wild, fun, and with enough of a philosophical undercurrent to give the film some gravitas. It's rare to find a film that is both highly visceral and genuinely intellectual, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch is one of them.

Queer Issue: The Stigma of HIV

World AIDS Day is December first and local groups that I'm involved with are currently in the process of planning events. So I thought I would take some time to offer some thoughts on the issue of HIV and AIDs.

By now most people should know that HIV is a Sexually Transmitted Disease that causes AIDS. People who engage in risky behaviors should be tested for HIV on regular basis. Common sense, right?

As I view leaders as the ones who should be setting a good example, when I was asked at a recent doctors visit if I would like to be tested for HIV (and with the approach of World AIDS Day on my mind) I naturally answered "yes". This way - I thought at least - I could tell people that I had been tested, and yes, it is a good thing!

This of course meant that I had to spend the next few minutes trying (awkwardly) to act like "yes, I do have unprotected sex with multiple partners and therefore my risky behavior is a very good reason for me to be tested for HIV."

It also meant getting a lecture on the dangers of having unprotected sex with multiple partners from my doctor and lab orders for pretty much every other STD that can be tested for. At least now, I'll have peace of mind... not that I was worried or anything.

Also, in terms of leadership theory, misleading your doctor is generally a bad idea and people really should be doing as I say (do not mislead medical professionals) not as I did. Seriously!

In any event, this also got me thinking about the stigma and prejudices that still exist against those infected with HIV. One of the most common reasons I've seen used to argue for "homosexuality" as being an immoral sin (other than quoting biblical texts) is the rate of incidence of HIV infections among Men who have sex with Men. Which is a rather terrible reason when one thinks about it.

Here's why. While HIV is a virus that is most readily spread through unprotected sex, it is not the only way. Granted, certain activities are more likely to spread HIV then others. Populations that engage in those activities typically have higher incidence rates of infection. Anal sex has the greatest chance of infection, but vaginal intercourse can also lead to an infection, among other possibilities, such as sharing dirty needles.

Furthermore, according to the CDC website "...even though more men than women have HIV, women are catching up. In fact, if new HIV infections continue at their current rate worldwide, women with HIV may soon outnumber men with HIV." If HIV really were God's wrath against the "homosexual" lifestyle, you would think he would pick a more discriminating method.

Logically, to me at least, it makes no sense to judge an individual who has HIV then it does someone with the flu. Would we ridicule someone with skin cancer for not wearing proper sunscreen? A disease is a disease. Some are more deadly, spread easier and through different means, and kill more efficiently. But still, at the end of the day, whoever gets "it" is not "immoral" or suffering punishment under the whims of a omnipotent deity.