Gender Oppression
Since the beginning of time every angle of life has been looked at from a male/female standpoint. People begin to feel uncomfortable when the ground between man and woman gets broken. After watching Sally Potter's Orlando (1993), a movie based on a novel written by Virginia Woolf (1923), in which a man transforms into a woman over a four-hundred year period, and watching Kimberly Pierce's film, Boys Don't Cry (1999), I began to understand more how the world looks at the two genders. Although Orlando managed to end her life happily, she still had to fight the battle of gender, whereas when Branden Teena was discovered as Teena Branden, the people around her became uncomfortable, and unfortunately, she did not get the same ending as Orlando. Orlando projects a feminist future full of promise, while Boys Don't Cry answers Woolf's optimism with a brutal, resounding "not yet!"Throughout Orlando, Orlando never changes who s/he is no matter what body s/he inhabits. When he changed into a woman he simply looked into the mirror and said, "Same person, just a different sex." Branden Teena, on the other hand, feels completely determined by her body and her self-presentation. When discovered as a girl, Branden did not want to be seen
Along with every other aspect of the two people, the endings for each were completely different. Branden not only had to hide from Teena because people only knew him as Branden, but also because Teena was running away from jail time. Even though society did not treat women as "real" individuals, Orlando still kept her associates. She gets to have a new life with a child and finally gets to have a release from the four-hundred year life which trapped her. People will always be superficial, we as humans hate not knowing. Her love never tried to put her down for being a woman nor did he try to control her or take what was hers away. " But what is it really supposed to be like? Is it supposed to be the end of a feminist century like Woolf had hoped? Society today has not changed too radically since the events of Branden Teena's murder. Orlando also proved a man wrong when she was told that without marrying him she would only become a spinster. Even Branden's family criticized her for the way that she exposed herself. Life was a little less complicated for Orlando. As we progress into the twenty-first century, gender begins not to imply on a male or female standpoint anymore, but rather in a way that we can be who we want. When being questioned by the police, Branden kept up the tough act and kept her "secrets," that is until the police began to harass her because of the manner in which she behaved, calling her a "dike" or a "lesbian" and so forth. In comparison, Branden did not start with anything, let alone have anything to lose. Life for Branden Teena brutally ended at the hand of another being. Even though she had to go through gender oppression, she always maintained her sense of self and kept her composure.
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Acceptance Essays
