Boys Don T Cry And The Brandon Teena Story

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Recommended: Gender in the media

Jesse Howie
Film Analysis Boys Don’t Cry and The Brandon Teena Story combined are the story of a trans man struggling for acceptance in Nebraska. Brandon Teena’s story is a resonating one to which a lot of queer and trans people, unfortunately, can relate. Boys Don’t Cry and The Brandon Teena Story exemplify an overarching story that bonds all queer people together, because they show a boy who only wants to live and love and is not afforded that luxury at all. It’s torn from him because others thought he didn’t deserve it and that’s a constant narrative that almost all queer people have felt touched by in their lives. Boys Don’t Cry was revolutionary, because it was based on a news story and instead of following the news’ lead of dehumanizing …show more content…

Brandon’s sexual assault and murder were consistently blamed on him by publications in the 90’s surrounding his death. “Death of a Deceiver” by Eric Konigsberg; “Teena Brandon's Double Life May Have Led To A Triple Murder” by Rogers Worthington; and many more headlines frame the crimes committed against Brandon as his fault or caused by his actions rather than by the men who perpetrated the crimes against him. The key difference between Boys Don’t Cry and The Brandon Teena Story is that one is told in the same mindset of the media, and one rebels against that …show more content…

That someone who rebels from our cultural customs is someone that deserves to die. Queer culture is subversive, it seeks to undermine all the rigid and binary ways of thinking those in existing society seek to uphold. Brandon Teena lived his life as a man, but because he wasn’t one in the eyes of mainstream society, he wasn’t allowed to die that way. Queer culture is a validation and acceptance of those who don’t fit. It’s allowing those who’ve been cast out from society to live and rebel against these norms. Brandon’s story is an important one, because it was a call to arms for a culture that wouldn’t allow him to be buried with his birth name, that honestly wouldn’t have allowed him to be murdered in the first

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