Gender In The Film 'The Crying Game'

In the movie of “The Crying Game”, a representation of the penis and the phallic symbol can be seen from two of the main characters. The movie is highlighted by the characters of Jude and Dil, which both identify as women, yet their characters are seen holding different forms of phallic power, as Dil is the character who is later on revealed in a movie scene of having an actual penis (“The Crying Game”). Jude differs from Dil, as she does not possess the physical symbol of the penis, yet she is identified as a phallic character, who is masculine and likes to be dominant. Though Dil is often portrayed as a delicate flower and a warm character (unlike Jude who has a harsh look throughout the movie), her character transforms near the end of the movie as she shoots Jude.

‘The Crying Game’ and ‘M. Butterfly’ portray men who thought were in love with biological women, and when the truth became clear, both Gallimard and Fergus reacted in a shocked or disgusted way, realizing that the women they cared for weren’t the fantasized women they wanted (Grist 3). One of the biggest messages behind both of these pieces (and one that Foucault also mentions) is that sex is something one is born with, while gender is something one constructs and identifies with. In both the movie and the play, Dil and Song were born with the male sex, yet they completely identify themselves as female despite what society has constructed for the words ‘female’ or ‘male’ to