Shame In The Film 'La Mission'

Shame originates from those who do not comprehend others. When individuals are different in any way, such as race, gender, status or even sexual orientation, those who do not understand them or their situation dive right into judgement and then result in shame. Sexual orientation shaming has history behind it which has damaged love in so many ways, the shaming continues even today.

First of all, sexual orientation is what attracts or arouses one sexually and it consists of: heterosexuals, which are individuals attracted to the opposite sex, homosexuals, same sex, bisexual, attracted to both, and finally asexual, which is not attracted to any sex. The shame was present back in the early 20th century where homosexuality was a crime. It was considered a mental illness, as in something was wrong with the individual’s brain. To right this wrong, it was decided to use conversion therapy to actually convert those individuals from gay to straight. Somesh

Curti says, “Sexuality is a very important part of our lives: it is the core of our energy, a source of creativity and a mirror of who we are and how we relate to each other. If we suffer in this area, it also affects the rest of our lives and leads us towards dissatisfaction and frustration” (“Gay or not gay?...).
What Curti said describes how the shame that people press on things, like sexual orientation, damages love.

The film, La Mission, demonstrates examples of just that with its protagonist, Che Rivera, not accepting the circumstance that his son is gay. You see, Che Rivera is a very “macho” man with a reputation to protect, and for some reason, he anticipated his gay son would destroy that “macho” picture. Che rejected the reality and pretended differently and his son was forced to hide his true self. When he began to come out, he experienced shame from his own father and victimization from others in the neighborhood. Towards the end, Che forced his son to a choice: ‘you are either straight and leaving with me, or you will never see me again.’ His son chose to be himself and it ruined their relationship as father and son. His father was the one who built those walls and it lead him to, as Curti said “dissatisfaction and frustration.” Eventually he got over his differences and sought out his son to make up. (La

Mission)
That is how the world should handle its issues; get over the differences and make up. However, it must not be as simple as that because even with the new freedoms that are being given to gays such as, same-sex marriage, people continue to discriminate. In this society, we use fear to control others to be what society feels is socially acceptable. All of the protests against gays and hate crimes forces them to hide until they cannot hold back their identity any longer. Sooner or later the shame will not control them anymore and they will fight against the social normality for what they want. Carlin Rose asks, “Why do we put so much emphasis on sexual orientation? Shouldn’t the emphasis be love?”(What Causes Gay Guilt…).
Once the emphasis is put on love instead of labels and differences, people can begin to see others for what they are and accept them as such. Looking back at sexual orientation history and the damages the shame has caused, ties into the issues of today.