Ma Vie en Rose presented many examples of the ways in which gender is socially constructed by parents specifically and our society at large when children are young. The way Ludovic was made fun of at school for bringing dolls instead of toy cars like the other boys is one example— when considering toys objectively, nothing about a car or a truck is necessarily more masculine than a doll. Our society and our culture attaches these concepts to more objects and activities than we notice. A parallel can be drawn between the implications of children’s toys and the clothing of the baby on the New York subway in Lorber’s essay. While at first the baseball cap seemed to indicate the child was a boy, the earrings then convinced Lorber the child was a girl.

At one point in the film, Albert tells Pierre that Hanna has too much power and that Pierre should spend more time with Ludovic. This implies that by spending time with Ludo, Pierre will influence him with his masculinity and turn his child “back to normal.” Although this clearly doesn’t work, Albert’s idea does take into account the amount of power a parent can have in allowing cross-dressing, long/short hair, involvement in certain sports, etc.

I found it interesting that Ludo seemed to understand that boys weren’t allowed to like other boys, but if he changed into a new girl he could marry Jerome. While sex, gender, and sexuality all differ and can be arranged on a wide spectrum each, Ludo felt he had to be a transgender female rather than a homosexual make. The problem today is that the spectrum is not widely accepted— people like to put other people into neat categories that oftentimes don’t express their true identities.

Gendernauts got at this issue as well— not only did one of the interviewees speak about the spectrum but the film documented the closeness of the queer community despite this spectrum. While each person had their own experiences with their sexuality or gender or sex, they found one other and helped each other navigate the queer community space (by attending an inclusive nightclub for all different types of queer people rather than just gay people or lesbian people, for example) and I think that is a space still being explored today. The question is how to unite everyone effectively for the most impact and change.