The Social Construction of Gender and Transgender Identities

The film Ma Vie en Rose is a touching glimpse into the stress that transgender people are forced to go through in most societies. Though it was made in 1997, cultures still have much to learn about how to regard gender identities. Ma Vie en Rose displays the pressure that is put onto children to conform to society’s gender expectations, especially if a child displays behaviors not associated with their birth sex. Though Ludovic was strong in her refusal to identify as a boy (against the will of her parents and other people she met), some people in the real world cannot handle the hatred that many bigoted people have for transgender individuals and thus force themselves to associate with their birth sex against their own desires. Even those who would wish to identify with their birth sex under any circumstances often give in to societal pressures directing what they can and cannot do according to their sex. In this way, gender (and its related attributes) is largely a concept that is upheld only by cultural norms and not by innate characteristics of people.

The documentary Gendernauts gives a look into the real lives of transgender and gender non-conforming people. It is interesting and reassuring to see people who understand that gender, sex, and gender roles are not black and white and who are able to accept traits that don’t follow backwards cultural norms. If these people can do it (especially eighteen years ago, when the community was in a less advanced position than it is today), then others can learn that gender, sex, and sexuality are complicated and vary from person to person.

Though most media depict transgender and gender non-conforming people as being stricken by conflict and self-doubt (implicitly due to real and harmful pressures placed upon them), Gendernauts shows that, given a positive and accepting environment, they can live happy lives just like any other person. The film would help people who see transgenderism as some kind of disorder. Those people (largely bigots, but many of whom are just heavily misinformed by other bigots) often point to the suicide rate among transgender individuals as reasoning for why it is some kind of illness. Of course, the increased suicide rate among the LGBTQIA+ community is due to bigotry and discrimination toward its members, not because of any innate characteristic. The misinformed people who might not understand that can see the lives of some of the LGBTQIA+ people in Gendernauts and will learn that, in an accepting community, those people can live lives like anyone else.

-Zach