Ma Vie En Rose + Irigaray and Schiavi

Our main character of Ma Vie En Rose Ludovic is a transexual male who feels inside that he is a girl. The movie tries to express to the viewer the difficulties that a transexual individual has to be subject to in the society. Schiavi discusses the "coming-in" expression rather then the usual phrase of "coming-out" that is a phrase to express when usually a homosexual announces their sexuality. The "coming-in" phrase Schiavi uses of Nadeau is used in a way to describe how Ludo seems to have this pre-determined knowledge of his true identity. Ludo's identity as a transexual though is not accepted by the rest of the society that he lives in.

The family he lives with is accepting at first assuming that it is simply a "childhood phase" that he will eventually grow out of it. He is a spectacle for the adults when they first see his strange behavior and they too believe that it is just a regular child phase. The parents just let it go at first, but eventually start to seek the help of a therapist and other methods that others provide.

Later however Ludovic's actions coninue despite the parents attempts to "fix" him and thus other families begin to judge not only Ludovic, but the rest of his family as well. Ludovic's father loses his job and his mother begins smoking. His brothers however aren't effected by this much at all simply because they don't see the problem with their brother until the other children begin to take hostile action against him. There are earlier incidents of riducle of Ludovic that Schiavi address, but according to Schiavi: Ludovic uses silence as a method of survival. After all this pressure the role of the father and mother kind of switch, we see the father lose his aggression towards Ludovic but still harbor this sadness about him and the mother become aggressive and begins to shout and even strike Ludovic.

Ludovic and his transexualism does fit into Irigaray however because his attraction to all things femnine and seeks pleasure in things like dressing up, dancing, and Pam. He wants that which was not his own. But as we see society does not accept him and even his family doesn't until the very end when his mother has the vision of him running to Pam, but even then we can question if she still harbors this disbelief.

Far From Heaven + Fanon

In the film we watched Far From Heaven we see a 1950s kind of setting where there was still a lot of racism. Our main figures subject to racism are of course Raymond and his daughter, Sarah. Fanon's article is about him being a black man, but wishes that people would see him as a man and not judge him by the fact that he is black. Raymond is very similar in this because he goes to places that are both primarily white and primarily black. What is the signifigance of Raymond and his daughter in Far From Heaven?
In the 1950s racism was still very evident, but as we see with Kathy that there are some out there that began to treat them more nicely and equally. Raymond throughout the film is showing how he is a respectful, hardworking gentleman who is trying to look and act beyond race which makes him subject to not just insults from white people, but also fellow black people. The scene where he is in the restraunt with Kathy is where he recieves a lot of questions and stares from his fellow blacks and periodically through the movie we see whites staring or being racial such as the man yelling something similar to, "Hey boy! Take your hand off that lady!" Raymond's personality and actions set him apart from his own people which Fanon says that it is easy to identify himself through others of his own kind, but there is a moment of 'being for others'
Fanon continues to discuss that this 'being for others' is not so much the case because of civilization of the twentieth century. Fanon states that civilization imposes itself on the black man and how this forces inferiority upon him.
Raymond's daughter is also subject to this racial abuse and belief of inferiority. We see that she dresses nicely and appears to be a good student with polite manners, but when news of her father's association with Kathy is out she is also subject to the racial abuse. She has rocks thrown at her and is knocked out by them.
Raymond and Fanon share a connection in the fact that they both want to just be seen as men and not by their color, but both end up with this acceptance of this racists view because it is just too heavily forced upon them. Fanon feels the pressure from the stares he gets from white people and their judgements and Raymond does it for his daughter because he can't let her be hurt in this way and his relationship with Kathy has cost him basically everything; his job, his home, his safety. Both Fanon's article, Raymond, and his daughter are strong influences of the problems and oppression of racism.

Dancer In The Dark + Marx

Marx talks about how a person is alienated amongst others due to their position and responsibilities as a worker. Dancer in the Dark's characters are all part of the social class system; most part of the working class. What is the signifigance of this use of social class in Dancer in the Dark.

The main character, Selma, is a working class lady who only works to survive and pay for her sons operation. She begins to go blind and we see that she has a stronger desire to keep working. According to Marx a worker identifies basically between worker and physical subject. Selma's work is vital to her and her going blind is her physical subject eliminating her to work and the vice-versa of this of course is the fact that her loss of work has effected her vision of herself. She realized that with no longer being able to work that she had done all that she could essentially.

Bill, the police officer whose wealth was gained by inheritance, essentially falls apart when he realizes that he can no longer keep his material goods that he has identified himself with. He views his home and property as part of himself; he even in a way considers his wife to be an object because of his fear that when she realizes the money is gone she will leave him too so he needs money to keep her and all his belongings. The knowledge that all the objects he has connected himself to will disappear he feels as though he himself is going to disappear with them. The loss of his wife and house leads him to believe that he will have lost himself and what he has known. The loss of his social class, luxuries, and the inability to provide the needs of survival has caused him to lose himself and so he goes to extreme measures to train and maintain his position in the higher social class by stealing Selma's money.

The other characters are mainly representations of different positions in the working class and Selma is kind of their martyr or symbol of realization of how this capitalist society isn't working. This would be the discussion we have had in class about class consciousness and how their would eventually be a revolt against capitalism; the rise of the Proletariats. We could view Bill through Marx as a victim of capitalism as well because the loss of his money and wealth leading to destruction.