Boys Don't Cry and Female Masculinity

Critical Studies in Media Communication Vol. 19, No. 1, March 2002, pp. 44–63 Boys Don’t Cry and Female Masculinity: Reclaiming a Life & Dismantling the Politics of Normative Heterosexuality Brenda Cooper ᮀ—This analysis argues that Kimberly Peirce’s film Boys Don’t Cry can be read as a liberatory narrative that queers the centers of heteronormativity and hegemonic masculinity by privileging female masculinity and celebrating its differences from heterosexual norms. My critique emphasizes how the narrative strategically challenges heteronormativity and, in turn, “narrative’s heteroideology” (Roof, 1996), in four ways: 1) by dismantling the myth of “America’s heartland”; 2) by problematizing heteromasculinity; 3) by centering female masculinity; and 4) by blurring the boundaries of female masculinity. I argue that the articulation of each subversive strategy within the narratives of Boys Don’t Cry can serve a liberatory function, whereby the privileged subjectivities of heterosexuality and hegemonic masculinity are dismantled and, simultaneously, female masculinity and gender fluidity are privileged and normalized. I conclude that the narrative structure of Boys Don’t Cry not only privileges gender diversity, but also exposes the inherent sexual bigotry of heteroideology and the brutal and deadly consequences of society’s failure to eradicate such prejudice. I just keep on laughing Hiding the tears in my eyes Because boys don’t cry. Boys don’t cry. (Smith, Tolhurst, & Dempsey, 1988) HE 1993 murders of three young more crime statistic when Lisa Lam- Tpeople in Falls City, Nebraska, bert, Philip DeVine, and Brandon (population 5,200) began as just one Teena were found shot to death in Lambert’s farmhouse. But national Brenda Cooper is Associate Professor in the news media picked up the story when Department of Journalism & Communication Brandon Teena was identified as Teena and Director of Women’s Studies at Utah State Brandon, a female-to-male transsexual1 University. She thanks Bonnie J. Dow, the from Lincoln, Nebraska, who had been reviewers of CSMC, and Edward C. Pease of “passing” in Falls City and dating a Utah State University, whose insights and guid- local teenager, Lana Tisdel. As details ance during the revision process made the comple- unfolded, the public learned that two tion of this research possible. She dedicates this essay to her brother, Woody Cooper (1940- local ex-convicts who had befriended 1995), who confronted homophobia throughout Brandon, John Lotter and Tom Nis- his life but never wavered in his determination sen, were so outraged to learn that to end such bigotry. Brandon was a biological female, they Copyright 2002, National Communication Association 45 CSMC COOPER beat him up and repeatedly raped him. tion that distorts the truth beyond When Brandon filed rape charges recognition and milks reality dry” (p. against them, they hunted him down E10). Moreover, John Sloop has ar- and shot him to death as he tried to gued that the news media accounts not hide under a blanket, then stabbed his only perpetuated “caricatures of trans- body. After allowing Lisa Lambert to gendered people” (p. 169) but also func- place her infant son in his crib, Lotter tioned to reaffirm traditional ideals of and Nissen gunned her down and shot gender and heterosexuality and to dis- the other witness, Philip DeVine (Gab- cipline transgressors like Brandon riel, 1996; Messina, 2000). Teena who challenged hegemonic Lotter and Nissen were convicted of sexual norms. first-degree murder, and the story faded There’s no question that the varied from media attention until 1999, when forms of female masculinity, including filmmaker Kimberly Peirce brought it transsexuality, have been framed in back in Boys Don’tCry(Sharp, Hart, the mainstream media as a spectacle— Kolodner, Vachon & Peirce, 1999), denigrating transsexuality as an aberra- starring Hilary Swank in her Oscar- tion at best, or as stereotypical carica- winning role as Brandon Teena. tures of deviant and perverted behavior Peirce’s “long-standing interest in trans- at worst (Nangeroni, 1999; Sloop, vestism and transsexuality” (Leigh, 2000). Although male masculinity has 2000, p. 18) drew her to Brandon’s been the subject of myriad research compelling story when she read the studies, Judith Halberstam (1998) as- news accounts of his murder. But Peirce serts that scholars have shown “abso- wanted more than simply to make what lutely no interest in masculinity with- could easily have been a lurid movie out men” (p. 13), and she warns that about a murdered transsexual in Ne- braska: she wanted to reclaim Bran- the “suppression of female masculini- don’s story from the sensationalized ties allows for male masculinity to stand media accounts that followed the crime. unchallenged as the bearer of gender “The coverage was focused almost ex- stability and gender deviance” (p. 41). clusively on the spectacle of a girl pass- In light of filmmaker Peirce’s goal to ing as a boy, without any understand- reclaim Brandon Teena’s story from news accounts that had sensationalized ing of why a girl would want to pass,” 2 Peirce explained. “And I thought that it as aberrant (Leigh, 2000), I explore was dangerous” (p. 18). the strategies used in the narratives of Given the questions about Bran- Boys Don’t Cry to represent one form of don’s “true” gender, it’s not surprising female masculinity and examine the that media reports about Brandon film’s potential to “destabilize binary Teena reflected the most leering kind gender systems” (Halberstam, p. 29). of tabloid coverage, as journalists sen- My study argues that Peirce’s film can sationalized the story of Brandon’s function to reclaim Brandon’s lifestory sexuality and how he had deceived the from the “spectacle of a girl passing as residents of Falls City (Leigh, 2000; a boy” (Leigh, p. 18), presenting in- Ricks, 1994; Sloop, 2000). Observed stead a sympathetic individual and of- New York Times film critic Janet Maslin fering film viewers narratives that chal- (1999), this “tabloid-ready tale attracted lenge and confront societal boundaries the kind of omnivorous media atten- related to gender and sexuality.3 46 BOYS DON’T CRY MARCH 2002 Media Narratives, images of sexual minorities have ap- Heteronormativity, & peared over the past decade (e.g., Svet- Queerness key, 2000). But scholars such as Dow (2001) argue that even these recent The most basic assumption of heter- depictions “can serve a masking func- onormativity is that gender is natally tion as representation is mistaken for ascribed, natural, and immutable. Thus, social and political change” (p. 136). envisioning a “world of only hetero- For instance, Dow critiques the coming- sexuals” (Scheman, 1997, p. 128), het- out discourses surrounding Ellen De- eronormativity insists “on the inborn- Generes and her television sitcom char- ness of gender identity, even when it is acter, Ellen Morgan. Ellen’s coming- discordant with biological sex” (p. 138). out— both-on and off-screen—was Heterosexuality is thus deemed an es- framed in popular media as an “escape sential aspect of human nature and from repression” (p. 123) for homo- intelligibility, and “homosexuality sexuals, according to Dow. However, counts as the willful denial of one’s true she cautions that “the liberation narra- self” (p. 128). Significantly, heteronor- tive in and around Ellen allows main- mativity is a powerful principle of so- stream media to proclaim increased cial and cultural order that absorbs and visibility for gays and lesbians as in- disciplines all forms of gender trans- creased legitimacy for gays and lesbians, gressiveness into its female-male bi- in presumably social and political nary gender system (Shapiro, 1991). ways” (p. 136), in much the same way One partner in the power of heteron- The Cosby Show ormativity to order society is the media as was used in the and their long history of depicting char- 1980s as an example of how racism acters who transgress gender bound- had been eliminated in American soci- aries as comic, weak, or as evil (Dow, ety (p. 137). Dow concludes that the 2001; Dyer, 1999; Fejes & Petrich, “romantic narrative of autonomy and 1993; Gross, 1996; Russo, 1986). These liberation” underlying Ellen ultimately narrative strategies often establish an functioned to obscure issues of homo- “additional level of deviance for such phobia and heterosexism, even among characters,” by linking “homosexual- heterosexuals who are sympathetic to ity with criminality” (Dow, p. 129). As and supportive of gay rights (p. 135). Dyer explains, the “amount of hatred, Robert Brookey and Robert Westerfel- fear, ridicule and disgust packed into haus (2001) reach similar conclusions those images is unmistakable” (p. 297), in their examination of the depictions and, says Russo, result in “politically of gay male drag queens in the film To indefensible and aesthetically revolt- Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie ing” portrayals (p. 32). Even after the Newmar. Although these researchers media began to respond to demands conclude that the film’s unapologetic from the gay rights movement for gay characters were clearly more posi- equality, portrayals were still framed in tive and a greater challenge to hetero- terms of the problems sexual minori- sexual norms than is typical in main- ties posed for heterosexual society stream media, To Wong Foo nonetheless (Gross, 1996). remarginalized the film’s drag queens. As evidence of societal progress, The movie’s narratives, they argue, however, some popular media critics functioned

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