Undoing The Hegemonic Modes Of Gender And Sexuality-Transsexuals Re-read In The Two Films Boys Don't Cry And Transamerica

For a long time, Cinematic representations of the transgender characters have been notorious for their portrayal of the transgender as psychopaths, serial murders or figures for fun. However, with the flourish of gender studies alongside the movement of gay, lesbian and transgender, the transgender issue has become the focal point of the critique of sex and gender system and more and more progressive films featuring transgender have come into sight especially since 1990. These films serve to increase the visibility of the transgender minorities and at the same time exert great impacts on our conceptions of sex and gender.Therefore, basically relying on related queer theories, through a detailed analysis of the two cinematic texts of Boys Don't Cry and Transamerica, this thesis aims at exploring: (1) how the heterosexual hegemony is exhibited through a variety of discourses; (2) how the heterosexual norms are challenged and problematized by the two transsexual protagonists; (3) how the hegemonic culture has affected the operations of the two films and hence how the transgender identity can be reconstructed in resistance to and within the hegemonic culture.Dedicated to the subject, this thesis intends to expose the falsity of the naturalized sexual politics, to create new discourse to empower the transgender minorities and thus to further call for undoing the hegemonic modes of gender and sexuality. Additionally, the author also aims to contribute to promoting a society in which people can be free from all the identity restrictions, especially that of dichotomous sex.