On The Deconstruction Of Heterosexual Hegemony In The Two Films Boys Don’t Cry And Soldier’s Girl

For a long time, Cinematic representations of the transgender characters havebeen notorious for their portrayal of the transgender as psychopaths, serial murdersor figures for fun. However, with the flourish of gender studies alongside themovement of gay, lesbian and transgender, the transgender issue has become thefocal point of the critique of sex and gender system and more and more progressivefilms featuring transgender have come into sight especially since1990. These filmsserve to increase the visibility of the transgender minorities and at the same timeexert great impacts on our conceptions of sex and gender.Queer theory as the new branch of post-modernism and post-feminism focuseson any marginal, non-mainstream phenomena and challenges all hegemonies.Denying the dichotomy and advocating unity, queer theory respects and encouragesthe development of human personality.Therefore, basically relying on related queer theories, through a detailedanalysis of the two cinematic texts of Boys Don’t Cry and Soldier’s Girl, this thesisargues that the two movies illustrate how heterosexual hegemony can bedeconstructed by cross-dressing, problematized binary system and transgenderidentity.Dedicated to the subject, this thesis intends to expose the falsity of thenaturalized sexual politics, to create new discourse to empower the transgenderminorities and thus to further call for undoing the hegemonic modes of gender andsexuality. Additionally, the author also aims to contribute to promoting a society inwhich people can be free from all the identity restrictions, especially that ofdichotomous sex.