Week six readings and film assignments were insightful and
enjoyable. This week the two films I chose to expand upon my Queer Culture
knowledge and interpersonal experience was, “Dallas Buyers Club” and “Asexual”.
Currently “Asexual” is available for viewing on Hulu and “Dallas Buyers Club”
can be rented for viewing through iTunes.
Being a college student in my forties I’m familiar with and
can somewhat recall the ignorance and panic surrounding the HIV virus when it
first came about. “Dallas Buyers Club” is based on the story of Ron Woodroof.
Woodroof, a straight, white, cattle-rustling, male fills his cowboy living days
having unprotected sex with various women and abusing alcohol and other drugs.
That is, until one day a doctor tells him he has the HIV virus, which he
initially refuses to believe because back then so many people believed only
homosexuals were contracting the virus.
The film explores Woodroof’s journey alongside a
transsexual, which befriends him, by the name of Rayon. What is demonstrated in
this story is several things. As a people, our historical ignorance, lack of
compassion, corporate greed and failure to serve those in need on the basis of
their individual choices. I found myself asking…how far have we come? The
answer in some ways heavied my heart.
I’m an optimist, phenomenologically speaking. I trust in
karma and advocate positive thought and behavior. With that, I also have to
attest to the part of the story that demonstrates Woodroof, at some point
transitioning his belief system regarding the queer community to a more
positive place. Without ruining the premise of the story for those that have
not seen the film, I highly recommend seeing it. For those who are not familiar
with a “buyers club” or the story and do not intend to see the film, you can at
least get more information here in this article:
“Asexual” is a film that talks about a percentage of the
population having no sexual desire and/or sexual attraction. This is not to say
they do not engage in manual stimulation with themselves. Some will say they
do, though some do not have any interest. David Jay is the spokesperson for the
group and started AVEN (Asexual Visibility and Education Network). He has
spoken about the community on numerous talk shows and networks in order to
educate and bring awareness.
What I found interesting about this documentary was that some of
the same lack of acceptance existed for the group as does other members of the
queer community. Not surprising to me, of course, because we have discussed
this in length during the course of the term. The fact that there is even lack
of acceptance within and amongst groups. There seemed also to be people forcing
labels onto the members of the asexual community. Such as, telling one person
that rather than being asexual, he must be gay. The group also seemed to
struggle with some acceptance marching in the pride parade, by some of the
members of the gay community. The conflict being, the march is to advocate
being able to “have sex with who we want” not “having no sex at all”.
Overall, I enjoyed this week’s exploration of queer theory including revisiting
Sedgwick’s Epistemology of the Closet. Binary restrictions are something I look
forward to being a thing of the past.
No comments:
Post a Comment