Gender and Fear

The role of gender and sex is one that remains undefined within the realm of our social environment. To some it is as simple as mail and female. To other’s it is much more complex. Gender is not necessarily always what we expect it to be. That is to say, the social definition or “norm” does not translate too each and ever individual. This issue is one that was talked about frequently and was referenced in Ma Vie En Rose. At times the roles of gender and sex do not seem clear, not only to the person that is experiencing but society as well. Often times (as illustrated in the movie) the strain of gender roles have the ability to affect the lives of people in a negative fashion. This comes down to a few simple factors. We can look to History to observe this, but the lack of understanding of gender “confusion” leads to fear, I complex most humans are susceptible to.

In Ma Vie En Rose, I found that most of the “issues” were stemmed from the fact of this fear as opposed to a hatred for what the child was going through. The lack of knowledge in the inability to understand what was going on is what was causing the issues not only within the family but the problems in the community as well. This was obviously conservative, traditional community that did not have knowledge of the issues of gender complexities. Due to the lack of understanding there was a subsequent fear. To me, the movie was made in part to show the effect that the fear of not knowing in reference to the issue of gender abnormalities. This is something that we can see in our own society, though maybe not as often or extreme due to the time pasted and the strides made by our community since then. However, I feel that the issue is still there to some extent. The solution to this is quite simple. The education of issues like this should be made mainstream and therefore the understanding can be set, eliminating the fear. We fear what we do not know. Once we are able to understand, the anxiety and controversy of different genders can be eventually put to rest.

Omar Mir