Watching the Brandon Teena story was very disturbing. It reminded me of how cruel and how evil our society really is. If a person is not seen as being the "norm" in society, they immediately begin to feel alienated, which is not fair because we are supposed to have a country that people could feel free to be themselves.
Born Teena Brandon, but later began going by Brandon Teena, he knew that he was different while growing up. He did not like doing the normal things that girls would do. He didn't like wearing dresses and he was a tomboy.
In high school, Brandon began dating a girl and unfortunately he got into some legal trouble by forging a check and he ended up in jail. This story went public and Brandon's true gender was revealed, and it caused a lot of issues in his life.
Brandon was physically assaulted by ex-convicts that didn't like his lifestyle (which unfortunately happens to many transgendered people). After the assault, Brandon filed charges against the attackers, and the police did not really take action in time and this resulted in the murder of Brandon and two other people.
This story really affected me, because Brandon should not have gotten killed just because he was different. This reminded me of the Matthew Shepard story (Matt Shepard was a gay male in Wyoming who was also murdered because of his sexuality). We are all human and we should be treated equally despite what life choices we make. Brandon had already been subjected to enough trauma by being harassed constantly in his teen years, but it seems like being harassed wasn't enough. He had to die because he was different.
Since we have been exploring different types of violence, this type of violence is not surprising to me, because there are always stories that I hear about gay/lesbian/transgendered people being assaulted and it is not fair.
Watching this documentary, opened my eyes to see how unfair our justice system is and how much torture that some people have to endure because they are not considered the "norm". This leaves me to ask the question, What really is the norm of our society? And even if someone is not defined as the "norm", does that give us the right to make their lives a living hell?
.
About Me
- Quine
- My name is Quine and I'm a senior at Cal State Northridge majoring in Liberal Studies. The reason for this blog is for my class which is a Liberal Studies Capstone course. On these blogs we will be analyzing "The Politics of Violence" because there are so many forms of violence and by blogging it can help with different viewpoints of what violence is.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with you Quine and the events that happened to Brandon were very unfair, even though he did do some crimes to people he loved. This story struck a nerve with me because a few people that are close to me are gay and one of the person I think is also finding his or hers sexual identity crisis, although I don’t think that person is a transgender but it along those lines. So to think that somebody would harm somebody I am close to I would be very upset and would want some payback on Thomas and John. These guys were bunch of cowards for not getting to know Brandon because she did seem to care about the people she was around.
ReplyDeleteWow, the brandon Teena stoty seems pretty intense. I read the article instead of watching the movie. I do agree with you when you say this type of violence does not surprise you because it doesnt surprise me either. However, at some point we have to learn to celebrate one another's differences instead of forcing this idealistic society that doesnt exist.I cant say that I agree with transgender operations but if that decision is made, I feel that acceptance is the only way to go with it because we are still dealing with a human life.
ReplyDeleteThis is truly a tragic event. It seems that the only escape these people have from the brutal society that we live in is either to commit suicide or to let people in our society destroy you. In Filisa Vestima's case, she was afraid to go swimming and would not dare to do so because it was dangerous. If the wrong type of person saw her she might have been brutally offended or called names. She knew perfectly well that no radical change was going to alter people's way of thinking. Unfortunately, she decided to end with it by taking her life.
ReplyDelete