Ma vie en rose (Analysis)

The 1997 film Ma vie en rose directed and written by Alain Berliner is a powerful gender bender that explores trans and feminist issues through the eyes of a young child. The fact that the story documents the struggles of the trans community at such a young age serves to illustrate the fact that  trans issues are not blind to age, gender, colour, religion, or ethnicity. 

The film also details how the struggles faced by the trans individual transpire and affect that individual's direct family members. Ludovic's parents shun and refuse to accept Ludovic for who he is. Rather than accept that he is a trans individual,his parents choose to believe that he acts the way he does for attention, to be funny. Ludovid however, is hurt that his parents choose to reject him for who he is and seeks refuge and acceptance in his grandmother, Granny. Furthermore, Ludovic's innocence leads him to believe that he was assigned the wrong chromosome by god, and that god will fix it in due time. In a discourse he has with one of his peers, Ludovic attempts to explain to him why his identity doesn't match up with his physical representation.

Ludovic: I'm a girlboy.

Jérôme: A girlboy?

Ludovic: To make a baby, parents play tic-tac-toe. when one wins, god sends Xs and Ys. xx for a girl, and xy for a boy. But my x for a girl fell in the trash, and I got a y instead. See? A scientific error! But god will fix it and send me an x and make me a girl and then we’ll get married, okay?

Little Ludovic is too young and innocent to understand and accept his reality, but he knows one thing for certain, that he will transform from male to female in the future. He hopes to marry Jérôme, one of his school companions that is blind to prejudice and accepts Ludovic for who he is and accepts to marry him one day.

The scene above for example illustrates the family dynamic portrayed in the film. The father is the one who is affected most by society's refusal of his son, leaving him feeling alone and desolate; depressed and sad that his son came out the way that he did. He loses his job to society's prejudices and the family rapports slowly begin to degrade. Ludovic's mother in a move of passion, strips Ludovic of his identity when she cut's his hair off. Ludovic's hair was the only thing that allowed him to connect to the femininity he felt from within, a femininity that his body did not allow him to express. 

As a result, Ludovic feels alienated and withdrawn from his society and seeks comfort in his grandmother, the one adult that allows Ludovic to express his sexuality freely without prejudice. Ludovic is forced to return home after his grandmother confronts and him and states that running away will not solve his problems and returns to his family in a new home faraway from the town that shunned them. Ludovic is lonely and depressed but meets a girl who dresses as a boy and develops a deep connection with her because he no longer feels alone, he feels a sense of community. 

Alain Berliner in my opinion attempts to dismantle society's prejudices by depicting trans/feminist struggles through the eyes and experiences of an innocent child. We were all children once and it serves to illustrate the fact the once gender self identification should not interfere with society is it is one's personal choice, a choice that affects the individual and the individual only.

Written by: Julio Estrada

Ma vie en rose (Poster Analysis)

When one thinks of what meaning of a "life in pink" entails, one imagines roses and happiness, innocence even. This poster for example depicts a young boy crossed-dressed into garments the more appropriately express his gender. The white and pink for example are symbolic of an innocence that is attributed to children, however the child’s gaze is melancholic and pensive which seems to suggest that a “life in pink” is not easier, but rather filled with disillusionment and sadness. The poster reads “Sometimes you just have to be yourself” which reminds me specifically of Jamison Green and his experiences as a boy stuck in a girl’s body in his childhood. Nevertheless, the white to me is representative of the idea that although life may be difficult, there is always hope for the future. 

Written By: Julio Estrada

Contrast and Comparison: Little Red Ridinghood and The Story of the Marquise-Marquis de Banneville

                 Charles Perrault, co-author to The Story of the Marquise-Marquis de Banneville , is also author to the fairytale Little Red Riding Hood. Perrault was a French author and poet in the 17th century who laid foundations for fairytales like, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty with feminist and traditional views. As participating in The story of the Marquise we see still the fairytale ending in the story but also how his viewpoints consistently stay the same from the weak and accepting and beautiful female.

         A fairytale is defined as a traditional children’s story ending with a fantasy, includes fairies or even creatures. Both stories are defined as fairytales. The Story of the Marquise is a fairytale because of the happily ever ending of two cross dressers. Both have different genders compared to their birth gender. They fall in love and are blind to the realities that they live and discover their bodily differences on the day of their wedding. The story ends with both of them living happily ever after, a characteristic that defines our typical princess fairytales. In Little Red Riding Hood we see how a wolf talks and ends up taking advantage of the little girl and eats up both her and her granny. It teaches a lesson not to trust just anyone and how the wolf, and men in general, can be lying and manipulative

In comparison to The story of the Marquise, the fairytale Little Red Riding Hood, we se a lot of views on how a typical female should be. In the beginning of Little Red Riding Hood is described as “the prettiest creature who was ever seen the prettiest creature who was ever seen”, then we see how in The Story of the Marquise Marianne is also seen as one of the most beautiful girls alive. We start seeing the traditional definition where girls are seen as beautiful and charming. That is what back in the day a woman was seen as and what she stands for which we see in both stories by this author. Women are defined by their looks and appearance not by their persona. It is reinforced in The story of the Marquise when she see’s the prince at a movie and he is sitting in a near watch box.“ ’There’s a handsome young man’ ‘that’s true, the countess replied, ‘but he’s making himself pretty, and that’s not fitting for a young man. Why doesn’t he dress as a girl?”. Men are to fit certain category not intervene with characteristics of a women, it is not seen acceptable. In little red riding hood we also see how as an innocent girl, Little Red Riding Hood is so submissive and listens to the wolf without questioning. We see the stupidity in how women can be and how they are so easily fooled because of their instinctive caring and innocence. Just as how the wolf, a male, has the power over a little girl and is seen as a smarter dominate creature.  We get a stronger glimpse of how society views during the 17th century of what a woman should be and is defined by and also what a man shouldn’t be. 

Written By: Ariana Rodriguez with contributions from Julio Estrada.

The Story of the Marquise-Marquis de Banneville (1696 and 1723) Summary & Analysis

The Story of the Marquise-Marquis de Banneville written by François-Timoléon de Choisy with creative contributions from Marie-Jeanne L’Héritier and Charles Perrault was written and published in two drafts; one in 1696 and the other in 1723. In this almost fairytale like short story, the concept of cross-dressing is explored in a very profound and powerful way. De Choisy for example, explores the social triggers that led to the protagonists cross-dressing and how it affected his/her life chances. As a result it must be stated that De Choisy plays with the preconceived depictions of gender roles and gender self identification to criticize society’s heteronormative system.

Transvestism, more commonly known as cross-dressing, in fairytales and short stories similar to The Story of the Marquise-Marquis de Banneville usually takes the form a female protagonists or character, dressing up in men’s attire to go to war. This story however, completely uses this mold and modifies it in order to express his message in a clear and concise manner. In the story, the Marquise de Banneville’s father is killed in war before her birth. Her mother decides that her pregnancy will conclude in her having a baby girl, she is determined to do whatever it takes to ensure her wishes are followed through. When she gives birth however, she gives birth to a baby boy and decides to assign her son a male identity, a gender that will improve her life chances. The Marquise de Banneville has no knowledge of the events that transpired in her infancy and is raised as a girl; she identifies as female and has no recollection of ever having been a boy. This work underlines the interest that 17th and 18th century writers such as Perrault and L’Héritier had in depicting their characters that strive in disguise. In Perrault’s case for example, the wolf is under the disguise of Little Red’s grandmother to survive and improve his chances at surviving. In addition, Cinderella is transformed into a stunning Princess despite living under horrible conditions at her step mother’s home, she transforms with the help of a fairy godmother that gives her the ability to assume a new identity, a new disguise even though it was just for a while. This disguise or metamorphosis of sorts are themes common to fairytales of the era to illustrate the idea that transformation allows people to lead better lives and survive lives difficulties.

The established notion of gender and gender roles present in Perrault’s own writings are completely shattered by this short story. The protagonist of the story, born male, assumes the role of a female and is as a result considered female by the bourgeois society around her. She has no recollection or idea of what it is to be male because all she was taught to be a proper girl, a beautiful girl worthy of only the finest possessions, jewels, and men. The Marquise falls in love with a young Marquis, who similarly to the Marquise was raised and adopted an identity of the opposite gender. The young Marquis is raised male and has no prejudices and reciprocally falls in love with the Marquise. On the eve of their wedding they discover what their actual sex is yet are blind to any prejudices and continue to love each other for who they are and what they offer each other rather than what a penis can offer a vagina and vice versa. They accept their identities and live “happily ever after”.

De Choisy in ending the story dealing with trans issues in the 17th and 18th centuries, being a cross dresser himself, in “happily ever after” makes a statement that was quite the opposite of the message received in Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood. De Choisy essentially states that trans individuals can live happy lives and that they can be esteemed just as highly as any other proper member of their bourgeois society.

Written by: Julio Estrada

Analysis: Little Red Riding Hood

The Little Red Riding Hood (1697)

Little Red Riding Hoodby Charles Perrault, although short in length illustrates the idea of the gender binary in a concise and creative way. The fairytale in a way serves as a model of what the ideal woman/child should be like. Perrault’s depictions of women in his fairytales often domesticate women and treat them as beings submissive to men. He uses his morals to establish a certain expectations that the patriarchal society in 17th century France abided by. For example, in the moral of Little Red Riding Hood he states that “…Children, especially attractive, well bred young ladies, should never talk to strangers, for if they should do so, they may well provide dinner for a wolf...” (Perrault). The language that Perrault utilizes is very important because he assigns women certain tasks they must fulfill to be accepted as “well bred” ladies, in other words to be accepted as decent and respectable women. The fairytale is not a harmless diversion; it does however serve the purpose of revealing the dominant social values of the time period. Perrault was especially gifted in presenting these social values because he made them easy to understand through the use of simple plots and the use of the “happily ever after”. Little Red Riding Hood is different however, it ends in a tragic manner but it does portray the “appropriate modes and behaviors [of] the ideal upper class citizen”.

The reason why we choose to analyse Little Red Ridinghood is because of the relation between it’s tragic ending and the elements of the story that lead to this tragic ending, an ending that is symbolic of the ideals of upper-class societies at the time. The story starts off with Perrault stating “Once upon a time there lived in a certain village a little country girl, the prettiest creature who was ever seen…” (Perrault). Once again, Perrault depicts women, especially female children, in a way that his society deems fit for a woman. The bourgeoisie of the 17th century for example, took it upon themselves to put looks and beauty before morality. Through his story he perpetuates the ideas as the woman as nothing more than a creature that is “beautiful” and “loved” by everyone. He is very conservative in respects to gender because he sticks to the gender binary created by society to teach women their place. Perrault in Little Red Riding Hood however does something that is would be considered risqué had he chosen to tell the story in another way. Perrault plays with the idea of transvestism or “the practice of dressing and acting in a style or manner traditionally associated with the opposite sex” (Ambrosio). We attribute the fairytale’s tragic ending to the fact that he introduces the concept of cross-dressing in a 17th century child’s fairytale. We believe that this was done to discourage people from cross-dressing, to condemn people who associate with or practice this act. Little Red Riding Hood for example trusts the male wolf who she believes to be her grandmother under the impression that she was sick with the cold. The wolf however, a sly and clever male creature uses cross-dressing as a means of attaining what he wants, the child as food.

Little Red Riding Hood is an interesting fairytale that encompasses the ideals of a bourgeois society of the 17th century. While it provides children, especially little girls with morals lessons and a model for appropriate female conduct, it also serves as a warning to people who identified as trans. It discouraged cross-dressing because it was a seen as a danger to the gender binary already in place.

Written By:

Julio Estrada with contributions from Eric Estrada and Ariana Rodriguez.

Sources:

Perrault, Charles, and Sarah Moon. Little Red Riding Hood. Mankato, MN: Creative Editions, 2002. Print.

Ambrosio, Giovanna. Transvestism, Transsexualism in the Psychoanalytic Dimension. London: Karnac, 2009. Print.