GED109 - GENDER AND SOCIETY

FILM REVIEW 2: TRANSAMERICA

1. Who is the main character in the film?

2. Describe the main character in the film. What are the gender roles that she portray?
How does she cope with the norms of the society? How does she handle stress? How
does she behave?
- Bree lives as an independent woman who is trying her best to find her place and
happiness in the world where she believes that the operation of gender reassignment
will be a big progress in finding her freedom. Looking through the whole film and
analyzing Bree’s actions, we can see that she is an introvert and conservative in the way
that she avoids cursing and being careful about her appearance and way of talking. She
is coping up by being pressured to follow the norms of the society. Her mechanisms for
coping with her life tells us that the life of Bree is hard because the perspective of the
people and how the way she wants to be treated differs. We can also see that Bree
handles her stress by coming to the only one whom she considers as her only friend, her
therapist.

3. The main character, was at first, not allowed by her psychologist to undergo the
surgery. What was the reason? Explain this thoroughly.
- Bree was not allowed to take the surgery because of his past. In the beginning of the
movie, we saw that she was being asked for question and the way Bree answers seems
to hide something back in her mind. Because of that action, the psychologist noticed
and concluded that Bree does not have a social foundation where she can find a support
system that will guide her along the way. In the part of the movie, where Bree went to
submit her forms to her therapist, her therapist insisted that she must fix her past first
because the final surgery so that the ties of what happened years ago will not chase her
new life in the future. The therapist wants Bree to meet her son first and be in terms
with him so that Bree will not leave any marks of regrets after the operation.

4. How did she react after finding out that she has a son? Did this influence her decision
to undergo the operation? Explain.
- At first, Bree also don’t want any regrets from her past. By finding out the she has a son,
she instantly ignored the idea because he himself thinks that Stanley is dead and he
should only be in her past and not coming up to ruin her current life today. In her
decision to undergo the operation, we saw from the movie that the case added more
determination to Bree to take the surgery and when she made time with her son, Bree
also concealed her true identity to Toby because she wanted to be treated as a woman.

5. Describe her son in terms of behavior. Explain his behaviors based on his experiences
and by using some gender theories that you learned in our class. What do you think
are the factors that contributed to the gender issues of his son? Elaborate.
- Toby is a runaway jailed man who is a thief, drug user and male hustler. He acts
unmannerly and rebelliously. He was raised by his stepfather, who turns out to be very
abusive and even raped him several times when he was young. Because of that incident,
his mother committed suicide. By analyzing the film and looking through Toby’s
perspective, he is a rebel with a cause. He barely shows emotions but her relationship
with Bree is good and full of respect. These factors contributed to the gender issues of
Toby and by using Freud’s psychosexual theory, Toby developed a series of his younger
stages where he seeks for attentions and pleasures as a result of his childhood trauma.

6. What are the reactions of the significant people in the main character’s life when they
found out that she’s going to have an operation? Did their reactions and opinions
influence the main character’s decision? Explain.
- Her mother disapproved Bree’s transition from man to woman. Bree’s family didn’t
want the idea of having the operation which caused a conflict within the family. Her
father and her sister are also hesitant to conform to her decision in life. However, Bree
still continued and didn’t hesitate to undergo the surgery because of the fact that it is
the only reason for her to be happy and contented in life.

7. Do you think that gender reassignment should be legalized here in the Philippines?
Explain your answer by presenting factual pros and cons of this matter (laws and other
scientific facts).
- As of today, there are no laws in the Philippines that concerns with the rights of
Transgender people and by looking through it, it is impossible for gender reassignment
to be carried out in the country. Moreover, Philippines still also had a confusion about
the idea of sex and gender and it is clear that the knowledge of people regarding this
matter is still insufficient. With this insufficient knowledge, the LGBT community is being
discriminated for who they are. Also, gender reassignment also cures several mental
and psychological issues where it frees people from who they don’t want to be. But of
course, gender reassignment is a long and hard process. It should be a full decision and
 by going through it, the individual itself needs a support system and an emotionally
stable mind so that the operation will not have any regret of action. In my opinion, in
establishing a gender reassignment operation here in the Philippines, our country must
first implement laws that can change the mindset of the people towards the community
so that they will have equal rights and freedom as other people have.

8. What are your three (3) learnings after learning all about gender reassignment
and watching the film? Start your statement by saying 'Before learning all about
gender reassignment and before watching the film, I used to think that
(insert thought). After learning all about gender reassignment and after watching the
film, I now think that (insert thought).
- Before watching the film, I used to think that gender reassignment is not necessarily
needed for people like Bree because I thought that people can still be happy without it.
But After learning all about gender reassignment and after watching the film, I now
think that we have the right to do whatever we want for ourselves for it is the only
reason for us to be free and valuable in this world.
- Before watching the film, I used to think that when the operation of gender
reassignment is completely done, the individual who went the surgery will be happy and
contented in life. But after learning all about gender reassignment and after watching
the film, I now think that the surgery itself doesn’t matter. What matters the most is the
person who went through it, that she must be fully accepted for who he/she is before
and who he/she is now in order to be contented in life.
- Before watching the film, I used to think that it is a hard issue and matter to be in a
situation where you are a transgender person and you have a child that happened in the
past. But after learning all about gender reassignment and after watching the film, I now
think that it is not about the gender nor the sex at all. Being a good person is what
matters the most and being a mother is not all about the biological differences. It is all
about the values of the family that certain people holds.