The Crying Game
The Crying GameEver since the Stonewall riots and the Gay Liberation movement of the 1970’s, most people might agree that being openly homosexual is much more socially acceptable than it was in the notoriously homophobic 1950’s. While this increasing attitude of acceptance is wonderful, it isn’t by any means all-inclusive. What are we to make of people who consider themselves as transsexual, transgered, or not any gender at all? If we look at the media, we can usualy see transsexuals represented in only two ways: as sexual deviants on talk shows like The Jerry Springer Show, or as campy drag queens in movies such as Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. In 1993, Irish director Neil Jordan made a movie that dealt with transsexualism and gender identity that became a critical hit and even received an Academy Award. This movie, The Crying Game, poses interesting questions about gender identity; many of these questions echo the sentiments of other writers about gender and sexuality. At the same time, the movie contains contradictions which make the message of the movie difficult to decipher.
Before analyzing the movie, the framework of the plot needs to be explained. Members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) kidnap Jody, a soldier, and hold him hostage. Fergus, an IRA volunteer is assigned to keep watch over the prisoner, and the two end up developing a friendship. Before he dies, Jody asks Fergus to look after his “girl”, Dil. Fergus carries out the request and goes to England to hide from the IRA and to meet Dil, who he ends up falling in love with. Before they consumate their relationship, that she is not really a woman, but a man. Although his first reaction is one of anger and shock, Fergus hesitantly continues their relationship. Claiming that it is for her protection, he asks Dil to cut her hair and wear Jody’s clothes. One of the IRA members, Jude, comes to kill Fergus for disobeying orders. Instead, Dil murders her and Fergus chooses to take the blame for the murder and goes to jail.
One of the first interesting questions that this movie raises is how we identify who is a man and who is a woman. Dil appropriates to herself as many physical gender attributes as she can. Her hair is long and curly, she wears dresses, she wears make-up and talks in a high pitched voice. According to Kate Bornstein’s book, Gender Outlaw, there are also other gender attributes which people use. Some of those include behavioral cues, textual cues, mythic cues, power dynamics as cue and sexual orientation as cue. Dil certainly tries to adopt as many of the gender attributes as possible that would identify as a woman. This certainly makes sense because Dil wants to pass as a woman, but what does it mean that she conforms to socially and culturally constructed views of what gender is?
Bornstein argues...
To view the complete essay, you be registered.