something that strikes me about joyland vs many other films centering trans women, is that biba’s story is one that interweaves with various cisgender women -- while it does have scenes showing her community, which is notably a place she is happy and safe and able to let her guard down, her actual story stands in comparison to other cis women, who likewise are comparable to each other. she’s not the “othered” woman to their “normative” woman, she’s a woman, whose perspective is relevant to a story largely about women
the part where her being transgender is important (and it is important!), is that she has taken the necessary steps in life to be freely herself, and this has come at great cost, but it’s also working. she knows the pain that comes with that and we see a lot of it in the movie itself, but she’s definitely also got the joy that comes from a certain kind of freedom (the freedom of creating a new reality after everything is gone)
so in that sense, the main contrast of her as “trans woman” to their “non-trans woman,” is that it’s given her the opportunity for joy precisely because the margins -- once everything has perceivably been lost -- is where that joy is to be created, whereas the other women whose stories we see are clinging to what scraps they have. they aren’t happy, not because they’re women, but because the little bits that they do have in the society in which they function, are things they’re too afraid to lose to stand up for what they want
nucchi at first appears to be happy as a housewife, desperate to produce a son, but she gets stripped away, bit by bit, merely as someone who can tolerate the role she has. she studied to be an interior designer, I believe it was, and it makes perfect sense, once she shares that piece of information with mumtaz. she comes into focus -- and then she’s the one who suggests that she and mumtaz leave the house together (gasp) to go to the amusement park, for their One Good Day
and mumtaz you simply see deteriorate, until she’s on the verge of doing the one thing that might help -- running away -- and then cannot go through with it. I think at least one of the reasons is that she’s wondering if maybe she can do this after all, if maybe once she tells haider that she’s pregnant something will open up, but instead the future closes in and in and in. she doesn’t manage to grab that one sliver of freedom she had (and it would have come with so much pain), and the ending starts careening at the viewer from that point onwards
the second-to-last scene, where you see haider and mumtaz talk prior to their wedding is just... oof. ouch. mumtaz :( me, sitting in this movie screaming at the screen to just get her the damned air-conditioners she wanted, at least! one thing!
and then lastly the neighbouring woman, who at first presents herself as all about that propriety, and who you then realise is at the end of what this journey is going to be. no longer useful, only a ghost, not even allowed to leave the house, and there’s no way she’ll do anything but accept this, even as she feels, deep down, there’s some way to have joy, and she even briefly offers a small fight for it, before she accepts her fate anew
in the face of all of this, biba’s is the story with the most hope, presenting out and proud transness as a gift rather than a burden that must be borne because nothing else is possible, as it often is. biba is not in a society where she’s safe, or accepted, or respected -- hell, she’s clearly the least privileged person we follow in this film -- but she is free
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My husband doesn't see why I insist thay Legally Blonde is a valid feminist movie, especially if you take it in the context of the late 20th Century flood of "dumb blonde bombshell" films. He's also never seen it.
Guess what we're doing today.
Edit: lol, I know the movie came out in 2001. But the wave of bombshell movies that I remember was mostly late 20th century.
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hi! i'm nicole, lady film writer & madonna scholar & blond blogger about town and these are some of my writings 🎀 all of my feminist film essays and posts r 100% free on substack and i publish a new piece weekly so consider subscribing! below some links <3 #BRINGBACKBLOGGING
Sex "Pistol"s Show: Female Representation & Why I Hate Vivienne Westwood
🎀 Feminist Films vs. "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!"
💝 5 Short Films I Recommend
the horrors of making movies as a schoolgirl 🎀
Barbie Breakfasts in Gregg Araki’s "The Living End" (1992) 🎀💝
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"Making #HERstory ; She wasn’t kicked out of Eden, She WALKED out”©️ Cali Lili #eVe #Lilith #ComingOut #SustainableMovies ™️ #mybodymychoice #AllFemaleCrew #BLM #LGBTQ #Climate eVe N’ god this female is not yet rated ™☯️ #innovator #ChickLit #ChickFlicks
2023 / 2024 Update : Cali’s innovative work is included in upcoming documentaries and Cali Lili Indies is preparing Cali’s next movie & album (TBA)
Movie Review 2022 Times Square Chronicles
Cali Lili’s : Eve N God This Female Is Not Yet Rated (with original soundtrack)
Movie Review 2022 Times Square Chronicles
Cali Lili ‘s Oscars 2020 ContendereVe N’god this female is not yet rated
” dream…
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