The Meaning of the Deletion of the Black Victim in Boys Don’t Cry (78518)

Session Information: Media, Film Studies, Theatre, Communication
Session Chair: Ying-Ying Chen

Saturday, 25 May 2024 15:40
Session: Session 4
Room: Room 704
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation

All presentation times are UTC + 9 (Asia/Tokyo)

Boys Don't Cry (1999), directed by Kimberly Peirce and starring Hilary Swank, tells the story of Brandon Teena, who was born female but feels uncomfortable with his gender and tries to become a man. The film is based on the true story of Brandon Teena. He goes to a town where no one knows him and is once accepted as a man by the local young people, but he is eventually discovered to be a woman and raped and murdered by his male friends. This film is very important in that it brought the previously little-known concept of transgenderism to the public's attention. However, although only Brandon and his friend Candace, who let Brandon stay at her house, are depicted as being killed in the film, in fact, apart from Brandon and Lisa Lambert (portrayed as Candace in the film), the other individual named Phillip DeVine, a young black man who was present at Lisa's house that day, was also killed. Despite this, Phillip DeVine does not appear in Boys Don't Cry. Here, I will examine Aphrodite Jones' All She Wanted and several newspaper articles that were written based on careful coverage of the case, to find out more about Phillip DeVine, who was erased from Boys Don't Cry. Furthermore, by analyzing why Peirce did not include DeVine, who is black, in the film, I will also investigate Peirce's subconscious mind toward black people, which underlies the psychology behind the exclusion of DeVine.

Authors:
Miho Morii, Otsuma Women's University, Japan


About the Presenter(s)
Dr Miho Morii is a University Assistant Professor/Lecturer at Otsuma Women's University in Japan

See this presentation on the full scheduleSaturday Schedule



Conference Comments & Feedback

Place a comment using your LinkedIn profile

Comments

Share on activity feed

Powered by WP LinkPress

Share this Presentation

Posted by Clive Staples Lewis

Last updated: 2023-02-23 23:45:00