Heterosexuality... the norm!

Through out all of our years, since we are born most of the people are being taught that women are attractive to men, and men are attractive to women. That’s the norm, so basically if you don’t fall in one of these two categories then you’re not normal. Something is wrong with you. Most of the people think that heterosexuality is the norm, when they are not even informed of all the other concepts that exist out there. All they know is about heterosexuality being the norm, and homosexuality being the wrong thing to do, and when I say homosexuality they only refer to gay men and lesbians, but they skip all these other terms that we have learned about (bisexual, transsexual, metro sexual, transvestites, transgendered, etc). People have the wrong perception about this and this is why the majority of films will show a negative aspect when showing people that consider themselves as one of these categories.

The movie "But I’m A Cheerleader" surprised me a lot. I think this was the first movie that I watch that really shows what life is about for gay and lesbian people in this case, and how they fight for the right to be together. At the beginning we can see how Megan is lost in her gender identity thinking that she is a heterosexual person, but then actually believing that she’s not when everyone starts telling her that she needs to admit that she’s lesbian. At the end she ends up realizing that this actually was her real identity. I think the movie makes its points very clear. Such is that fact of showing at the camp how girls and boys need to behave according with the norm (heterosexuality). As we learned earlier in class according to the norm boys should like blue, be strong, brave, watch sports, involve in activities like chopping wood, etc, while girls should like pink and they should take care of the house, the family, do the cleaning and cooking. Watching the movie is funny to see how the teenagers in the camp are being taught to learn all of these procedures, but then thinking about reality these kinds of organizations really exist and the rules and ways of living are much harsher than what is reflected in the movie. Even though the movie tries to she that heterosexuality is the right thing, by the end of the movie we see how Megan and Graham end up being together. I think this gave gay and lesbian people the motivation to fight for their right to love whoever they want and for other to come out of the closet.

By these days now we see more movies that portray homosexuality and some of all the other concepts, but cinema still fails at the attempt of really showing them as what reality is about. It looks like for cinema and for the rest of most of the people heterosexuality will continue to be norm.