This evening, a group of us from work converged to watch Ma Vie en Rose with a discussion afterward. The movie centers around the trials of a young boy who tries his best to become a girl. He does not fit into his gender role and his parents are speechless. They try various tactics, but in the end succumb to his transgendered approach after moving to a more accepting neighborhood.
The discussion part of these sessions always ruffles my feathers making me question my desire to remain liberal. The other people I work with focused solely on the child and his parent's reactions citing how these problems really exist in society. They ignored the other stereotypes the movie portrayed--the stuck-up suburban community, the typified reactions of the parents--while failing to perceive that the movie was clearly meant to be largely fictional. Indeed, marginal deeper truths about gender confusion and societies acceptance can be drawn from such a movie, but it is unfounded to use a movie, let alone one such as this, as grounds for ranting about the travesty of modern society.
This leads me again to question my association with liberals in America. They seem to be overly reactionary and non-deliberate in their actions. Perhaps they need a step back to ensure rational thought, perhaps it is something else. My quest continues....
Now I am off to complete a curriculum for the CEP program that I have an interview for tomorrow morning.