Ma Vie En Rose and its Relationship to Schiavi

What is "coming-in" compared to "coming-out"?

There is a section of Schiavi's aritcle, "A girlboy's own Story", that discusses the term "coming-in". It states that it is oppisite to the known term, "coming-out".
"Coming-in" is a term used by people to explain that they have this knowledge of already knowing what they are before they are adults and see society differently.

It is a knowledge of an inner feeling that one knows before anyone else. When someone is "coming-in", they are experiencing this inner feeling. "Coming-in" is way to express a persons ability to feel what they are even before they understand what society expects them to be.

The "coming-out" is term used by many homosexuals that is a time in a persons life when they tell people they are attracted to the same sex; that they are "gay" or "lesbian".

This term is not a representation of Ludo in Ma Vie en Rose, but an expression used my homosexuals to "come-out" or tell their friends and families that they like the same sex not that they are a different sex.

How does Ludo experience this "coming-in" phase that one goes through according to Schiavi?

The film Ma Vie En Rose is a film that portrays a young boy who is struggling with his inner feelings of his own representation of what he feels that he really is.The boy's name is Ludovic, Ludo is his nickname in the film.

He believes that he is a girl even though he is a boy on the outside. The film portrays the difference's transgendered people face with the people around them.

Ludo is a young boy facing an inner feeling of being a girl even though on the outside he is a boy. This experience that he is going through is what Schiavi was stating one goes through in their "coming-in" period of life.

He was originally accepted by his family, assuming they Ludo was just going through and episode of some sort, but in the end, the mother and father were upset, frustrated, confused and alienated from their son. They did this because of their assumption that Ludo would grow out of it, or that they can fix him some way.

Ludo knew from the very beginning that he feels like he is a girl but his family did not understand that this was the "coming-in" phase.

"Far From Heaven", Kathy's Desire and Identification & Raymond with 'The Fact of Blackness'

The film "Far From Heaven" has two main characters that exemplify many theories from Stacey's "desire and identification"theory with women, like the main protagonist Kathy, to the black character Raymond and his perfect example of Fanon's ideas on his article, "The Fact of Blackness".

How does Jackie Stacey's article, "Desperately Seeking Difference", identify with the female character Kathy in the film "Far From Heaven" with desire and identification?

Stacey discusses in the article the how "binary opposition between masculinity and femininity offers a limited framework for the discussion of a fascination..., which is articulated actively through an interplay of desire and identification" (395). The character Kathy in "Far From Heaven", is facing the opposition between masculinity and femininity with her fascination with the African-American culture and people. She does this by interacting with the black character Raymond who she then turns her fascination into desire of his personality. Her identification with this character becomes highly seen when she finds out that her husband is homosexual and feels like she will be judged and exiled from her social status due to her husband sexual orientation.

Though the two situations are different, Kathy's desire for Raymond leads to her identification of herself and understanding how black people were feeling. Kathy also takes on both the role as mother and father in the film. Her husbands, situation had made Kathy keep her feminine expectedness as well as made her have to fill in for her husbands absence, while he was facing his sexual orientation in private. This is the example of Stacey's opinion of women facing the opposition of femininity and masculinity and how a woman is to take on both roles through desire and identification.

How does the character Raymond in "Far From Heaven", portray the image to Frantz Fanon's article, "The Fact of Blackness"?

Raymond is a black male in the 1950's who is educated and well rounded in his knowledge of business, hard work, art, and the world. Fanon's states, "In the white world the man of color encounters difficulties in the development of his bodily schema. Consciousness of the body is solely a negating activity" (418). The bodily schema in not only the physical aspect of what is expected in a male but his whole self and his development.

Raymond's encounters with the white people throughout the film, slowly prevented difficulties in his development of his bodily schema. His relationship with Kathy, went from business oriented to friendship, and quickly became misread by both the white and black community. He was once discussing something with Kathy in the film outside a movie theater and grabbed her arm as she was walking away. Without hesitation, a white male yells, "hey boy" to get him to stop. If this was a white male addressing a women in the same manner nothing would have been said to anyone. He was prevented here, the capability to evolve and grow as a man due to his color and dealing with the white man.

In the end, Raymond had to leave town, because of misunderstanding seen by others with his relationship with Kathy. His daughter was attacked, which prevented his growth as a father, because white children attacked her. He had to sell his business and move out of town. All of these things are encounters Raymond had as a black man dealing with white people and how throughout the film, he was prevented his right to develop his physical schema as man because he was black.

Dancer in The Dark & Marx

Marx speaks of many different forms of alienation.

Does Selma in the film "Dancer in The Dark" portray a good example of Marx's form of labor alienation that he speaks of?

Marx describes labor alienation as someone who is not themselves at home because their mind is always at work. When they are at work, then they are at home. During this form of alienation, the persons form of alienation will affect their mind and can put them at danger both mentally and physically. Selma exemplifies a perfect example of this when she alienates herself at work in the film, "Dancer in the Dark". The musical aspect of the film, is when Selma is showing Marx's form of labor alienation. Her "daydreaming" as she likes to call it, is her form of labor alienation. This example portrays Marx's theory of labor alienation.

How does Selma in "Dancer in the Dark" portray Marx's labor alienation?

When Selma is "daydreaming", she puts herself at risk of being injured at work. She works in a factory where a person must pay very close attention to what they are doing and if they mess up on anything it can break the machinery and shut down the plant.

Selma goes into her "daydreaming" at work, when she hears noise and creates music in her mind. When the musical numbers are going on in the film, it makes it seem as if Selma is having an outer body experience. This causes Selma to mess up by putting two sheets of metal in a machine and break the machine and hurt herself. Because of this, Selma is fired.

This is an example of labor alienation and how Selma feels at home at work because she can hear noise which then creates music in her mind and then brings her to another place that is home to her. Musical numbers equal home. This puts her at risk of hurting herself and affects her minds way of thinking properly. Because she was alienating herself at work with her musicals, she then alienated herself from her work with then took her away from home as she knew it.