Medhurst

In Medhurst's essay, "Batman, Deviance, and Camp", Medhurst's begins with in depth and detailed information about his views on Batman and the background of why he views Batman the way that he does. Batman was not the idol figure to Medhurst as he appeared to be to everyone else. Although not many would have ever come to this assumption, but Medhurst gives good reasoning as to why he thinks Batman is a homosexual. He uses concrete details from episodes to prove his idea. He explains the Batman lives with another man, his butler Alfred, and has plentiful flowers around the house (310). Not only that, but wears night gowns as well to bed (310). This may be seen as deviance to some, but this all relates back to camp. Medhurst tries to prove the Batman is gay in multiple ways, but in reality everyone is aware that he is not. You can make almost anything seem as something it is not. Medhurst does a great job of using camp by remaking the normal. The normal to us is that Batman is straight, but Medhurst makes Batman being a homosexual the normal throughout his essay. In the end everyone knows that Batman is indeed not gay, but this essay gives other perspective as to how idol figures such as this one can easily be interpreted as something else. As Medhurst states clearly, "Most camp humor has a relatively short life span, new targets are always needed, and the camp aspect of Batman has been squeezed dry. (318)" This idea the Batman is gay is just temporary; something new will always come along to take its place.

Boys Don't Cry

In the film, Boys Don't Cry, emotions are sure to arise. Hilary Swank delivered viewers a deep understanding of how hard it must be to live the life of being a lesbian. The opening and ending act proves how difficult it must be to allow people to know the truth about how some people really are. It is nothing that people have any control over, but some are hurt or killed because they cannot help that they are attracted to the same sex. "Brandon" kept her private life a secret because she was afraid of exactly what happened to her. She was brutally raped and died simply because she was in love with another woman. "Brandon" was a sweet young woman and respected others. She was not liked by the police too much, but she more than likely rebelled due to all of the criticism she received because she was a lesbian. She tried to live her life as a man, but she always got herself into trouble. In the beginning, the older brother of a girl she dated threatened to beat her after they found out about her secret. In the end she suffered a great amount because an entire family and friends found out their daughter had been messing around with what they thought was a man, but just so happened to be a woman. This was a expressive film an gives people a different perspective to better understand the struggles some people in our society face .