Recent Articles
Showing posts with label sexuality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sexuality. Show all posts
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Saturday, March 2, 2013
- 0 Comments
On the 8th of January Suzanne Moore made a crack that women were expected to look like “Brazilian transsexuals”. This throwaway remark struck a nerve in the transgender community; between 2008-2011 426 transgender people have been murdered in Brazil - the highest rate in the world. An astonishing 80% of murders of transgender people worldwide between 2008-11 occurred in Latin America. Beyond the physical threat, transgender people routinely face social exclusion and discrimination. Why is this region of the world so dangerous for transgender people? More pressingly, what can be done about it?
So I was happy to accept the invitation of the The Latin American and Caribbean Network of Transgender People (REDLACTRANS) and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance to attend the launch of The Night is Another Country: Impunity and violence against transgender women human rights defenders in Latin America. This report lays bare the chilling reality of life for transgender people in Latin America, with numerous personal stories and interviews that paint a depressing picture of intimidation, exploitation and victimisation in these countries.
The launch, generously hosted by Doughty Street Chambers, featured an impressive panel of activists and politicians. Chairing the evening was Shaun Woodward MP, Labour representative for St Helens South and Whiston; the speakers were Marcela Romero, Regional Coordinator of REDLACTRANS; Monica Leonardo, author of the report; Christine Burns MBE, political activist, health advisor and former Vice President of Press for Change and Sue Breeze, representing the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
A short and powerful film shown by REDLACTRANS at the evening.
The launch, generously hosted by Doughty Street Chambers, featured an impressive panel of activists and politicians. Chairing the evening was Shaun Woodward MP, Labour representative for St Helens South and Whiston; the speakers were Marcela Romero, Regional Coordinator of REDLACTRANS; Monica Leonardo, author of the report; Christine Burns MBE, political activist, health advisor and former Vice President of Press for Change and Sue Breeze, representing the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Shaun Woodward MP was an impressive speaker, explaining both his moral and personal convictions in relation to transgender rights. He famously crossed the floor from the Conservatives to Labour in 1999 after being sacked for supporting the repeal of Section 28, the regulation preventing promotion of homosexuality in schools. As a result of this defection, the Conservative Party sicced the press on his transgender sister, resulting in a front page of the Sun covered in doorstep pictures of her. His anger is palpable when he recounts this, and he seems a passionate and sincere defender of human rights (although interestingly he didn't vote on the gay marriage bill...).
He lays out some of the more alarming statistics in the report, the most disturbing being that rates of HIV infection are frighteningly high in the transgender community in Latin America. 35% of transgender people are infected, which, when compared to the average rate of adult HIV prevalence across Latin America, 0.5%, makes this the most unequal region in the world.
Cold statistics like these are shocking and effective, but the problem in this particular field is that there isn't a huge amount of data to work with. One of the aims of REDLACTRANS is to put pressure on Latin American governments to legally acknowledge the existence of transgender people. That they don't means that data is scarce, with transgender men and women being recorded in statistics as their birth gender rather than what they identify as. So the conclusions of the report are primarily derived from interviewing transgender people from across Latin America about their experiences. These voices tell some pretty damn grim stories, for example:
"About six months ago, I got in a car with a man who I know is a policeman. He hired me to provide my sexual services, but afterwards he didn't want to pay and he wouldn't let me get out of the car. He shouted at me, "Today you really are going to die, hueco!". I told him to kill me, because I knew that sooner or later I'd end up dead, because for me, life is a bonus." - [Transgender activist in Guatemala, July 2012]
Things continue in this vein as Monica explains to us the levels of violence and murder against transgender activists and transgender women, crimes to which the state turns a blind eye. Many transgender women in Latin American countries gravitate towards sex work; discrimination in society making it difficult for them to easily find other sources of income. This places them in an intensely vulnerable situation, with little options available.
A near universal theme in these interviews is intense distrust of the police. There is countless testimony of the police exploiting transgender sex workers, blackmailing them for free sexual favours and attacking or even killing them if they resist. After all, if you're viciously beaten by a policeman, who do you report the attack to? In many cases the victim would be making the report to the colleagues of the person you're accusing. In one example we hear how someone wishing to report a crime was told that "the computer system is down", and to go to another station to report it. In each station the person visited, the same thing was heard. To know that the police couldn't give a toss about your safety and that you have no means of reporting a crime leaves you feeling intensely powerless.
A near universal theme in these interviews is intense distrust of the police. There is countless testimony of the police exploiting transgender sex workers, blackmailing them for free sexual favours and attacking or even killing them if they resist. After all, if you're viciously beaten by a policeman, who do you report the attack to? In many cases the victim would be making the report to the colleagues of the person you're accusing. In one example we hear how someone wishing to report a crime was told that "the computer system is down", and to go to another station to report it. In each station the person visited, the same thing was heard. To know that the police couldn't give a toss about your safety and that you have no means of reporting a crime leaves you feeling intensely powerless.
A trailer for a project by Ivan D'Onadio shown at the event
Reading the report you feel the weight of misery pressing down on you. Example after example of humiliation, disfigurement and rape, a litany of crimes committed by state actors, or with the state's sinisterly implied consent. Changing the course of monolithic organisations like the police, the courts, the church and the government looks like an almost impossible task. So how can things improve?
Predictably, the answer is slowly and with great difficulty. One of the objectives of RELACTRANS is to get Latin American governments to allow people to change their gender and name in their identification documents. This sounds like a fairly reasonable request, but laws like these provide the bedrock for further anti-discrimination legislation as proof that the state officially recognises their existence. Earlier in the evening we're told that police find it difficult to identify murdered transgender women as they tend not to carry ID. Under existing laws, any official ID they could possess would carry their birth name and gender, which isn't going to be particularly useful for someone who's undergone or is undergoing transition. The most significant advance in this area of law has been in Argentina, whose Gender Identity Law came into force in May 2012; if the momentum from this can be harnessed it would be the first light in a very dark situation.
It's rare that I feel a sense of patriotism, but when the human rights activists speak glowingly of the UK's progress in human rights for transgender people I felt a slight glow of pride. We were shown how far the UK has come since 1992. Back then transgender people were unable to change their birth certificate, marry, have employment protection and most disturbingly, legally unable to be raped. In 2012 all of these have been overturned, thanks to the efforts of organisations like Press For Change. It's efforts like these that serve as a template for political action in Latin America.
It wasn't exactly a cheery night, but all the panellists spoke with clear-headed conviction. For the transgender activists in Latin America it takes an enormous amount of bravery to stand up to a society that apparently doesn't care if you wind up dead in a ditch or not. This report will function as a keystone in highlighting the danger and oppression that transgender people live under, and as a foundation for further activism in Latin American regions.
You can read the full report here: http://issuu.com/aids_all
Many thanks to Doughty Street Chambers for hosting this, and to all the panellists for speaking so eloquently, intelligently and passionately.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
- 0 Comments
‘The Sessions’ is about a sweet and awkward guy trying to lose his virginity. He’s a poet, he’s sensitive, he’s thoughtful, and he's pretty good looking. It’s the stuff of a thousand feel-good romantic comedies with one difference: our hero is paralysed from the neck down and lives inside an iron lung. The film unflinchingly grasps this thorny problem, examining the emotional and physical practicalities of sex for the severely disabled. And it does this while being absolutely hilarious.
This is a true story, adapted from a 'On Seeing a Sex Surrogate', an essay by polio sufferer Mark O’Brien. He could only spend a few hours outside his iron lung each day, yet graduated from UC Berkeley and worked as a journalist, poet and disabled rights advocate. He’s played by John Hawkes who immediately imbues Mark with a mordant, self deprecating humour. It’s a hell of a role to play, spending the entire film unable to move anything except your head puts some pretty big restrictions on what an actor can and can’t do.
 |
| John Hawkes as Mark O'Brien |
Restrictions like these make the part initially feel like pre-packaged Oscar-bait, and comparisons to roles like Christy Brown in ‘My Left Foot’ are inevitable. Mark’s dignity and self-assuredness as he struggles not to let his life be entirely defined by his condition are powerful, moving and inspiring. But, smartly, ‘The Sessions’ isn’t a 'big and important' film, it’s self-contained, light-hearted and frequently overtly farcical. This is a film that’s not afraid to look the elephant in the room square in the eye: a man who can’t move his body is going to have a difficult sex life.
The sessions of the title refer to Mark's visits to his ‘sex surrogate’, Christy Cohen-Greene, as played by Helen Hunt. She’s a fascinating character, someone who treats sex and eroticism in an extremely matter-of-fact way yet never without intimacy and warmth. From her first visit with Mark she informs him that she’s got a husband and children, and that they can only have six sessions with each other, both tactics presumably decided to try and avoid any emotional entanglement.
 |
| Helen Hunt as Christy Cohen-Greene |
From the first session she has with Hawkes she embodies a kind of relaxed, easy intimacy that is rare to see in film. She strips in a practiced, efficient manner, yet is still sexually potent. Hunt is conventionally beautiful and looks great naked, but what's most disarmingly attractive is her warmth and easy friendliness. Hunt’s character tries to define herself as an ‘all-woman’ to her patients, embodying mother, lover, best friend and therapist. She's expertly conscious about how Mark perceives her, knowing how he feels better than he does. Her problem is that while she clinically and accurately documents Mark's emotional state through the sessions, she ignores her own growing attachment to him.
Sex is primarily a vehicle for titillation in film, shot from a voyeuristic, prurient male gaze, artful, graceful and aesthetically pleasing. It isn’t like this in real life (well.. unless I've been doing it wrong..). It’s a jumble of tangled limbs, falling off beds, unexpected cramps, bashing your head on stuff and seeing people making some very strange faces. It’s sometimes farcical, sometimes clumsy, sometimes slightly embarrassing but (nearly) always great fun. It’s rare to see a film capture this so honestly and even though we giggle throughout most of the sex scenes, we also understand that they're serious moments of character development.
It's refreshing to see sex dealt with like this, and you’re quickly disabused of any notion that the film is being in any way gratuitous. ‘The Sessions’ treats sexuality and sex as essential components of the human being, stating quite bluntly a life without them is a life not fully lived. There’s a snag here though, namely that our protagonist is a devout Catholic, struggling with his own desires versus a doctrine that bans sex before marriage. This spiritual debate is shown through conversations between Mark and his priest, Father Brendan (William H. Macy). It would have been incredibly easy to make Father Brendon the antagonist in the film, a character unfairly preaching mind over matter to someone who wants to be more than just ‘mind’. But this is a positive portrayal of Catholicism and Christianity as an accommodating, religion with a God that will “give you a free pass on this one”. It’s weirdly novel to see organised religion as so empathetic and helpful to our hero’s quest.
Much of this positivity is down to a brilliant performance by William H. Macy. He’s a rare creature, a priest with a genuine desire to help and comfort rather than hector and chide. Although he spends time grappling with whether he’s able to recommend a course of sex therapy as compatible with Catholicism it’s clearly a one-sided fight. This is a person who’s struggling to fit what he already knows to be the right and kind course of action into his entrenched dogma.
 |
| William H. Macy as the impressively maned Father Brendan |
'The Sessions' is a film stuffed with well thought-out, pleasant characters like these. If there is an antagonist in the film it’s something as straightforward as our hero’s lack of self-confidence or his misbehaving dick. While Hawkes, Hunt and Macy get big, attention-grabbing dramatic moments, everyone slots seamlessly into the cosy, supportive world that’s conjured. Standouts are Moon Bloodgood’s ‘Vera’ and Annika Marks’ ‘Amanda’, both of whom convey a feminine saintliness without ever feeling like unrealistic wish-fulfilment figures. We explore these women's lives outside of Mark's social sphere, something that allows us to see them as smart, capable people with agency of their own.
The fact that everyone in the film is so damn nice and pleasant is perhaps a slight failing of the film. While we're interested and involved with their various problems there is little urgency here. You can't help but agree with the message that denying disabled sexuality is an insulting mistake, but the lack of any dissenting point of view to frame this message against slightly dilutes it. Aside from this, the attempts to ratchet up the tension in the film don't really work. While we're explicitly told that Mark's reason for wanting to have sex is a a result of a sense of impending death, this isn't exploited as a kind of time limit.
Ultimately, keeping the stakes low keeps our focus tightly on Mark and the people in his orbit. This is that rare thing, a genuinely inspiring story that doesn't rely on cheap emotional tricks or manipulating the audience with sappy cinematic romance. There is an unfortunate societal tendency to infantilise the disabled, to treat them as if their minds as well as their bodies are impaired. 'The Sessions' disabuses us of this notion, telling us to consider them as adults with the same desires and urges as anyone else. This results in an unembarrassed, clear-headed look at sexuality, making this one of the most emotionally mature films I've seen lately.
****
'The Sessions' is on general release from 18th January 2013
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
