Una Mujer Fantástica: When Trans People Speak for Themselves
We have been introduced to different stories about trans people, especially about trans women. Transamerica (2005); Laurence Anyways (2012); Dallas Buyers Club (2013) and The Danish Girl (2015) are some examples of movies that teach us some relevant lessons about these folks. However, these stories are mostly protagonized by cisgender actors and this is not ok. According to the American philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler, there is a significant lack of studies regarding transgenders. Most of them are written by clinicians. Bearing this on mind, it can be said that there is still a long way to go until they reach a solid representativeness. Fortunately, society has been taking a few steps in order to offer trans people a more humanized portrayal and acceptance. With art, this can be more approachable, and thanks to Chilean director,Sebastián Lelio, we can hear one of these people’s stories told by a trans woman herself. ‘Una Mujer Fantástica’ or ‘A Fantastic Woman’ brings a vivid and sensitive narrative that lucidly allows the spectator to understand better the reality of folks who are still classified as mentally ill in many places.
[ spoiler alert ]
In Santiago, Chile, a waitress by day and lounge singer by night, Marina Vidal, is celebrating her birthday. When her much older boyfriend, Orlando, visits her at her workplace at that night, we get an escalating sense of foreboding. They go for a romantic dinner in which he planned to give her a ticket to the Iguazu Falls. However, the 57-year-old owner of a printing company claims that he doesn’t know where he left it. Their romantic date continues in his elegant apartment. Later on, Orlando wakes up having difficulty breathing. While he waits for her to get prepared to take him to the hospital, he seems bewildered and falls down the stairwell. Marina’s lover suffered an aneurysm, and died shortly afterward at the hospital. She will have to face a difficult journey to prove that she is just like everyone else, a human being with feelings and wishes. Orlando’s son shows up in his father’s apartment the next morning and Marina is threatened with eviction from the place. Other members from his family will also treat her with much disdain. What they feel towards her has nothing to do with the fact that Orlando left the family. Their attitudes reveal a rooted transphobia in our society. Marina’s story is just a frame of many others’ that we don’t hear often because trans folks have been marginalized for so long that, although many of them have achieved their social name and other important social positions, we are not well educated about them. Marina has to endure so many social stigmas throughout the film that it becomes agonizing to watch it, but not because it is too dramatic, it is because we, cisgender people, will never be able to accurately feel what trans people feel and experience what they experience.
A police investigator, a physician and Orlando’s family are all suspicious of the manner Orlando died. They don’t respect her grief and his family even forbids her to attend the funeral. A police officer, head of the Sexual Offences Unit, suspects that Orlando’s bruises, an aftermath after his stairwell accident, are actually a result of agression. In this case, Marina can be either accused or victim, taking into account the epidemic of violence against trans people and the stigma that trans women retain male pattern violence. She has to go through a humiliating moment when required to pose naked in a police station. Through the gaze of these social institutes, Marina is an abject body. According to sociocultural constructions, the notions of sexuality and gender are not just biologically suggested.As stated by Judith Butler, there are bodies that acquire meaning, which materialize as discursive subjects and obtain legitimacy, and others that are invisible. Transgenderers are still invisible subjects. When Orlando’s ex-wife meets Marina for the first time, she says that when she looks at the trans woman, she actually sees a chimera. It’s important to see how Marina responds to all of this. The camera keeps closing in to allow deep inspection of every detail of her expressions. Our protagonist seems used to go through these sorts of human hostility. Yet, she is patient and brave enough to handle all of this by herself, jabbing a punch-bag in order to feel relieved.
Marina Vidal doesn’t give up on her dreams despite her bereavement and others’ prejudice. She aspires to become a lyrical soprano. Her professor is one of the few people in the movie who is gentle towards Marina. There is a magnificent performance at the end of the movie that reminded me of Marion Cotillard’s performance as Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose (2007). Both sang their heart out over their pain of losing the ones they loved. What is so fantastic about Marina Vidal is that many trans spectators will be able to connect with her story. In one scene, Vidal stomps on Orlando’s son car after his family demanded “the monster’’, “the stupid man’’ to go away. This represented how she would fight back against society’s demonization of transgender folks. You can either feel her anger, or stand up beside society’s position towards them.
What is so fantastic about actress Daniela Vega? Una Mujer Fantástica won for Best Foreign Language Film in this year’s Oscar. This award is a milestone in the transgender history. She has recently upheld a gender idendity bill in Chile that would legally allow trans people to change their names in official documents. Daniela had a meeting with the former president of her country, the feminist Michelle Bachelet, in which trans people’s fundamental rights were discussed. Representativity matters, and to see trans people themselves having a voice is something we hope to see more often. Thank you Daniela Vega!
Sources:
DRY, Jude. (2018,June 3).‘A Fantastic Woman’ Historic Oscar Win Reignites Gender Identity Bill in Chile. Retrieved from:
http://www.indiewire.com/2018/03/a-fantastic-woman-oscar-transgender-rights-chile-1201937613/
MODESTO, Edith. (2018,June 3).Transgenderism: a complex challenge. Retrieved from:
http://www.revistas.usp.br/viaatlantica/article/viewFile/57215/99115
SINCLAIR, Harriet.(2018, June 3) .World Health Organisation to consider dropping claim that transgender people are mentally ill. Retrieved from:
