the brandon teena story: a documentary

i was browsing through the dvd section of the library on thursday after class and i came across the brandon teena story, a documenatry about the true story behind boy’s don’t cry. i have a certain fascination for documentaries and this story in particular was interesting to me both in and outside the context of our class so i decided to watch it. there are many things i could say about the true story behind the film but for the sake of brevity (false) i would recommend that you all watch it if you have the chance. but there is one aspect of the documentary in particular that caught my attention and that i’d like to call your attention to. in class on thursday there seemed to be lots of confusion and (from my sense of it) discomfort when deciding which pronouns to use when speaking about Brandon and the interviews in the documentary proved to be no different. here is one statement made by one of brandon’s close family friends: “her biggest fear was to be touched by a man or to possibly be raped by a man because she was a man.” there were so many thoughts racing through my mind in connection to all of our conversations in class when i heard this one quote. i tried to examine and make sense of the language in relation to the topics we have been discussing, it may come off more so as rambling than anything, but i want to know if anyone else can make sense of or see any connections in my thoughts: