In the wake of the 21st century, there has been a clear increasing shift and consistent struggle for equality and political correctness. Although these issues are of great importance, equality can not be discussed unless violence is addressed first. A certain type of violence that reached its ultimate peak in 2018 was transgender violence with a catastrophic total of 26 murders fueled solely by hate. After attending The Reel Out Film Festival in Kingston, The Garden Left Behind by Flavio Alves perfectly shows the reality trans people face on a daily basis.
Although the main character, Tina (Antonio) Carerra, was born in Mexico, Tina and her grandmother decided to immigrate to New York alone a few years back. Faced with being undocumented immigrants and attempting to transition with gender-reassignment surgery, the film puts the main focus on the struggles and conflicts trans-people have to face on a daily basis. As Tina regularly goes to her psychologist appointments patiently waiting for his approval of her surgery through diagnosing her with gender dysphoria, Tina also struggles to balance her boyfriend, Jason, her co-dependent grandmother, her fellow transgender friend group and a secret admirer, Chris, who works at the local convenience store all at once. As the film progresses, Jason feels increasingly embarrassed to be seen with Tina in public despite his feelings for her. He eventually completely cuts Tina out from his life once he found the news that she was approved mentally for a transition. On top of this, Tina feels increasing pressure from her friends to become an activist for transgender violence especially after one of her friends, Rosie, was brutally abused by police officers. In the midst of all this adrenaline, Tina’s grandmother is misunderstanding about Tina’s situation and constantly hints at wanting to move back to Mexico. Furthermore, one of the most heartbreaking events of the film was when due to a kidney disease Tina was denied the ability to transition and undergo surgery because it was too life-risking. After finding out the news, Tina decides to walk home alone while sobbing profusely. As she is walking alone, a group of men who have teased her before decide to approach her.. Unknown to Tina’s knowledge, Chris, Tina’s secret admirer who she had always shown the utmost respect to, was sitting in the back of the car associating with the eccentric men. After catcalling and teasing Tina for a few minutes, Chris’ anger and pent up feelings he had for Tina got the best of him and he brutally murdered Tina with his baseball bat. This leaves Tina’s grandmother on her own and was told the news at the police station while being questioned. A letter was then given to her which was found on Tina after her murder and was addressed to her grandmother. The letter consisted of a ticket to Mexico and money for her grandmother to move back like she had been wishing for throughout the entire movie.
Although there are many ups and downs The Garden Left Behind goes through, one main topic that clearly stands out is the idea of ‘toxic masculinity’. Although many of Tina’s friends and family were accepting of who she was, the men in her life were the ones who were clearly affected by societal pressures of masculinity. While Jason seemed loving and caring towards Tina initially, it was obvious he felt embarrassed to be in public with her and that embarrassment manifested into him eventually shunning her out of his life permanently. Chris, on the other hand, clearly attempts to affirm and fit into his group of white masculine men despite his clear interest in Tina. Chris, throughout the film, attempts to call her, looks at her photos and even thinks about her in the shower. Despite his clear passion, each interest he shows always leads to him being angry and aggressive which had escalated to the extremity of Tina’s murder. Although both men become angry and aggressive, the main reasoning behind this misogyny is “because it is deeply entrenched in western culture. It is naturalized” (Banet-Weiser & Miltner, #MasculinitySoFragile, p.171). The ability for men to become aggressive towards females, whether transgender or not, has become so normalized that even cat-calling can not be fought but rather women are forced to become accustomed to it. This shows that there is still an ignorance towards misogyny and discrimination that even those who take part in it do not realize the reality of what they are doing. The fear men have that they will be worth less unless they commit to masculine stereotypes causes aggression in men in the first place due to a need to prove themselves. The film not only exposes how discrimination can be fueled through toxic masculinity but the film itself, which is made almost completely by members of the LGTBQ community, show how the oppressed must always educate others in order to gain acceptance in society (Lorde, Age, Race, Class and Sex, p.114). The director of the movie is gay, trans women are played by actual trans women actors and minorities are clearly evident in all roles. Another concept that the movie clearly portrays is culture/generational gaps. Although Tina’s friends were accepting of Tina’s transition, Tina’s grandmother did not understand until she asked for clarity because transgender-ism wasn’t a popular or accepted concept as it is today. Although she wasn’t as aware of what Tina was going through and after calling Tina by her actual name-Antonio-throughout the whole movie, she finally regards to her granddaughter as Tina in the last scene. This shows that she had finally accepted Tina for who she was completely by the end. While this movie’s acting was sub par in regular discussions, the emotion Tina expresses when she is denied surgery and the anger her fellow activists show towards transgender violence invokes empathy in the audience. While this movie was amateurishly produced, the ability it has to open the audience up to perspectives and lifestyles otherwise ignorant to cisgendered people really shows it’s true power.
Overall, this movie is very powerful in showing the oppression and escalating violence transgender people have to experience on a daily basis. This movie was able to allow us to sympathize with Tina while also understanding why some people have such hatred for people with obvious differences. All in all, this movie was conducted very well and is a guaranteed must-see.
- Feminist Media Studies, www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14680777.2016.1120490?needAccess=true.
- Lorde, Audre G. “Age, Race, Class and Sex; Women Redefining a Difference.” Black Thought and Culture, pp. 114–123.
Vanja's Blog 