I just finished watching the movie “Ma vie en rose.” The end of this movie has left me with mixed-feelings. Although Ludovic is eventually accepted by his mother and family, he is openly shunned by the neighbors and society. It is a brilliant move for director Carole Scotta to set the movie in France where the stereotypical roles of gender are prevalent. In fact, there are many instances in the film where these roles are illustrated. For example, the dad is expected to provide for the family while the mother is expected to cook. Clearly, these gender roles are enforced at a young age. At the children’s show and tell day, the girls bring dolls and the boys bring trucks. When Ludo brings dolls to class, his teacher asks him, “But you want to be like Ben (the male doll), right?” As Ludo reveals his desires to be a girl more and more, these gentle suggestions turn into harsh attempts to “normalize” him. Ludo’s parents take him to see a psychologist and the neighbors sign a petition to kick him out of school. Even Ludo’s mother cracks under the pressure of society’s revulsion of her son, telling him, “it’s all your fault.”
Ludo’s experience is similar to Maria Patino’s ostracization after she was found to be a man by an Olympic committee. Like Ludo, Maria felt her loved-ones dessert her after she broke the mold of “normal.” Like “Dueling Dualism” and many of the other articles that we have read, the film explains that there is no normal. One of the neighbors says that her husband is not like Hanna’s husband; everyone is different; every family is different. One family may have one child and the next family may have four. Clearly, no set definition of “normalcy” can be given. This message is made concrete when Ludo meets Chris, or Christine, one of his female neighbors who enjoys activities that are traditionally enjoyed by males such as sling-shooting and dressing up as a cowboy. After this idea of “normal” is deconstructed, Ludo’s mother comes to a realization of her own. She realizes that no matter what, Ludo is still her child. A child. Not a little boy or a little girl, but a little child.
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You did a great job of tying the movie to the articles we have been reading. There seems to be a pattern of a person's loved ones leaving them when as you say, they, "broke the mold of 'normal.'" I agree with you that the issue is that there is no normal. It is interesting that in other aspects of society, we have made so much progress in denying a true "normal," while when dealing with issues of gender we have made very little. We have seen anorexia as a result of promoting a "normal" body type. We have seen unfair racism and segregation as a result of promoting a "normal" race. When really, both of these "normal"'s are just ideals that hold no real basis or truth to them. I wonder when we'll be able to see clearly through the issue of a normal gender and begin to see people as people (race, gender and body type aside) the way that Ludo's mother begins to at the end of the film.
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