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It seems to me pretty clear in the film that the titular character, Laure, is not a boy nor has any biological features pertaining to the masculine gender. Consequently I wouldn't use the term "transgender" in order to describe her - let alone the pronouns "he, him" as in the plot summary. If by using "transgender" one wishes to indicate the sexual identity ambiguities displayed by Laure, there is probably a better term for this in English (I am not a native speaker). In my opinion, the movie in no ways adopts a strong stance on the problem whether there can be people "assigned" to a definite gender (as opposed to the "real", i.e. felt, gender). It is far more nuanced than this. Laure's character is not shown to be definitely a boy in a girl's guise : she is first mistaken to be a boy by Lisa and then goes on playing with that ambiguity. It is not shown whether she previously had the idea to pass as a boy or will continue to have it even after the truth is revealed. The film certainly makes a point in showing how social roles reserved to boys and girls rely on stereotypes and non-objective data, but the again it does not seem to me to demonstrate that Laure is really a boy. If one wishes to defend such an interpretation, one should at the very least present it as such. If not, this strongly biases the plot summary. E.g. when it reads : "A bath scene in the film reveals that Mikäel has a vagina, and a following scene confirms that Mikäel was assigned female at birth as his mom addresses him and his sister as "girls."", the most obvious interpretation, I feel, is that because Laure is a girl, she quite logically has a vagina, and is addressed as a girl by her mother just because she is one. Now this might seem "gender-unfriendly" or normative or whatever but the movie supports this reading just as much (if not more) than the other; and saying that Laure is in fact only Mickäel and a boy is just as normative: why couldn't she be both? She is depicted receiving (feminine) makeup and accepting it, if not liking it, which certainly suggests she hasn't completely given up on her girl identity.
As a detail, the name of the boy identity should be consistently spelled "Mickäel", just as it is written in the rolling credits. 129.199.151.78 ( talk) 13:07, 25 April 2015 (UTC)
Yes, this is clear. I'm in agreement. This summary reads as massively influenced by mainstream narratives of gender, and is a poor representation of the film. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 23.28.216.39 ( talk) 20:10, 17 December 2015 (UTC)
This film features hate scenes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 177.194.188.32 ( talk) 22:54, 6 May 2017 (UTC)
Laure's mother starting to hate her daughter. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 179.223.244.9 ( talk) 03:25, 28 June 2017 (UTC)
The article currently uses she/her pronouns for Mikäel/Laure, but I'm not sure that is the best choice. Although the majority of sources do this, there is a significant minority that don't:
Tomboy is an artistic and heartfelt film about Mikael, a transgender boy, and his summer experience exploring his gender identity in his new community.
Laure/Michaëland says the movie
revels in her/his moment-boy-moment emancipations.
Mikäel is highly invested in his male identity– but also the singular they:
The 10-year-old child is ambiguously gendered and there is no mention of their gender until....
Ten year old Mickäel and his family move to a new neighborhood in Paris.
her/his.
protagonists of both films by the feminine pronoun, 'she' whenever they are dressed as females, and by the masculine pronoun, 'he' when they dress as males.
AE: Obviously there is a question of if Mikael is trans-identified, a lesbian, etc. but how did you see the character from the beginning?
CS: I wanted to keep all the hypotheses open when I was building the character. Not to avoid answers, but to make it more complex and accurate. That's what interested me in setting that story in childhood. It's a time where everybody pretends to be someone else for an afternoon, everyone makes up stories about themselves. I made it with several layers, so that a transexual person can say "that was my childhood" and so that an heterosexual woman can also say it. The movie creates bond. That's something I'm proud of.
I feel that the article should avoid taking a side here, and should mostly avoid pronouns, and use the singular they when avoiding pronouns would be awkward. WanderingWanda ( talk) 03:30, 27 July 2019 (UTC)
I'll add: I felt less sure about what to do about the protagonist's name than with their pronouns. Ultimately, I decided to go back and forth between "Laure" and "Mikäel" in the plot summary, depending on the context of the scene (for example, using "Laure" when they're with their mother and "Mikäel" when with friends.) I think this works pretty well. I did consider going with something like "the protagonist", but thought that might be awkward. WanderingWanda ( talk) 18:10, 6 August 2019 (UTC)
This film includes negative representations and/or inappropriate mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and they are wrong now. Rather than removing this content, we want to recognize its harmful impact, learn from it, and initiate conversations to create a more inclusive future together.
![]() | This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||
|
It seems to me pretty clear in the film that the titular character, Laure, is not a boy nor has any biological features pertaining to the masculine gender. Consequently I wouldn't use the term "transgender" in order to describe her - let alone the pronouns "he, him" as in the plot summary. If by using "transgender" one wishes to indicate the sexual identity ambiguities displayed by Laure, there is probably a better term for this in English (I am not a native speaker). In my opinion, the movie in no ways adopts a strong stance on the problem whether there can be people "assigned" to a definite gender (as opposed to the "real", i.e. felt, gender). It is far more nuanced than this. Laure's character is not shown to be definitely a boy in a girl's guise : she is first mistaken to be a boy by Lisa and then goes on playing with that ambiguity. It is not shown whether she previously had the idea to pass as a boy or will continue to have it even after the truth is revealed. The film certainly makes a point in showing how social roles reserved to boys and girls rely on stereotypes and non-objective data, but the again it does not seem to me to demonstrate that Laure is really a boy. If one wishes to defend such an interpretation, one should at the very least present it as such. If not, this strongly biases the plot summary. E.g. when it reads : "A bath scene in the film reveals that Mikäel has a vagina, and a following scene confirms that Mikäel was assigned female at birth as his mom addresses him and his sister as "girls."", the most obvious interpretation, I feel, is that because Laure is a girl, she quite logically has a vagina, and is addressed as a girl by her mother just because she is one. Now this might seem "gender-unfriendly" or normative or whatever but the movie supports this reading just as much (if not more) than the other; and saying that Laure is in fact only Mickäel and a boy is just as normative: why couldn't she be both? She is depicted receiving (feminine) makeup and accepting it, if not liking it, which certainly suggests she hasn't completely given up on her girl identity.
As a detail, the name of the boy identity should be consistently spelled "Mickäel", just as it is written in the rolling credits. 129.199.151.78 ( talk) 13:07, 25 April 2015 (UTC)
Yes, this is clear. I'm in agreement. This summary reads as massively influenced by mainstream narratives of gender, and is a poor representation of the film. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 23.28.216.39 ( talk) 20:10, 17 December 2015 (UTC)
This film features hate scenes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 177.194.188.32 ( talk) 22:54, 6 May 2017 (UTC)
Laure's mother starting to hate her daughter. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 179.223.244.9 ( talk) 03:25, 28 June 2017 (UTC)
The article currently uses she/her pronouns for Mikäel/Laure, but I'm not sure that is the best choice. Although the majority of sources do this, there is a significant minority that don't:
Tomboy is an artistic and heartfelt film about Mikael, a transgender boy, and his summer experience exploring his gender identity in his new community.
Laure/Michaëland says the movie
revels in her/his moment-boy-moment emancipations.
Mikäel is highly invested in his male identity– but also the singular they:
The 10-year-old child is ambiguously gendered and there is no mention of their gender until....
Ten year old Mickäel and his family move to a new neighborhood in Paris.
her/his.
protagonists of both films by the feminine pronoun, 'she' whenever they are dressed as females, and by the masculine pronoun, 'he' when they dress as males.
AE: Obviously there is a question of if Mikael is trans-identified, a lesbian, etc. but how did you see the character from the beginning?
CS: I wanted to keep all the hypotheses open when I was building the character. Not to avoid answers, but to make it more complex and accurate. That's what interested me in setting that story in childhood. It's a time where everybody pretends to be someone else for an afternoon, everyone makes up stories about themselves. I made it with several layers, so that a transexual person can say "that was my childhood" and so that an heterosexual woman can also say it. The movie creates bond. That's something I'm proud of.
I feel that the article should avoid taking a side here, and should mostly avoid pronouns, and use the singular they when avoiding pronouns would be awkward. WanderingWanda ( talk) 03:30, 27 July 2019 (UTC)
I'll add: I felt less sure about what to do about the protagonist's name than with their pronouns. Ultimately, I decided to go back and forth between "Laure" and "Mikäel" in the plot summary, depending on the context of the scene (for example, using "Laure" when they're with their mother and "Mikäel" when with friends.) I think this works pretty well. I did consider going with something like "the protagonist", but thought that might be awkward. WanderingWanda ( talk) 18:10, 6 August 2019 (UTC)
This film includes negative representations and/or inappropriate mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and they are wrong now. Rather than removing this content, we want to recognize its harmful impact, learn from it, and initiate conversations to create a more inclusive future together.