Pelo Malo talks about the desire of a boy who wants to straighten his hair, and his great amount of concern of his look makes his mother doubts his sexuality. Pelo Malo is a slow paced movie with a plot that, for me, is considered a little bit triggering because there is a scene that the mother forces her son to watch her and her boss have sex in order to give her son a strong male influence. In Pelo Malo, there are things that are worth pointing out and discussing about: family to the queer child, and the effect of the media on race.
In Moodle forum of this week, the meaning of family to queer culture was discussed. This topic is also presented in Pelo Malo. The film uses the contrary inside the family to point out this matter. While the mother prevents her son from straightening his hair and tries to fix his sexual orientation to heterosexuality, his grandmother allows Junior to straighten his hair and also supports his femininity. Even when mother and grandmother are family of Junior, their support for Junior is different. The basic meaning of family is a group of parents and children. However, in my opinion, the true meaning of family is being around by people who love you and you love them. Pelo Malo delicately points out both two meanings of family to the queer child and leaves the audiences think deeper about what family is to the queer child.
In addition, the effect of the media on race is depicted in Pelo Malo. Junior believes in the media and he is obsessed with straight hair, because he thinks that he can only become a singer once his hair is straight. While hair represents race and culture, using Junior's obsession with straight hair to indicate the power of media on race is really intelligent.
We talked a bit in class and on the forum about what the word "family" means to us. After the way those discussions played out, talking about the trauma LGBTQ+ people often experience within their families, something that I find extremely upsetting about this movie is that the only people who really encourage Junior to be himself are his grandmother and his friend. And in the end, it seems as though both of those relationships have become quite strained.
ReplyDeleteThat final scene of Junior standing in the schoolyard with his buzz cut while the other students recite the national anthem is so so tragic to me. To me, at this point, Junior has lost just about any family he once had. That is one of the most tragic things of all, and to see Junior experience it in this way is truly heartbreaking.
I'm so glad you bring up the the character of the grandmother, since we didn't get a chance to talk about her in class. Her unconditional support for Junior is astonishing in contrast to his mother's attempts to reverse his behavior. I think you're right that family for queer children has less to do with parents and kids and more to do with who actually accepts and loves them for who they are.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really notice grandma's meaning before, but after seeing what you wrote, I understand that why the film need this character (grandma). It showed different people in the same family.
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ReplyDeleteI think that your analysis of the media's importance within this film and media's impact on race and self-perception is very interesting. This was something I didn't really think about before reading your post, and I don't really remember discussing this in class, but Junior does idolize the presentation of the singer with straight hair that the media promotes.
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