Short Film: Advocacy Campaign About Gender Identity

"Sam" is a short film about gender identity and LGBTQ bullying. After being bullied at school for dressing as a boy, Sam escapes into the fields surrounding her house, where she is forced to choose between who she is and who society thinks she should be.

I chose to tackle this short film on my blog due to its relevance to current issues.

During the teen years, the hormonal and physical changes of puberty usually mean people start noticing an increase in sexual feelings. It is common to wonder and sometimes worry about new sexual feelings. It takes time for many people to understand who they are and who they're becoming. Part of that involves better understanding of their own sexual feelings and who they are attracted to. This is the case for us teenagers, but in the video, we can see a child who seems to have made up her mind at an early age.

Though the video is very poorly done in terms of portrayal of its lesson and maybe an actual script or plot would be a benefit, the film holds an important message that was somewhat delineated throughout the whole film. The film is a metaphor. This whole time we are in the child's head. She ran from the girl (the feminine version of herself) because that is who she was or what the society wants her to be. The whole point of the short film is to give us a glimpse about gender roles that society has set up. These are the barriers that we have to break—whether it be due to gender inequality or confusion on sexuality. Our value should be seen from us as human beings, not as how we portray the roles that the society has built for us to abide by. We need to act more as human beings, learn to accept differences as we are all entitled to our own choices, and broaden our horizons to be able to understand one another.