Hope I'm not talking your ear off at this point, but it occurs to me that your reading of Alice also throws the Queens and even the Dormouse into much greater prominence!
If we look at Alice as being cisgendered, it's pretty obvious that she doesn't fit into the role that her mother and social circle are trying to push her into, and it's understandable that she's looking for another way to actualize herself. The movie makes it clear that the choices available to her are all unattractive. Once she's in Underland, though, she encounters powerful women like the Red Queen, the White Queen, and Molly - and she *still* chooses to be actualized as a male instead of finding a way to be powerful as a woman. Hence my disappointment.
BUT - if we look at Alice as a transboy, then the existence of powerful women in Underland helps Alice to recognize, "Hey, wait a minute, it's not just that I don't fit into the meager feminine roles available up there; there are lots more female role models here, and I still don't feel like I fit into any of these patterns. Maybe I need to rebel at a deeper level, not just against the limited roles open to my apparent gender identity, but against that gender identity itself."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
further ponderings!
Date: 2010-10-12 11:06 pm (UTC)If we look at Alice as being cisgendered, it's pretty obvious that she doesn't fit into the role that her mother and social circle are trying to push her into, and it's understandable that she's looking for another way to actualize herself. The movie makes it clear that the choices available to her are all unattractive. Once she's in Underland, though, she encounters powerful women like the Red Queen, the White Queen, and Molly - and she *still* chooses to be actualized as a male instead of finding a way to be powerful as a woman. Hence my disappointment.
BUT - if we look at Alice as a transboy, then the existence of powerful women in Underland helps Alice to recognize, "Hey, wait a minute, it's not just that I don't fit into the meager feminine roles available up there; there are lots more female role models here, and I still don't feel like I fit into any of these patterns. Maybe I need to rebel at a deeper level, not just against the limited roles open to my apparent gender identity, but against that gender identity itself."