Keywords
Abstract
This essay examines The Danish Girl from a queer theoretical perspective, emphasizing how the movie depicts gender identification, metamorphosis, and self-discovery. The story highlights the emotional, psychological, and social complexity of transgender experiences and is based on the life of Lili Elbe, one of the first people to have gender confirmation surgery. The movie highlights the conflict between internal identity and external conventions as well as the flexibility of gender through Einar’s transformation into Lili. The themes of unwavering love, resiliency, and navigating one’s identity within the constraints of heteronormative society are highlighted by Lili and her wife Gerda’s developing relationship. This study uses Judith Butler’s gender performativity theory to critically analyze how gender is portrayed in the movie as performative and socially constructed. Additionally, it draws attention to the persistent difficulties that transgender people confront and promotes increased empathy, societal acceptance, and acknowledgement of gender variety in modern discourse.
References
[1] Butler, J. Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge， 1990.
[2] Ebershoff, D. “The Danish Girl”: The true self comes first. [journal name], 2016(1).
[3] Li, E. New cooler films. Contemporary Cinema, 2009(6).
[4] Li, J., & Meng, X. In search of a harbor for the soul: An analysis of the search for women’s identity in Chen Deng’s novel Breaking Away. Young Writer, 2010(19): 2.
[5] Liu, W. The relationship between body, self and society in the metaverse era. New Media and Society, 2022(1).
[6] Oksala, J. How to interpret Foucault. Fen, 2021(12).
[7] Wilson, C., & Mao, X. Queer theory and politics. Foreign Theoretical Developments, 2013 (12).
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2025 Yiyang Zhang