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Does Seeing Trauma Count as Trauma?

 

I hate seeing trauma on screen. Like Queer pain, rape, hell even black pain annoys the hell out of me sometimes and I'm white. I subscribe to the notion that we as people already have to deal with so much shit in the real world and I really don't want to watch another "the world sucks and you can't fix it" movie. 

And no Mysterious Skin doesn't have such a nihilistic approach to the world, it was more about the incident that shaped two boys' lives. But does seeing queer trauma add to existing trauma?

I know that recently we have been getting better queer films about happiness like Happiest Season (which was really good and surprisingly nuanced) or Love, Simon. Both are still very white but they are stupid cheesy movies about being queer and finding love, and after growing up hearing about how queer people can't find love it feels really validating to me to see it happen in such a stereotypical way. The cheesy romance films all about a will-they-won't-they that uses every stupid cliche in the book feels so normalizing, way more than any corporate branded rainbow logo or cheap gay best friend ever could. 

But when I watch films like the one in class I have to wonder does it hurt more than it helps? I remember watching When They See Us with a few of my black friends and while I was crying during the whole thing they left the experience feeling angry and a bit broken but at the same time weirdly validated. It came out when the BLM movement was really taking off (if I remember correctly) online but in real settings the mantra of "not all cops" "not all black people" was very much alive. So to see a pain they felt they related to in some way on a screen that anyone with $7 a month or an email and 30 days could watch felt like an acknowledgment of what they went through like someone was looking at them who wasn't their parents telling them "yeah, you aren't making this up". 

But does the impact of queer films feel the same? To me it doesn't, I see it and I'm reminded of the pain I have had to deal with but I'm not given any closure or validation because I already know people who experience similar things, I'm in queer spaces both online and not where queer pain is real and treated as such. Maybe for people who aren't as connected this sort of film would help validate their pain, but for me it rubs my nose in it. 

Comments

  1. fannie vazquezMay 23, 2021 at 9:17 PM

    I think you bring up a fair argument. And I would have to agree with your last statement, it really depends on the person and where they are in their healing process.

    ReplyDelete

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