When Men Were Men and Trans Representation

When Men Were Men hit me hard. Though it wasn’t my first time seeing a transmasculine high schooler on screen, it was the first one I saw that felt authentic to my own experience. The protagonist Kieran’s messy, dramatic teen years felt familiar to me as someone who also transitioned very young and during puberty. He is incredibly insecure in his identity, and more specifically in his masculinity. The film does what I think is a good job portraying this internal conflict; Kieran’s father doesn’t treat him like a man and his older brother, who may have been supportive but it’s unclear, recently passed away, so Kieran doesn’t have a father figure or other male elder to teach him how to perform masculinity. He doesn’t know what he’s doing and he’s super conscious of it all the time, and it’s clear that he’s overperforming masculinity in a toxic and unnatural way. He’s aggressive and mean, and when offered a starring role in his acting group’s upcoming play he rejects it because the character is perceived as effeminate (Billy Elliot is something I had to Google later, but it’s about a boy who wants to dance ballet). I really like the way this film explores ideas of masculinity, and I think it was neat to see a conflict between Kieran’s intense desire to fit in with what he understands as cis/hetero masculinity and his love interest, Egan’s, much freer and more expressive identity. Egan is an openly queer, possibly cis teen boy whose existence challenges Kieran’s ideas of what “real” men should be. This is a conflict that I think is very familiar to many masculine-aligned people, but is especially relevant to transmasculine people, whose whole identities are at risk of being invalidated when they do masculinity wrong.

Kieran is also so angry, which stems from a classic dysphoria/depression combo meal. Teenagers are already so hormonal and emotional, and having to go through the devastating trauma of losing his brother on top of what looks like a lot of body dysphoria is very stressful for Kieran. He is kind of an asshole, and he doesn’t treat his friends or girlfriend very well, but I think the film made it clear at least to its trans audience that it was a “hurt people hurt people” situation; that is, Kieran is lashing out due to trauma and lack of support. His violent, masculine aggression betrays his fear of being outed and rejected. This isn’t to excuse any of his behavior, and from what I can find online as well as from the Q&A with the writer and director, it’s kind of the point of their movie; while Kieran clings to toxic masculinity intending to protect his identity, it ultimately hurts everyone around him and costs him what little support he had to begin with. Kieran’s character arc is centered around letting go of the masculine identity he’s imagining and embracing his true self, an identity which he hasn’t even explored yet. I think this is a positive and important message for trans youth to receive, and overall I liked how the film handled it.

The movie’s authentic trans representation didn’t, however, lead to the most compelling narrative. Fellow members of the cohort described it as a Wattpad story, and though my initial reaction was defensive, I can definitely feel those fanfiction vibes. Kieran is an obvious self-insert played by the writer and director Izzy Rojas, and while the story is clearly very personal to them, it’s also a little silly at times. That Kieran is embarrassed to be the best actor in his group, for example, is reminiscent of Ebony Dark’ness herself lamenting that it’s hard being so beautiful and flawless, and it’s especially awkward to watch because, in my opinion anyway, Rojas isn’t actually very good at acting in the first place. A lot of the film feels melodramatic, but well intentioned; Kieran’s breathing problems that arise from binding with ace bandages seems overplayed, but I appreciate the message about the dangers of binding incorrectly nonetheless.

This has all got me thinking about what makes “good” queer representation. A queer trans person wrote, directed, and starred in When Men Were Men, and seemed to draw a lot from their personal life in the making of their film. By most metrics of what we generally consider to be good representation, this fits the bill; however, the film is a little hard to watch at times and occasionally, if I may be so bold, a little cringe. Does authentic representation alone merit a recommendation? How would I tell people to watch this film, knowing that it’s not bad, but not great? Queer people are starving for representation, and though there’s more out there now than there used to be, I don’t know that it’s enough to be picky yet, especially when it comes to transmasc representation. Moreover, I think the quality of a film is a lot more subjective than how well it does queer representation. I strongly resonated with the character of Kieran, despite not being impressed by the overall narrative, and I’m certain there are plenty of people out there who will love Kieran and the movie he’s from. For that reason, I think When Men Were Men deserves a watch, especially by trans high schoolers. I wish I had a teen drama I could relate to when I was Kieran’s age, and I want so badly for teens now to have that opportunity. The straights had Twilight. It’s our turn now.