boys on the side
“Boys on the Side” gives us a new angle on the road film. Three women travel on the road with no men, there are two different races (black/white) and different forms of sexuality (lesbian/bi/straight). This film is the first film where most of the plot takes places after the road journey ends in New Mexico. It is our first look at life after the road. And that life both pushes and reinscribes normative ideologies. The three women are brought together by not so normal means. Jane and Robin meet because Rob needs a driver to take her across country (who does that with a perfect stranger?) And they add Holly into the mix when they flee her abusive boyfriend after killing him. Not how “normal” friendships form in this world. But this unique bond creates a depth of friendship that pushes normative ideologies of female companionship. There is constantly a tension of sex and lust between the three, where friendship and lover becomes blurred. That alone pushes normative ideas about older single women living together. All of this is looked at through the lens of the almost fairy tale ending., almost because one character “dies”. Even here Robin’s death is not so clear. We never see her dead body; we just see an empty chair. And just like “Thelma and Louise” after the final scene it cuts to the credits and while they are rolling, snap shots of the three women flash on the screen. This alludes and signifies that the three still live on even though the reality is there “family unit” has changed. I believe the biggest way the normative family was reinscribed was by Holly and her perfect little white, straight, middle class family. I wonder if the outcome would have been the same if Jane killed Holly’s boyfriend. In this society the outcome would have for sure been different. Only the privilege of Holly’s skin allowed her to have the ending she did.