Challenging the Hegemonic
"Boys on the Side" is a film that crosses many social boundaries, such as class, race and sexuality. The friendships in this film challenge the audience’s thoughts on sisterhood by employing non-normative characters; a black lesbian, a fatally ill middle class woman and a passive ditz. Strangely, the dynamic between these oddly grouped women is fantastic, thus making the viewer challenge social structures like friendship and the law (i.e. the faithful testimonies to protect Holly from going to prison). The new family system that the women create reinscribe "the normal" by demonstrating that a family does not have to be mother, father, children, but that it is about "the people who stick by you when no one else is around." The women all love each other very much and whether the love is platonic or not it shows that families can take many forms. As long as care and support is in the equation people can make new families beyond their blood relations. This film is excellent because of the strong connection between the women. When you read the synopsis of the film it is easy to be skeptical of such a radical plot and character selection, but when you see the chemistry on screen it becomes apparent that what you think is a "normal" family might not be normal after all.