Last week I found an interesting movie on rarelust dot com, that I downloaded and watched over the weekend. The movie is called "I want what I want" and was released in 1972.

It is the story of a young man and his struggle of finding his own identity. How his domineering, womanizing, ex-military and abusive father threatens to kill him, but refuses to report his running away to the police for fear of losing face in society. The overcompensating girly-girl, the insecurities and struggles through transition that happened in the late 1960's to very early 1970's.

I found the opening sequence very well done, in how many of us T-folk will longingly (and surreptitiously) observe all aspects of how our gender-peers dress and move. The searching of ways to express the gender identity was also very well presented. Sadly the lack of acceptance (and the fear of losing face with their peers) by the parents is still happening far to often today.

The movie, though set the UK, also gives a very interesting view of the fashion extremes of the time around 1970. Where on one side we have the women who dress almost masculine, then we have the androgynous minis and on the other side the overloaded and frilly girly-girl. The "free love" movement is also very much in evidence. Especially with one wife making passes at several bachelors right under the nose of her husband, and one of those bachelors virtually raping the protagonist.

Trigger alert: Near the end, the protagonist attempts suicide.

For me, this is one of the oldest movies to give a rather objective portrayal of a TG protagonist, and not as a gimmick for comedy or even comic relief.

Jessica Nicole