Hedwig and the Angry Inch vs. Magnolia

¶ … role of individual: the titular "Hedwig" of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and the protagonist of "Magnolia"

The individual's sexual orientation and sexual identity and of identification is of supreme importance in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," as well as in "Magnolia." However, in the latter film, the protagonists' senses of lived selfhood regarding the nature of life and death comes to the forefront, rather than notions of mere gender identification. In the film, of "Hedwig" regarding the "internationally ignored" rock singer from behind the Iron Curtain, the individual is defined almost entirely in terms of his/her sexuality. In "Magnolia," the closeness of different individuals towards their eventual end is what is at issue in terms of their sense of self as individuals.

This fact is evidenced in terms of Hansel/Hedwig's marginal social status as a transvestite and vocationally in terms of his/her manifested, simultaneous roles as a drag queen and diva (which are of course linked, although being a drag queen is not synonymous with any individual's transvestite status). In "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," who one is as an individual is synonymous with one's sexuality and sexual status, but in terms of one's physical health and life, one can always be reborn. Hedwig is born a boy, but must change genders to realize his/her true self. Hedwig enters into an agreement to go through sex change operation so he/she may marry an American soldier. Hedwig does this not out of love, or even because he believes he is truly a woman. Rather, the individual in question simply wishes to leave East Germany, to escape, and enter into free Berlin over the Berlin Wall to freedom.

The freedom Hedwig seeks is partially political and partially cultural. Because of Hedwig's marginal status as a transvestite, he/she must enter into a more secure gendered category as an individual for repressive East German and West German society. However, the operation is botched, leaving Hedwig with an angry inch upon the body, and in no person's status in terms of gender identification, political, and also martial status. Hedwig is left by the solder in a dry trailer park, divorced and in the middle of yes, Kansas, with all of its queer 'Wizard of Oz' associations. However, through the sexually ambiguous glam rock scene and persona, the central character remakes her identity in the form of a rock band, once again reformulating him/herself sexually as the lover of rock star Tommy Gnosis.

In this film, the self is stable for the individual in the sense that Hedwig is always feminine -- yet sublimely unstable in the sense that by changing over to a fully female as opposed to a transvestite identity, Hedwig changes name and cultural identification. In contrast, in the film "Magnolia," sexual identity in terms of gender is the one thing that is fairly stable for the protagonists. What is unstable regarding the individuals who form the nexus of the film is that both are dying, and thus the body in terms of its ability to sustain life and another day upon earth is what is in question. The host of the quiz show "What do kids know?" is rapidly failing, but seeks, as a final act of reconciliation, to find his estranged son as a way to heal himself. The son teaches seminars to help men leave women as a way of working through his own difficulties with his past. Unlike "Hedwig," no individual can fully shirk his or her past, in "Magnolia." The self and death are inevitable and invariable in their coming. "Hedwig" is reborn as a gendered individual, a wife/husband, and in terms of his/her career, unlike the relatively stable careers of the host and producer of WDKK. However, Hedwig lives on, even after suffering terrible setbacks and disappointments, while death is a constant and real threat to everyone throughout the film "Magnolia." Hedwig can temporarily escape death on stage, but the entertainment industry and supposed truth-telling format of the quiz show "What do kids know?" simply creates another stage for individuals to while away the inevitability of decay and death.