Like Father Like Son

There is no doubt that genetics link our personal traits to our parents’. The movie Transamerica demonstrated that certainty with a twist. It is a humorously bizarre film about a transsexual father, Bree or Stanley, and his tragically delinquent son, Toby. The two are constantly compared through out their long journey from New York to Los Angeles.
When the two first met in New York, they both had some major secrets. Bree did not tell Toby from the start that she was a transsexual, nor did she tell him she was actually his estranged father, Stanley. She played the role of a church lady trying to save him from his horrible living conditions, which was another fallacy. Bree didn’t confess she was actually a man; Toby discovered it when he saw her going to the bathroom one night on the side of the road. Then, a few days later Bree told him the real scenario (she is his transsexual father) when they were at her parents’ house. Toby’s secrets were revealed earlier. When Bree took Toby to his stepfather’s house it was obvious that his stepfather molested him. Shortly after, Toby’s neighbor told Bree that his mother did not die from a stroke; she committed suicide. After that he was using drugs in front of her, which he said he would never do when they were still in New York.
It was very apparent that both Bree and Toby were gender or sexually confused. Bree was going through a sex change, and had told her doctor that she hated her penis. She didn’t want anything to do with her previous life as Stanley. Toby makes gay pornography and was hustling himself off to men for money. Although he was engaging in sex with men, he also was making out with girls. There is a point in the movie where he admits being sexually attracted to Bree, whom he knows is a man posing as a woman. Although, Toby did not want to become a woman, he stated that he wanted to move to California and change his name to Stanley, so he could leave his past behind.
Bree’s doctor told her that wanting a sex change is classified as a severe mental disorder. Being a transsexual is obviously not the norm in society. Anyone who would do such a thing to his or her body would automatically be classified as an outcast. Toby is also an extreme outcast of society. He stated that he was a loner, and Bree encouraged him saying, “That’s the spirit.” Those who are addicted to drugs, sell their body, and were molested are most certainly outsiders in America. Neither Bree nor Toby lived in upper class or even middle class areas. Toby lived in a one-bedroom apartment with multiple roommates. Even though her living conditions weren’t as intense, Bree lived in a small house, in a lower class part of town. Although they did not have the same dreams, and went about achieving them differently; Bree and Toby are very similar people. Both of them got where they wanted and were doing what they wanted by the end of the film.