Ma Vie En Rose

1. There are several normalizing powers in Ma Vie En Rose which serve to police the comfort zone. Ludo’s parents and the school try to suppress Ludo’s cross dressing habits. These comfort zones seem to have a very old school mindset when it comes to gender. They won’t even entertain the idea that Ludo might actually be transgendered. His parents bring him to psychologist to try and “fix” him. The scene in the locker room also gives us a glimpse at how Ludo’s peers view him. The boys crowd Ludo and threaten to harm him just because he wears dresses sometimes. As opposed to the parents, the boys in the locker room are using force to police the comfort zone. He is being physically punished for not adhering to their idea of a normal comfort zone. In all of these examples Ludo is punished by these normalizing powers. He is kicked out of school, his parents constantly yell at him, and the bullies beat him up.

2. Le Monde De Pam serves as Ludo’s safe haven. It’s his escape. Pam lives in a perfect world where nobody fights and has an ideal boyfriend. This is everything Ludo wants. In every fantasy he has, Pam comes to him and tells him everything is going to be alright. Pam is one of the only characters in the movie that doesn’t judge Ludo for dressing like a girl. She is the ideal woman in Ludo’s eyes. When the show comes on he lives vicariously through the character of Pam and he is able to peek into his fantasy of being a woman. At the end of the film, when his mother goes looking for him, she climbs up a billboard and in a fantasy state sees Ludo running off with Pam. Even his mother knows this is his escape place because Ludo was not present when she fell off of the billboard.