OPINIONS |
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Guest Column By Sara Baggett [email protected] Guest Writer |
�V for Vendetta� changed my life
�Remember, remember, the 5th of November.�
That is the opening line to a movie that has changed the way I see the world, other people and even my own life. It was actually the 17th of March, but I knew the first time I saw �V for Vendetta� that I had been completely jaded concerning my outlook on life.�V for Vendetta� is the story of a so-called �terrorist� who goes by the name V, which is also the mark that he leaves, sort of Zorro-style, where he�s been. V�s goal is to ultimately overthrow the fascist, Hitler regime-like British government that has taken away most of the basic rights of its citizens. I say that V is a so-called �terrorist� because it is clear who�s creating the real terror.
�Vendetta� is also the story of a girl named Evey Hammond, whose entire family was taken by the government. Evey ends up with V through a few coincidences and in the end discovers how to live her life without fear.It was not, however, V or Evey that gave me my new outlook. It was a woman named Valerie, whose story comes into play towards the end of the movie.
We meet Valerie through letters written on toilet paper and given to Evey through a hole in her government cell. Valerie has been arrested for the crime of being homosexual.We learn about her life from her first girlfriend, to her coming out to her parents and being subsequently disowned, to the meeting of her life partner, Ruth. Valerie and Ruth have wonderful life together for three years, until the new fascist government comes into power, or until, as Valerie says, �Different became dangerous.� But I wasn�t crying so much from sadness as I was from fear. I must have been in a cloud to think that while making my merry little lesbian way in this world, I wasn�t also putting myself in a potentially dangerous situation.
Being an out lesbian in the real world is not a terrible thing as it is in �Vendetta,� but it makes one wonder how far we really are from living in that world.Let�s run through this again: a new regime comes to power, throws gasoline on an already raging fire of national security paranoia and starts taking away civil liberties to protect its citizens from the �chaos� that is freedom. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Valerie isn�t afraid of her impending death because, as she says, �I had three years of happiness when I didn�t have to apologize to anyone.�It�s from her story that Evey gains her strength. It�s also where I came out of my fog.
I refuse to stand by and let a government tell me who is okay for me to marry. To paraphrase Lauren Lee Smith, �If I hide the fact that I�m gay, I hide the best part of me.� I plan on many years of not apologizing to anyone.