The film ‘Zen In the Ice Rift’ is a 2018 film directed by Margherita Ferri, which focuses on the exploration and self-discovery of gender and sexual orientation. The film follows Maia Zenardi, or “Zen” a 16-year-old hockey star who faces a great deal of bullying for his sexual identity. Having been born as a female, though, identifying as a male, Zen’s peers target him, calling him a lesbian, or “half-female” suppressing his personal freedom to live his truth. All the while, a girlfriend of one of Zens teammates, Vanessa, has piqued an interest in him while questioning her own sexuality. As she hides in Zen’s family lodge to avoid facing what she believes, the unlikely pair begin to discover their many similarities and the “ice wall” surrounding Zen begins to break. The film follows the journey of self-discovery between Zen and Vanessa and the struggles they face along the way.

‘Zen In the Ice Rift’ depicts a general theme of forced heteronormativity surrounding sexual identity. The film displays this through the depiction of Zen’s peers and community, who are closed off to the expression of an individual beyond cisext genders and heterosexual preferences. Considering Zen is not a cisgender male, his teammates are homophobic towards him, constantly referring to him as “the-half female”, or Maia, which significantly damages his confidence and will to express himself. Additionally, the film displays heteronormative beliefs in more symbolic ways such as the gendered changerooms. Zen is shown repeatedly in the women’s change room alone while all his teammates are in the men’s change room. As Sally Raskoff explains in her article ‘Signs of Gender’, gendered washrooms emphasize that there are only two genders, a socially damaging construct. Although Zen never voices concern for it, the directors make use of his somber expressions and attentiveness to the sound of his teammates to express his desire to be in the change room where he feels he belongs. The film writers did a decent job including this theme, however, it could have been further emphasized through secondary characters. Vanessa and the other boys on the hockey team could have been used to represent the effects of heteronormativity, thus displaying it through different sexes, classes, races, and sexual orientations. By solely focusing on the emotions of Zen, the film writers displayed the concept in a one-sided way, leaving out the diverse range of effects that are experienced by individuals. 

Furthermore, the film writers display intersectionality through Zen, who faces the oppression of two minority groups. Being a born woman, the oppressive society he lives in views him as a female rather than a male; thus considering him both female and transgender. Being considered female, he is doubted in his hockey by his peers who do not believe he belongs on the men’s team and placed under greater pressure to prove himself. Additionally, despite wishing to play for the national men’s team his coach recruits him for the women’s team, something which deters him from accepting the offer. Being a transgender individual, Zen is faced with bullying from his peers and additional doubt in his sport. The cumulative effect of the oppression he faces thoroughly demonstrates intersectionality throughout the film. As Audre Geraldine Lourde outlines in her article ‘Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference’ it is not the difference between individuals that separate us but the failure to acknowledge these differences; while Zen is a considered female, he faces this oppression as well as the oppression of being a transgender individual, thus resulting in a difference between his minority to that of a woman or a transgender individual alone, something which is failed to be recognized by his peers and leads to separation. Although the film does, in fact, do a good job portraying intersectionality through Zen, it fails to express intersectionality through other characters. One of the biggest critiques I have about this film is the lack of storyline surrounding secondary characters, which leads to this lack of intersectionality. There is the opportunity with Vanessa, or the other hockey players, however, there are no other notable minorities in a race, gender, class, etc, and none are hinted at, alluding to the lack of diversity in secondary characters.

Finally, it can be seen, through Zen’s peers, the writers portray toxic masculinity and the effects which it has on individuals. It is in this way that the film portrays the expectations of femininity and masculinity in society. It is evident through their cold fronts and disposition to prove themselves through fighting and emitting dominance that they experience this toxic masculinity, which in turn affects their peers. The toxic traits they possess lead to bullying towards individuals like Zen because of the fear and belief that their masculinity will suffer by supporting the LGBTQ+ community. Additionally, being a transgender man, Zen faces the same societal pressure to emit dominance and fight for power, this leads to him lashing out and attempting to fight back against the boys on the team. However as a born female, his mother and coach expect a level of femininity from him, thus they are harsher on him for displaying masculinity than the other boys on the team. By following the concepts of femininity they expect Zen to be much less aggressive and “softer”, willing to talk through problems and behave more sophisticated. Hegemonic masculinity and femininity are damaging for all individuals, however, it is enhanced for transgender individuals as they face different expectations of masculinity/femininity for themselves than others do, and the blurred line between these opposing dispositions can often lead to individuals feeling out of place. The film’s writers for ‘Zen in the Ice Rift’ portray these concepts in a subtle, yet definitive way to allow viewers to understand the feelings of the characters and their motivation behind their actions.

Overall, the film ‘Zen in the Ice Rift’ is a diverse film that includes themes of intersectionality, masculinity and femininity, and heteronormativity, making it an eye-opening piece of work for its viewers. The writers do a good job of including societal issues of sexual identity and sexual preference, however, they tend to leave out ideas of race, class, age, etc. The one-dimensional view of the storyline is beneficial for viewers in some ways, however, the writers miss out on the opportunities to include secondary storylines giving multiple perspectives.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.