From Throng:
A bent movie about a straight lawyer.
The Times of London cited barrister Rob Moodie for the most outrageous behaviour by a lawyer in 2006 after he represented himself in the New Zealand High Court dressed as Alice in Wonderland. He’s a straight bloke who likes to wear dresses. To some, he seems a freak, to others he’s a hero. Rob Moodie is an enigma to most. Until now. This film unravels the puzzle of a man who is above all an optimist, and a single minded battler for justice. Moodie’s extraordinary life, career and personality are examined in a documentary that’s as colourful as its subject matter.
At the age of 7, Moodie and his brother were separated from their family and became wards of the state, and he experienced such a sense of dislocation that he disappeared "down a rabbit hole" and had great difficulty establishing his identity.
He seems to have questioned gender roles from a very young age. If he did not actively resist it, then he at least questioned why boys and girls were expected to look and behave differently. Moodie talks wistfully about looking at a girl’s bright yellow ribbon, and wanting to wear one in his own hair. He recalls, “Girls were sugar and spice, and all things nice, boys were snips and snails and puppy dogs tails ... I asked why we had to be one or the other”. He wanted to embrace it all, whether it be dolls, diggers or dresses. And he formed a lifelong contempt for those who would say “no” - not from wisdom or fairness, but out of unquestioning conformity.
Moodie became a police detective, studied law, and became head of the police union.
The police were one of the most conservative groups in the country. Moodie dragged them kicking and screaming into the 20th century. And he did it wearing a kaftan and his wife's pearls.
....
At times of greatest stress in his life, Moodie says he always feels stronger when dressed as a woman.
The documentary is surely one that I'd like to see.
Read more at the link above.
Thanks to Lapin.
