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The Aggressives

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Synopsis

This tender, engaging documentary offers a portrait of the "aggressive" masculine lesbian stud subculture, and six of its practitioners.

3 Reasons To buy this film

A trip to a seldom-seen world.
Captivating from the first frame to the last.
Not just for lesbians.

Review

It is rare to find a unique, separate and secret subculture in the lesbian community, but director Daniel Peddle uncovered just that when he innocently stumbled across a group known as "The Aggressives" back in 1999. These lesbian studs vary in masculinity from extreme bull dyke to pretty tomboys, but their maleness is not a drag persona - rather it is a lifestyle. The camera intimately follows six lesbians (Kisha, Flo, Marquise, RJ, Tiffany and Octavia) around the poor sections of New York City, into their bedrooms with their lovers, and through nightclubs and prisons. Peddle poses the question: What does it mean to be an Aggressive? All of them - dykes, mothers, models, soldiers, homeboys and transgendered - live the "stud" way of life unapologetically, and by their own rules. This engaging documentary is a tender portrait of gender-bending lesbians whose strength, pride, freedom and beauty are admirable and uncompromising because even though they look like men, they do not strive to be anything other than women.

-- Kelly Burkhardt

Customer Reviews

Aggresive Women

Amos Lassen wrote on 02/22/2009:

Aggressive Women

Amos Lassen

In the poor sections of New York City, there is a group of lesbians that is a unique, secret and separate subculture of the lesbian community. They are the aggressives and the subject of this fascinating documentary by Daniel Peddle. Six women of color, twenty-something in age, identify themselves as members of this group. Throughout the film they try to identify who they are but we quickly see, as is usually the case in some subcultures, they have quite a hard time reaching a comprehensive definition. We all realize that no such definition is necessary bur the stories they tell are what that matters.
This is an honest film as it strips these women down to their stories and we, in turn, learn about who they are and if they are members of a certain gender community. Their stories are fascinating and each woman has a unique personality. We learn a great deal about them as they speak.
We follow the lives of Kisha, Marquise, Flo, Tiffany, RJ and Octavia around their neighborhoods and into their bedrooms. We meet their lovers and we go to their clubs and even go to prison with them. They all love the masculine lifestyle and they live by their own rules with no apologies. They proudly bend gender with great strength. The message we get is that they are who they are--they are women who look like men but they maintain that they are, above all, women.
They show us how not to let labels run our lives and that is important for one to be who he/she is and to be comfortable with that. Because the aggressives live outside of the norms of society, they are often misunderstood. This is not a film about women who want to be men--rather it is a film about people who want to be people. It seems to me that all of us compete with each other to a degree and, in affect, this is how we survive.
We see a world we are not familiar with from within and we see the world as a stage upon which we all play a part.