Today, it seems that everyday tasks are informed by dominant narratives about gender and sexuality. As a result, mundane activities can be understood as succumbing to or deviating from heteronormative expectations. The films Thirteen and American Beauty are not devoid of these realities. I understand gendered expectations here through the scope of identity and difference. I posit that these films challenge normative understandings of gender and sexuality. Moreover, they raise important questions about identity in crisis and personal autonomy. Additionally, I aim to critically evaluate how both films – through the use of color and light – manifest a powerful narrative about gender fluidity. Finally, I argue that characters who do not succumb to gender roles and normative concepts of sexuality in films are transformed into instruments of tragedy. The gender process begins at birth and is nourished throughout adolescence by factors such as family, education system. , and his peers (Bradley 2007: 8). Children learn at a very young age what the social definition of gender is in their culture and what behaviors are expected of them. (Devor 1993: 47). In the context of American Beauty and Thirteen, these gendered expectations are retained. This is evident in the portrayals of the film's protagonists – Lester Burham and Tracy Freeland – defined largely by their simultaneous embrace and rejection of these ideals. A simple construct, the way we perceive femininity and manhood is not universal. Gender identity has no ontological status (Butler 1990: 270). Indeed, what many know to be natural are in fact reactions to years of coercion, “by social sanction and taboo” (Butler 1990: 271). These constructions are implemented in each... middle of paper.... ..st Critical Theory and Theater Ed. Sue-Ellen Case Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1990. Cook, Pam and Mieke Bernink 1999 The Cinema Book, second edition Hampshire: BFI Publishing.Devor, Holly 1989 Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits. of Duality. . American Beauty. 121 mins. DreamWorks Pictures. Hollywood.McGarry, Karen2005 Mass Media and Gender Identity in Canadian High Performance Figure Skating 8(1):4-25.Senelick, Laurence1992 Gender in Performance. from New England.