My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a romantic comedy about a 30-year-old single woman living in Chicago named Toula Portokalos. As a girl, raised by a very traditional Greek family, she faces many deep questions about her priorities in life. These questions range from the role of family in a contemporary society, to the pressures placed upon her by her family and their cultural norms. The Greeks in this movie are very ethnocentric, meaning they tend to evaluate other people and cultures according to the standards of their own culture. Everything through their eyes is classified as Greek and non-Greek. The Greek way of doing things is always better.
The movie begins at the Portokalos’ family restaurant, Dancing Zorba’s, where Toula is constantly reminded that her life clock is ticking. According to her family’s norms, women who are not married and work in the family business are considered a failure. Toula comes from a traditional upbringing. This means all of the daughters are expected to marry men from their ethnic background. According to Toula, “There are three things that every Greek woman must do in life: marry Greek boys, make Greek babies, and feed everyone.” This is a value that the older generations of Greeks cherish
The movie shows the key sociological concepts of accommodation because the film portrays the need to overcome ethnic differences while not diminishing the beauty of ethnic tradition. Ian shows acculturation by being baptized before the wedding to bring him into the church and allow for Ian and Toula to be married in the Church. It can be concluded that Ian’s decision to be baptized leads to showing key sociological concepts of assimilation because he will be with his wife every day and will see how it is be a part of a Greek Orthodox family. He may even begin to practice Greek traditions because of his wife’s
The scene where Robby went on a double date. The social structure of class was express through the social construction of posing bonds. Glenn says Robby should look into the bond market business because that is where the money is. Robby shows his income by having a saving bonds worth $25.00 in 1993. The social structure of Masculinity is express through body, when talking Robby and Glenn are talking about the women’s butt as a piece of meat.
The ways in which Bridesmaids rejects patriarchal structures while simultaneously supporting them establishes a unique ideology: in order to meet the cultural comedic conception, these female characters reject particular standards of patriarchy, but the ways in which they do so successfully are due to their adherence to masculine norms and symbolic reversal (Buckley 19). Thus, Bridesmaids resists the male gaze and gives women empowerment to take the an active role in comedy, liberating them in the sense that it equates their humor to that of men’s, to embody new forms of feminine desire for women in cinema. In response to the men at the beginning of this essay who would say Bridesmaids doesn’t deliver this, Tina Fey has some words for them, “We don’t fucking care if you like it” (Moss).
In Classical Greece, roles played by males and females in society were well-defined as well as very distinct from each other. Expectations to uphold these societal norms were strong, as a breakdown within the system could destroy the success of the oikos (the household) and the male’s reputation—two of the most important facets of Athenian life. The key to a thriving oikos and an unblemished reputation was a good wife who would efficiently and profitably run the household. It was the male’s role, however, to ensure excellent household management by molding a young woman into a good wife. Women were expected to enter the marriage as a symbolically empty vessel; in other words, a naïve, uneducated virgin of about 15 years who could be easily shaped by a husband twice her age. Through the instruction of her husband, the empty vessel would be filled with the necessary information to become a good wife who would maintain an orderly household and her husband’s reputation, thereby fulfilling the Athenian female gender role for citizen women.
The Wedding Singer was put on by the Ole Miss Theatre Department on November 11, 2016. It took place in Fulton Chapel on the Ole Miss campus and featured a very talented cast of Ole Miss students. Rene Pulliam was the director and Kate Prendergast was the choreographer for this musical. The play was dynamic and engaging. From the acting, to the set, to the energy of the cast, The Wedding Singer was a lively musical that left the viewer feeling excited and spirited.
While Toula kept her new boyfriend in secret from her family, the couple was soon exposed thanks to the tight connections within the Portokalos family. Gus was quick to once again comply with the interactionist perspective by first explaining to Toula the “rules” Ian was meant to follow in order to ask for permission to date his daughter. He later continues by inviting a preapproved suitor for his daughter who would help to continue and maintain their strong Greek culture. The climax of this conflict arises when Toula begins to feel the pressure from her father and tries to break it off with Ian. Luckily for Toula Ian was completely understanding of her family system; even when his own family was more “cookie cutter” in the way his family was smaller in size, they kept to immediate family, as well as weren’t as prideful of their heritage. The couple continues to date and Ian soon proposes to Toula. When she confronts her father with her news he begins to become outraged by the situation and the lack of respect coming from his daughter and her inability to uphold not only tradition but his own expectations of her. After Ian commits to converting into Toula’s Greek Orthodox faith as a way to make her father and family happy and more accepting, Toula proceeded to explain to her father that this is what she had been waiting for and was where she felt comfortable. Again we have some evidence of not only Toula but also her father complying with this idea of constructing a new reality to fit ones needs. Gus slowly begins to accept Ian thanks to his sacrifice and commitment not only to his daughter but the family’s traditions and culture as well. Eventually all turns out well for the Portokalos and Gus and Toula’s relationship becomes strong thanks to
Appropriation in itself is an attempt towards assimilation in which the superior culture picks and chooses aspects of the minority tradition, absorbs them into majority society in a new, inauthentic manner, and all the while completely disregarding the traditions they do not favor. While Fanon, says that the possibility for integration is what is needed in order to achieve equality in society, Baldwin’s theory on black acceptance into white society means that the success of integration is unlikely. With assimilation comes the risk of the minority culture losing itself completely to the dominant culture. The issue of integration is that neither white nor black society seeks to participate in a cultural exchange resulting in an equal intermingling
My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a film made in 2004 directed by Joel Zwick that evidently portrays several sociological concepts throughout the film. This film highly demonstrates the sociological topics of gender and culture all through the movie. The roles of gender, gender stratification as well as gender stereotyping are exemplified during the film. As for culture, the film displays subculture, counterculture, ethnocentrism, cultural relativism and cultural diffusion. My Big Fat Greek Wedding focuses on a single 30-year-old Greek woman, Toula Portokalos, who works at her family’s restaurant. Toula’s life takes a turn when she unexpectedly falls in love with a man who is not Greek. The film revolves around Toula’s family as well as her boyfriend,
In both Xenophon’s Oeconomicus and Lysias’ defense of Euphiletus’ murder of Eratosthenes, insight into the purpose and function of Athenian marriage may be gained by examination of the speeches of two citizens about their wives and their homes. Through both texts, it becomes apparent that the citizen’s value of his wife is based upon his wife’s ability as an “oikonomikos” or “skilled household manager” (Strauss, 3). It is through filling this role as her husband’s housekeeper that an Athenian woman experienced a loss of personal freedom and found herself trapped within a marriage in which she had little contact or much in common with her husband. A woman’s role as oikonomikos is described by Euphiletus’ address of an Athenian citizen-jury and by Socrates’ discourse with Ischomachos, through which he strives to understand the best way by which a household may be managed.
The movie of My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a story of a traditional Greek Family and their thirty year old daughter Toula who had pass the age of getting married and starts a family of her own . Toula’s and her family lived in a normal middle class neighbourhood in a traditional Greek home with Greek statues on their front lawn, and owned a nice Greek restaurant name the Dancing Zorbas where she work as a seating hostess (My)
Indisputably, everyone learns from things that they are not accustomed to or that are different. Everything that we see or don’t has an aspect of human diversity due to the existence of differences between one another. Hence, diversity exists everywhere and, honestly, makes life more interesting! As a common theme in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” diversity proves to be an invaluable life lesson to major characters in the film and in the cultures they represent. However, all too often in the real world, some people take the meaning of diversity and use it as a lever to induce discomfort, polarization, and conflict between individuals or groups.
With their great stability to maintain their love, they were able to convince her stubborn father to finally get married. They had their wedding ceremony at an Orthodox Church based on her parent's strong religious beliefs, her relatives were spitting on her while she was walking down the aisle to let the evil away which really surprised Land’s western parents. The weddings service in the Greek Orthodox faith is an ancient and beautiful ceremony that is full of symbolism that is highly influenced by the Greek culture, which it’s quite the opposite in westerns weddings where it’s usually less crowded and
The movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding is about a 30-year old and single woman named Toula Portokalos who although has lived a very Greek life-style up to this point, decides to pursue a relationship with a non-Greek man. This, of course, is disturbing to her family since they are so proud about their culture, and do not really know anything different. Her whole life, Toula has been instilled with a very traditional Greek outlook on life. She has been expected to do three things: Marry a Greek boy, make Greek babies, and feed everyone until the day they die. Throughout the movie, Toula overcomes inner struggles to find her own identity, and she overcomes struggles with her family.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a film made in 2004 that evidently portrays several sociological concepts throughout the film. This film highly demonstrates the sociological topics of gender and culture all through the movie. The roles of gender, gender stratification as well as gender stereotyping are shown during the film. As for culture, the film displays subculture, counterculture, ethnocentrism, cultural relativism and lastly, cultural diffusion. My Big Fat Greek Wedding focuses on a 30 year old Greek women, Toula Portokalos, who is single and works at her family’s restaurant. Toula’s life takes a turn when she unexpectedly falls in love with a man who is not Greek. The film revolves around Toula’s family as well as her boyfriend, Ian’s, family trying to understand and adapt to each other’s cultural differences. It also outlines the topic of gender as Toula’s father profoundly pinpoints gender differences throughout the film.
As previously stated, religion is a large influencer in the acculturation process. This is evidently seen in certain cultures such as in the Catholic community. The Catholic faith teaches women’s primary role as mothers and caregivers. This may lead to women under the Catholic faith to avoid being active in public or non-family tasks and activities (Koeske). The restrictions set on certain individuals, by religion, limits them from fusing the new culture with their traditions from home, ultimately disallowing the individual from growing and learning. Now that we know that the acculturation process affects all members in an immigrant family, we can see that the youth in these families struggle to become independent. These feelings are brought on by the youth feeling obligated to help their families while the American society is pushing for independence. This can lead to confusion among the youth in every family and can cause issues relating to their self-identity. While the youth continue to feel obligated to care for their families, they will find it more difficult to become independent and much harder to integrate the new culture into their lives when their family is promoting old
At some point in our lives we experience a culture as an outsider by moving from one culture to another.In the world today there are so many different cultures and not one of them is found to be the same.Instead they all have something that makes them unique, whether its language or even the clothes they wear and their behavior as well.The differences they have is what separates them from one another and who ever joins that particular culture must get accustomed to their way of life.In the society today we have many people immigrating to the United States to start a new and better life but what they soon begin to realize is that it’s a whole new world out there and in order to survive they have to get accustomed to the new way of life which is much different from their lives before.