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Gender roles in grease
Cultural norms and beliefs RELATED TO GENDER ROLES
Culture and society impact gender role
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The musicals Billy Elliot and Grease present both conventional and unconventional representations of gender throughout. Both musicals also seem to obscure the message of the underlying gender stereotyping issues by overshadowing them with elements such as music, dance and costume.
Men have been stereotyped as dominant, strong, brave and aggressive. Also there is an image of men being portrayed as harder workers than women and supposedly the more intelligent gender.
“Men are thought to be physically tougher, more aggressive, more rational, better able to handle sex without love, and more likely to be successful at work by virtue of their greater will to win.” (Nicholson, 1993, 2)
Most often, men have less of an emotional attachment to other people as they are seemingly less sensitive than women, which would explain the stronger ability men have for handling sex without love. Physically and mentally men are seen to be stronger than women which is why they can be seen as more perseverant and determined workers, therefore making them more likely to succeed in work.
The character of Tony from Billy Elliot follows all of the regular stereotypes we associate with being masculine. He shows his bravery and aggressiveness through his forceful engagement in the riots, and also through the fact that he shows no sign of respect for people in authority. His dominance is emanated through his firm and stable posture and his particularly demanding manner over Billy. Tony represents the typical male in Billy Elliot, and he see’s Billy’s interest in dance as something feminine, therefore not a respectable interest for a young boy, as dance is most often considered a woman’s hobby.
On the other hand, females have been stereotyped as being passive,...
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...dtrack (2000) [CD track] 4mins. 53secs. He could be a star. Original cast recording.
4. Denisoff, R.S and Romanowski, W.D. (1991) Risky Business: Rock in Film. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. Page 241.
5. Everett, W. A. and Laird, P. A. (2008) The Cambridge Companion to the musical. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Page 332.
6. Koller, V., (2008), ‘Not just a colour’: pink as a gender and sexuality marker in visual communication, Visual Communication, I (4) November p.401.
7. Lancioni, J. (2006) Cinderella Dances Swan Lake: Reading Billy Elliot as Fairytale. Journal of Popular Culture, 39, (5), page 718, 723.
8. Malone, T. (2010) Utopia, Nostalgia, Grease: How a Film can create a Stage Legacy. Theatre Annual, 63, (18p), Page 50.
9. Nicholson, J. (1993) Men and Women: how different are they? 2nd Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Page 2.
Lewis, J. (2008). American Film: A History. New York, NY. W.W. Norton and Co. Inc. (p. 405,406,502).
Elsaesser, Robert. "The Pathos of Failure: American Films in the 1970s" The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s. Ed. Thomas Elsaesser, Alexander Horwath, Noel King. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2004. 279-292. Print.
Masculinity is always associated with power and control, while femininity is associated with passivity and weakness. As Allan Johnson states, this is related to the fact that “male dominance creates power differences between men and women” (248). So because of the fact that men hold positions of power, they seem more superior to women, creating these stereotypes about each gender. The reason this is important is because when there is an idea of someone being better and people believe it, then it actually happens.... ...
Throughout history, it is clear that men are usually seen to be advantaged by the logic of domination while females tend to be disadvantaged. Whether it be in the workplace, household, or even the bible men have always been inferior to women. Through history, cultural norms and stereotypes gender roles were created and have been present throughout society. Although it is believed that males are more advantaged than females the texts Eve and Adam: Genesis 2-3 Reread by Phyllis Trible and The Creation and Fall of Man and Woman explain how men and woman are in fact equal and maybe even disadvantaged by these cultural arrangements. Therefore, throughout history it is clear that gender discourses would allow one to believe that men are advantaged
Charney, Leo. “Historical Excess: Johnny Guitar's Containment” Cinema Journal 29, No. 4 (1990): 28-30. JSTOR. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
Introduction The topic of gender differences must understandably be approached with caution in our modern world. Emotionally charged and fraught with ideas about political correctness, gender can be a difficult subject to address, particularly when discussed in correlation to behavior and social behavior. Throughout history, many people have strove to understand what makes men and women different. Until the modern era, this topic was generally left up to religious leaders and philosophers to discuss. However, with the acquisition of more specialized medical knowledge of human physiology and the advent of anthropology, we now know a great deal more about gender differences than at any other point in history.
Brannon, Linda. "Chapter 7 Gender Stereotypes: Masculinity and Femininity." Gender: Psychological Perspectives. 4th ed. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2005. 159-83. Print.
Williams, Linda. "Film Bodies: Genre, Gender and Excess." Braudy and Cohen (1991 / 2004): 727-41. Print.
In today’s society it appears to be that both genders have certain traditional roles. We see these things every day, everywhere one goes, and even on television. Women have always been known to be the weaker gender. They are the ones who shouldn’t hve a real paying job. According to men, the womens “job” is to sit at home all day doing chorse such as cooking, cleaning, washing, and taking care of everyone else. Men are known to be the strong gender, “The Boss.” Women and men have stereotype gender roles. Women are as strong, if not stronger than me. They are capable of doing the same things men do.
Stanley, Robert H. The Movie Idiom: Film as a Popular Art Form. Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. 2011. Print
Men and women were not seen as equal human beings; instead it has been obvious that men were more likely to be on the upper hand. In 1987, it has been recorded that
Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies An Introduction to Film, Second Edition (Set with DVD). New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print.
Every culture has different social expectations for men and women. Most of the time traditional norms or stereotypical gender roles are created by society. What they observe seem to be true and convince others to believe it; as a result, the “script” come from stereotypical gender roles about masculine and feminine nature: Hamilton McCubbin and Barbara Blum Dahl states clearly, “men should be brave, strong, ambitious, and aggressive, while keeping the...
The differences between women and men are not solely biological. Our society’s culture has established a set of unwritten cultural laws of how each gender should act, or in other words society has ascribed a stereotype. Men’s gender identity has been one of masculinity, and masculinity is defined as referring to a man or things described as manly. What does manly mean though? Is a male manly if he is “Mr. Fix-it”, or the jock, or if he sits on the couch on Sunday watching football? This latter statement is a stereotype of men, that has been around for decades, and is current as well, but starting with the 1960’s a man’s role started to change, despite the stereotype not changing to accommodate it. For the past 40 years one can see how men have taken on roles stereotypically ascribed to women, such roles including being the “stay-at-home mom”, which we can find an excellent example of in the 1980’s film “Mr.
Reese, C. (2000). Biological Differences Establish Gender Roles. Male/female roles: opposing viewpoints (pp. 18-19). San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press.