Decoding Gender Cues in 'Victor Victoria'

Each gender has its little tells and associations, the movie Victor Victoria depicts gender cues very accurately and well. Victor Victoria is a movie about a woman, who wants to have a successful singing career, but in order to do so she must pretend to be a man pretending to be a woman. This movie takes place in the 1930’s in Paris, France during the winter time. One gender cue I noticed was how women and men wore their coats differently. Men tended to wear their coats over their shoulders without putting their arms in the sleeves and women, wore their coats a help their coats together with their hand placed close to their chest, indicating they feel cold. Another gender cues I noticed was when Carole "Toddy" Todd, played by Robert Preston,

Another example of a gender cue was when Toddy’s friend Richard came to visit and Victoria was hiding in the closet (at this point in the movie Toddy had already suggested to Victoria that she should pretend to be a man), when Richard opened the closet and Victoria, dressed like a man, punches Richard in the face. In order for Victoria to convince everyone she was a man, she had to cut her hair in order to enhance her looking like a man. During this time, women were viewed differently and therefore treated differently, I believe that a huge indicator of this is the way women and men shook hands with each other. When men shake hand with men their hands cup each other and they give a firm shake, however when a man shakes a women’s hand it is not really much of a shake. The women give the man her hand in order for him to kiss it. A fifth gender cue I noticed was when Victor Victoria was rehearsing one of her numbers, the choreographer told her the she needed to dance broader, use more of her

Men cupped their wine glass like any other glass however, women tended to hold the stem of the wine glass between two of their fingers. Another gender cue I found was while Victor and Toddy were performing together, Victor was leaning on the piano in a masculine way and also during the same performance, Victor crossed his arms and put his hands in the pocket, which are all male mannerisms. An eighth cue I found was after King found out Victoria was actually a woman and Victoria wanted to go dancing, so they went to a gay club. Men in the background were dancing however not very close to each other. But when Victoria was dancing with King she was very close and touchy, there was barley any space between them. After this scene King goes to a bar and gets into a fight, I think this is another gender cue because King felt emasculated by being seen dancing with a “man,” so he wanted to feel tougher. At the end of the fight his face and knuckles were bruised. Another gender cue I found was another time when Victoria was practicing for a show. She and Toddy were in his apartment and Victoria was playing on the