Tootsie

            The movie Tootsie is about an actor named Michael who is highly assertive.  He has a hard time getting hired because people don’t like him.  He wants to produce a play but he doesn’t have the money.  When he learns of an opening in a soap opera he decides to apply, even if the part is meant for a woman.  He decides to transform himself into a woman without anyone knowing.  He lives most of each day in the role of a woman.  He’s learned that women have it harder then he’d thought.  In some cases the movie challenged stereotypes and gender roles and in other cases it reinforced them. 

            In the movie, the director was stereotyped as at typical man who thought women were beneath him.  He would continually degrade Dorothy, the character that Michael would dress up as.  He didn’t know why Dorothy didn’t really like him and found it interesting that she challenged his authority.  In these scenes I think it reinforced the stereotypes and gender roles of men.  In one of the final scenes when the director finds out Dorothy is really Michael it seems to set his world right again.  Dorothy had turned his world upside down by blending the roles of genders, but once he knew that Dorothy was really a man he just figured oh, that’s why.  She was really a he. 

            There were also many ways that Michael challenged stereotypes and gender roles of women while he was in the character of Dorothy.   He proved to others that just because you are a woman doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t stand up for yourself.  He didn’t expect for all of this to happen.  He never really gave thought to women being treated differently until he became one.  Once he was being treated differently because he was a woman he still only knew how he would have handled it as a man.  He couldn’t do it differently.  Standing up to the men was just how he was personality wise.  People were shocked at how he was behaving as a woman and this was challenging stereotypes.  People began to see that it wasn’t such a bad thing. 

            It was very interesting how the movie both challenged and reinforced stereotypes.  One minute it was very clear that the men were men and the women were women.  Then the character of Dorothy would come forward to shatter, or challenge those theories.  It clearly showed people are just people and they should all be treated with respect.

Feminism in Film: Thelma and Louise

            In the movie Thelma and Louse it begins with the men having the dominant roles and the woman being the weaker sex.  It starts with Thelma being over powered and afraid of her husband.  Louise seemed stronger and more independent.  It was early on that you knew Louise wanted Thelma to take control of the way she was being treated.

            The two decided to go on a road trip and Thelma didn’t tell her husband out of fear, yet the first night when they stopped she became friendly with a man who almost attacked her.  This forced Louise to stand up for her friend and she shot and killed the man.  This set off a chain of events with them running from the law.  As the movie progresses they encounter many men who seem to think these two women are pushovers and can be easily be taken because they are women.  This causes the women to gain courage almost as though they have nothing left to lose.  It is at this point the balance of dominant roles shifts.

            Between the thoughts of getting caught and being killed the two women seemed to be happier.  Almost as though they had been set free and had a new found bravery.  Throughout the movie there was one man who genuinely wanted to help them, but because of their past and what they’d been through and how they’d been treated, they wouldn’t let him.  They couldn’t let themselves trust him.
           In this move there are three main male characters.  Thelma's husband, Darryl, one of the detectives, Hal Slocomb, and a man they meet on the road, J.D. Darryl was completely overbearing and controlling.  Thelma was afraid of him and lived her life with him doing as she was told and how she felt she should behave.  J.D. seemed caring and concerned and she instantly seemed to fall for him and to trust him, but he ended up using her and stealing all of their money.  Hal was genuinely concerned and really wanted to help the women.  However, they had both been so used and taken by the time he'd come along they wouldn't allow themselves to trust him.  Although the ending seemed tragic the two women had made a joint decision which they both felt empowered them.