“Miss Congeniality” is a movie about a woman CIA agent (Sandra Bullock) who goes undercover as a beauty pageant contestant. In
this video clip we are able to see the media ideologies of woman in the
CIA. Sandra Bullock’s character is physical, has messy hair,
aggressive, tough, and out spoken. All of these adjectives fit with the
description of being masculine, which we listed in class just the other
day. This clip goes along with the societal view that women in the
police force are “masculine” because it is the only way that they can
earn respect from their fellow officers and criminals.
In
McElhinny’s article, “Challenging Hegemonic Masculinities”, the author
states, “ women who work as police officers are often assumed to have
either a certain kind of personality (tomboyish or tough)….”. However,
McElhinny clarifies that there are no single personality traits that are
shared by all women in the police force. Miss
Congeniality proves that we are being socialized, as media viewers, to
believe that woman in the police force are all masculine. In reality, there are masculine, tomboyish police women, but there are also police woman who are seen as feminine.
At
the end of the movie we see Sandra Bullock’s character not only acting
feminine, but also looking feminine. This reminded me of one of the
woman police officers who was interviewed in the article that believes
“her occupational persona is a mask.” I think that the movie portrays
this idea well because we can see at the end of the movie Sandra Bullock
is comfortable as portraying her feminine qualities while still being
in a “masculine job”.
Stephanie Channing
McElhinny's article and Miss Congenialty are great examples of breaking gender roles and norms. The article and movie prove that women feel in order to be taken seriously and have an agressive side, they need to act more masculine. Due to the fact that our society's gender roles and norms are that men are more agressive and threatening than women, it makes it difficult for females in a "agressive" profession. Therefore, forcing women to act out of society's expectations and breaking norms.
ReplyDeleteI think that Miss Congeniality is a great example of the gender norms that Coates discusses in her article. One of the most interesting things that I realized was the idea that Sandra Bullock is not putting an act on in the film, instead she just normally fits into the wider stereotype of women in the police force. Instead, she used the mask that the women in the article talk about in order to fit in as a woman, not vice versa.
ReplyDeleteThis article conveys the message that women need to take on more masculine characteristics in jobs dominated by males. McElhinny also discussed ways in which women went about doing this. Some would stuff their clothing as to appear bigger than they actually are. Another example was 'dirtying' up their language by using more curse words in their conversations with co-workers. Gracie Hart does this in different ways throughout the movie: she chews with her mouth open, snorts like a pig when she laughs, and eats a lot of food, all traits typically associated with the male persona.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Stephanie that the movie clip reflects a dominant societal view on women in the police force that they ought to be "masculine" to be part of it. It is interesting for me to see that Sandra Bullock in the movie has to deny her female idendity to establish her status in the police force. In a way, she is also trying to underplay her female biological features/characterstics to not be treated as a doll. This makes me think of how people define gender. We usually think of it as two categories based of biological differences, but actually there are more to that. For example, a feminine woman and a masculine woman. It's just interesting to see how people are reacting to preexisting social norms and structures and what derives from that.
ReplyDeleteI think we could also reverse the concept of gendered social norms within profession to males. For example, in the movie Mrs. Doubtfire, Robin Williams "acts" as an old woman in order to fill a role that is socially acceptable to be filled by a woman and not a man in order to spend more time with his children. The plot is much more complex than simply acting gender, however, I think it points to a bigger picture of society's perception of profession and whether or not it's acceptable to fill a role if you aren't of a certain gender.
ReplyDeleteI think that Stephanie is completely correct with this clip and how it shows gendered social norms. This clip also made me think of the show Dexter. The woman police officer does everything that the article says that women police officers do. The one thing that she does that shows this the most is that she swears all the time. Not just small swear words, she is vulgar. I think that she is trying to fit in the with the men, but she also acts this way in romanic situations showing that her work has flooded into her personal life.
ReplyDeleteStephanie Wright