A League of Their Own

This week I watched the movie "A League of Their Own" starring Geena Davis and Tom Hanks. The movie involves women being asked to leave the kitchen and go to work as baseball players while their men are away at war. If the women made the teams they were asked to put on a show for the people while playing America's pasttime. They were expected to create good ticket sales and play for a crowd. This movie displays how society believed that a woman's place was in the kitchen cooking and cleaning. People believed that men were the only ones who should be working and that a woman was simply a homemaker whose jobs was to take care of the children.
At the end of the movie the men begin to return from the war overseas and many people believed that women's baseball was no longer needed and that the women were to return to the kitchen. However, a few people stood up and said that women were asked to help the nation by working and that it is not right to send them back home. This ending displays how society's views changed over time and how women came to be respected as part of the working class.

Gender in "She's the Man"

There are many gender issues that you can see when watching the movie "She's The Man" starring Amanda Bynes. The movie itself centers around the idea of a girl having to pretend to be a guy in order to play on a guys high school soccer team because they refused to let her try out as a girl. The coach believed that girls are not capable of playing with boys because they are not as fast, strong, or athletic as boys. However, the girl proved to be as good as the boys and was later able to play with them. This movie displays how attitudes on gender can often influence social behavior. The movie represents the age old mind set of men being more fit than girls and girls not being able to be as good as boys in anything. The coach represents the idea of power and masculinity being bigger and better. The girl represents the feminity and how women are constantly changing the image men have set forth. Throughout the movie the representation of men and women changes. At the beginning men are displayed as the powerful ones who believe women are beneath them and women are displayed as having to follow the rules of men. However, at the end men prove to have an open mind and accept that women are equal and women prove to be powerful in their own ways.