Seeing Gender: Billy Elliot

The scene that I am going to be reading gender is from the film Billy Elliot. The two main issues I wanted to focus on relate very closely in this film. The first struggle is between Billy versus his Dad and Brother. When Billy is discovered by his Father and Brother that he is participating in ballet he immediately is called a “puffer” by them. Throughout the whole film Billy struggles with the fight to show them that he can make it as a ballet dance. Secondly, the next struggle is between the Father and Brother fighting the Union. The Elliot family is a lower class family who rely on the Father and older Brother to work in the coal mines and support the rest of the family which includes Billy and his Grandmother. These two struggle relate very closely because Billy constantly struggles with his Dad and Brother telling him ballet is for “Puffers” and only real men work in the mines. Now the struggle between the Dad and Brother versus the Union relate exactly to what Billy is facing when trying to get past the views of the males in this particular Society.

There are a couple of different scenes from the movie that really stand out with showing the two struggles and how they relate to one another. The first scene I want to describe is when Billy is dancing in the gym with his teacher and he is being very elaborate and exciting with his performance in ballet, then the scene flops to where Billy’s Dad and Brother are at the picket line throwing different objects and yelling at the ones who crossed the picket line to go back to work in the coal mines. The scene constantly flips back and forth showing Billy lost in his dancing and he Dad and Brother in hatred because the other men crossed the picket line. This scene just really showed the strong emotion Billy had for Ballet and the other scene really showed the strong hatred and emotion the two had because there only form of income was slipping from their finger tips. This scene showed a struggle between patriarchy because while the Dad and Brother are facing their emotion towards the union which all males in that class are suppose to do, Billy is shown in the gym facing other struggle which weren’t something a male as himself should be doing. Billy faced other challenges that most males wouldn’t be facing because their only challenge is to stop the union. I loved how this scene showed that because even though Billy was taking on the roles a male should, he found enjoyment in something he truly loved, even though it wasn’t expected by the males in his family.

The film’s main theme is to show that males and females don’t have any particular roles in society, no such gender can or can not be restricted to any certain role. In the past males have been taught that only men work and women should stay at home and take care of the domestic part and if males were found taking on any other roles than what males were suppose to then something is wrong with them. From the reading by Tannen it discusses that women are the ones who talk to much and men only express themselves when they are in public or want other to feel they are the dominate figure when they talk. This reading also analyzes that men do only speak when other people are around and when it is just him and his wife most males are mainly silent. In the reading this is explained because males are to insecure to expresses how they feel to only one person or to their wife, but when its to a public or a bunch of people males speak right up and let everyone know how they feel. I think this relates to the gender issues we saw in the film Billy Elliot. The reason I say this is because in the movie men are seen as the ones who work in the coal mines and provide for the households, so when Billy is out of the norm and takes up ballet he is looked down upon because that is not what males are suppose to do. Now with the reading males do not expresses themselves when they are alone or with their wives is because males don’t do that, they only expressed themselves when they can sound masculine in front of people, not when they sound feminine because they are expressing their emotions to their wives. Now with both these issues, I believe if more males would step outside of certain norms and break the rules there wouldn’t be so much controversy when males do participate in more feminine acts or roles that male are normally seen doing. I believe that gender roles will always be around not matter what our society goes through, but I do believe that the roles between males and females will become pretty close to extinction only leaving those roles that only need to be either masculine or feminine because its how our society is ran.