Gender is socially constructed. What are males? Males are masculine, strong and powerful, whereas females are feminine, weak and powerless. What do females do? Females do housework, work as a clerk and dance ballet, whereas males do management work, work as a senior officer and go boxing. These prospects are constructed by society, which supposes to be act like and these are the convention. Everybody learns it when they were born. It can be said that, society shapes gender, at the same time, gender shapes the society.

Films as one of the social practices, enhancing this kind of gender ideology by representing male and female in the conventional way. Take Stephen Daldry’s film Billy Elliot as an example. Billy is supposed to go boxing in stead of dancing ballet because boys used to go boxing, this is what boys do. Billy’s father and brother strongly prohibit him to dance, as they think it’s only for girls. It is the convention, nothing can argue against that. In this case, being a boy, Billy cannot dance ballet. It is the same case in the Japanese film- Waterboys, boys do synchronized swimming is impossible, because they are boys, they just cannot. Boxing and synchronized swimming are sports already shaped only for males or females by the society, which is stereotyping the nature of the sport. However, because of this shaped gender role in sports, it makes the “make over” principle works sharply.

In the film Billy Elliot, which takes place in England in 1984, within a traditional culture when boys used to go boxing and girls used to dance ballet. Just like normal kids, Billy used to go boxing by using his grandfather’s box glove, which is used for many generations. He discovers that he likes to dance ballet at the aged of 11 when he first sees the girls dancing in the gym and is inspired by Mrs. Wilkinson who teaches him privately and secretly. However, when Mrs. Wilkinson helps Billy applying for Royal Ballet School in order to have an audition, Jackie, his father rejects and prohibits him to dance anymore. He is not the only one who feels angry, Tony, Billy’s brother does also. They are angry because Billy goes dancing ballet. Ballet dancing is not for boys, it is a sissy sport, which is only for girls. This idea is already “gendered” and applied in everyone’s life, this is what makes the “make over” principle works when the melting point appears.

Though Billy is not allowed to dance ballet or goes to the audition, his passion and enthusiastic towards ballet hasn’t melted. At Christmas time, Billy dances bravely in front of his father to prove that he is really interested in dancing and no one can stop him. Due to the strike union’s failure, Jackie sees no future for himself and Tony, his elder son, he changes his mind to let Billy dances. This is the breaking point and it is obvious that the “make over” principle happens as soon as Jackie agrees Billy to dance ballet. Because of love, Jackie’s heart melts. He lets his son to do the “sissy” ballet, and to have another kind of life. Jackie lets Billy to do this, because he can see no future for Billy if he sticks on to be a miner like him. Dancing Ballet is a way out for Billy. On the other hand, because of the “gendered” sports, there is a “make over”. It can be easier for Billy to be a ballet dancer, if it is not constructed as a girls’ thing. “Make over” will not happen if there is no gender prospective towards one particular sport.

Waterboys is a similar case. This time it is not dancing ballet, but synchronized swimming which is gendered as a girls’ sport. There is no reason, but because it is already shaped by society, boys just cannot do it. The “make over” principle works when five boys accept Sakuma, their teacher’s idea and train as synchronized swimmers for a performance. At the end of the film, they prove that synchronized swimming is not for girls anymore, it is possible for boys to do it. Again, a “gendered” sport is the agent to make the “make over” principle works.

Moreover, in a quite different genre, Billy Elliot and Waterboys, GI Jane faces the “Devil’ gender problem too. Being a female, Jordan cannot go into the military training programme. People impose a double standard on her even when she gets in, she has special treatment. Because of the “gendered” mindset, most of the people think females should not and cannot become a soldier, they just cannot. Besides, one more thing is happened in GI Jane apart from gender, there is a personal intervention to make the “make over” principle sharply appear. The intervention is like a “fairy” coming from the sky, going into someone’s life and then changing something in her or people around her. That is the Senator in GI Jane, she may not be a fairy, but she is an important person who intervenes into Jordan’s life by using gender politics.

In GI Jane, Senator uses Jordan as a chess piece. Because of some political strategies, she sends Jordan to go into the military base where she has soldiers’ training. Gender here is politically used in the first place, and gender helps to transform males’ view toward females in Jordan’s case. Before the failure of simulated military training, males in the camp hate Jordan and don’t think she can make it. They betray, isolate and insult her. When no one believes a female can do this and set a trap to make her give up, she does make it eventually by insisting on, tolerating and holding her belief. The action of Jordan changes males’ point of view, her male crews appreciate her and would like to get along with her and that’s how the “make over” happens. No doubt that there are other agents to make it happen, like the faith of Jordan, and the “gendered” mindset of males and females, which holds that females cannot be a soldier, but a more important factor is that an intervention shows up to make the “gendered” mindset appear and that is the role of the dispatcher, the Senator. If there is no Senator, doing some gender politics, there is no GI Jane. She is the beginning of the story for Jordan challenging the gender limitation in the military party.

It can be seen in Billy Elliot and Waterboys also. Mrs. Wilkinson in Billy Elliot and Sakuma in Waterboys, are dispatchers too. Mrs. Wilkinson acts a fairy, who inspires Billy to dance ballet, without her, Billy might not be a ballet dancer. The intervention of Sakuma also intervenes into the boys’ life, however brief, works to give them the idea of synchronized swimming.

Gender in these three films appears in different ways and it takes an important agent in making the “make over” happens. “Gendered” sports in Billy Elliot and Waterboys, and gender politics in GI Jane, which supports the “make over” principle. At the same time, “make over” principle shapes different version of gender possibilities, it deconstructs the gender ideology.


CUS 331 Topics in Cinema and Media studies 2nd semester, 2005-2006 (written@5th April)