Dirty Dancing: Not Just a Love Story Essay

Gender roles have been a hotly debated topic in the most recent years, especially the role of women in society. Women have had set expectations that they are believed to conform to, which is shown in many pieces of film and literature. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald describes the life of a man in the upper class in the 1920’s, as well as women in the 1920’s. The movie The Princess Bride, written by William Goldman, visually explains the treatment and expectations of women, and especially focuses on the “damsel in distress” stereotype.. Roxane Gay’s “Bad Feminist” explains the stereotypes against women and ways women can come together and fight these constraints. Based on these sources, societal expectations take away from each individual’s identity, forcing women to conform to society's standards. In order to fight against these expectations, women have banded together and formed movements against these standards.

There are a number of societal concepts that have changed over time, these changes are clearly exhibited when comparing the culture of Puberty Blues to my own. One of these concepts is gender roles. In the film, gender roles are clearly defined, masculinity and femininity are two completely different sociatel constructs that must be followed. Gender roles provide the basis for the status quo, where boys are in charge and served by girls who are used and policed by boys.

The feminist movement has been trying to change the idea of traditional sex roles and stereotypes in society for decades, but maybe the issue relies on society instead of biological differences. While these biological differences and research show that there are small differences in cognitive brain activity between the sexes, they also propose a theory that this “is the way it’s supposed to be” (Pollitt 2549). Although these differences exist it does not mean that sexes should have permanently assigned roles in society. Katha Pollitt, a feminist author and high profile activist wrote the essay “Why Don’t Boys Play With Dolls,” published in 1995 in The New York Times Magazine. In the essay, she argues that “biological determinism may reassure some adults about their present, but it is feminism, the ideology of flexible and converging sex roles, that fits our children’s future” (2549). Pollitt raises important ethical problems in her essay, gender roles and stereotyping. Throughout her essay she provides several claims to her argument and builds credibility with her audience by using rhetorical strategies. However, the argument also exhibits some minor flaws, which could in return limit its persuasiveness. This analysis will identify Pollitt’s three main claims and the evidence she uses to support them. I argue that overall Pollitt provides an effective argument by building her credibility and expanding her audience with the use of rhetorical strategies, such as ethos, pathos,

In “Why Boys Don’t Play With Dolls,” Pollitt writes about the differences between growing up as a boy growing up as a girl. She brings up the stereotypes that society naturally creates between genders in early ages, which leads to the lifestyle and path that boys and girls are raised in. Parents and feminist alike play a big part in establishing these sex roles. They raise their kids wanting them to be successful at what they are expected to be good at based on their gender and the trend that has been set before them.

The adults in the story expect the children to grow into the gender role that their sex has assigned to them. This is seen in several places throughout the story, such as when the narrator hears her mother

Women often appear with glamorous image on advertisements, movies. However, there are also a lot of pictures to make women soured and routine such as women in the party, velvet erotic games, etc. By taking advantage of beautiful pictures, sexy women in the media seems to make the value of women become simply. People have acknowledging that women typically only have to dep, sexy, attractive, and space for recreation. Indeed, they hardly enhance the value of women. I am really shocked to find that most of social media is making people less interested in the intelligence, curved bar, and a lot of good things that women had not simply outward beauty. The media just give people that the public wants to. The film really makes the viewer think about the true value of women in the media and society. In addition, the film effectively appeals to the audience’s emotions and empathy. Throughout the film, the writer mentions her unborn daughter and her fear of whether her daughter “could grow up to be emotionally healthy and fulfilled given our moder culture.” She mentions that becoming pregnant and discovering her child was a girl is the reason she started looking to make a change in the way society and media sees women. This is an appeal to anyone who has a daughter or wants to have a daughter. They hope that people will want to make changes, just like the narrator did, for the future of the

What does it mean to be a woman or man? Whether we a man or a woman, in today’s society it is not determined just by our sex organs. Our gender includes a complex mix of beliefs, behaviors, and characteristics. How do you act, talk, and behave like a woman or man? Are you feminine or masculine, both, or neither? These are questions that help us get to the core of our gender and gender identity. Gender identity is how we feel about and express our gender and gender roles: clothing, behavior, and personal appearance. It is a feeling that we have as early as age two or three. In the article, “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meaning of Gender,” the author, Aaron Devor, is trying to persuade his readers that gender shapes how we behave because of the expectation from us and relate to one another. He does this by using an educational approach, describing gender stereotypes, and making cultural references. He gets readers to reflect on how “Children’s developing concepts of themselves as individuals are necessarily bound up …to understand the expectations of the society which they are a part of” (389). Growing up, from being a child to an adult is where most of us try to find ourselves. We tend to struggle during this transition period, people around us tell us what to be and not to be, Jamaica Kincaidt in her short story, “Girl” tells just that, the setting is presented as a set of life instructions to a girl by her mother to live properly. The mother soberly

Gender is a concept constructed entirely by society. We base gender off of what we perceive and what others perceive of us. Until fairly recently, it has been categorized as one of two things: male or female. When we watched the documentary in class, we saw evidence of society 's socialization of young children. Commercials for Nerf Guns, action figures, and cars and trucks were all depicted with young boys as their users. Never did we see a girl playing with GI Joes or with Hot Wheels, only boys played with those. Meanwhile, dolls, baking sets, and make up kits were only advertised to girls, and no boys were shown playing with Barbies or Bratz. Society begins to shape gender notions from a very early age, where people are shown that they are one or the other, either male or female.

Baby views the men in her life as more important or impactful than the women. She does meet many different women, but they all seem to be either old mothers or more predominantly rebels and prostitutes. She thinks of women as things that fascinate her, because she doesn 't understand them; even though she is a woman herself. It makes the reader wonder when there will be a decent female character In the story. What it really makes the reader feel when a new female is introduced is that they either, won 't stay long, they are prostitutes, she’s a bad influence, or she is a bully. The portrayal of women in baby’s life isn 't very significant(her mother is mentioned

Moreover, the manhood acts in the film actively maintain the gender inequality present. The purpose of the acts is to be accepted by other as being in the “dominant gender group” (Schrock and Schwalbe 149). This demonstrates how sex and gender are different things. Sex is whether you are biologically male or female, but gender deals with how you behave such as masculine or feminine. These manhood acts can actually be seen

She does this in order to protect her unborn child from the man's ignorance. When their relationship is on its way to evolve, the man is unwilling to further it. Instead he wants the girl to have an abortion against her will so that their relationship can stay the same as it has always been. However, the girl realizes that she cannot go on with this man, instead she has to break free. In order to do this she has to become a strong confident woman, and she does so by separating herself and figuring out what she wants for herself. Women today still struggle with the gender stereotypes, but society as a whole is progressing towards equality between mothers, father, men and

By making the main characters in the movie female it was able to show that you do not have to be a man to go on a journey of self-change and growth. The movie was also able to really show the path of the hero’s journey through the entirety of the movie. Through the use of two main characters the viewer could see the impact of mirroring actions by Amber and Lisa and how it affected the journey. If the movie was only shoot through the perspective of Lisa, the viewer would know more about Lisa but would not have seen the impact of her onto Amber by the end of the movie. What makes this an interesting journey of a person is how it unfolds. When first watching the viewer would think that the journey is of Lisa growing out of her shell but the real journey is of Amber to become a caring

In the movie, women are controlled by men in almost every single aspect. They can’t talk to other men without a permission from a male relative, they can’t be heard by other men, they can’t ride bicycles, they can’t drive, etc. Women were supposed to obey men in everything they do.

The biggest challenge while researching and writing this paper was strictly presenting scholastic and objective arguments in order to avoid bias and reduce critics’ opportunity to discredit or delegitimize my work, especially those who oppose feminism. Presenting a rebuttal statement and then counteracting it with more critical arguments of how that specific repudiation is problematic, acknowledges critical audiences’ concerns while remaining adamantly strong in my stance. I was conscious to pay the respected attention to detail when selecting rhetoric language as it conveys the appropriated tone and mood of the paper to the reader as it represents the film. Just as typical research papers require, my primary source, The Little Mermaid, is immediately and easily identifiable within the paper, and unlike most scholarly works, the analyzed topic is the primary source itself. However, the problematic dynamics the film presents based on the sexist theme it poses, may be too broad and largely based without adequately supportive and specified examples from the film. This was another one of the concerns I had when I first began to construct my paper because there were so many different examples of female

Dirty Dancing is a classical movie about a young man and a young woman falling in love, and as every movie seems to follow the same type pattern, they have difficulties with the access of being together. Baby’s father wants her to be with one of his doctor friends son, but Baby is not interested. The main character, Baby Houseman, is a young woman who is attending a country club with her family for the entire summer. Baby’s father is a doctor, which explains how they are have received a proper invite to the country club for an entire summer. In this country club, they obtain a diverse staff. The country club worker consists of the cleaners, servers, ushers, cooks, and the most intriguing was the entertainment. One evening at dinner a striking man was dancing for the evening and she was side tracked from then on. The only problem was that he was a worker at the country club not a guest and she knew her family would not approve. One evening she heard music and as enticed by the tune and followed it. Baby ended up at a place where all the workers came to dance and hang out. She was not exactly welcomed in but they thought if they told her to leave then she would go tell on them and they would get into trouble. As time went on, they became fonder of Baby. They started to realize she was not a stuck up rich girl. One evening Penny, one of the entertainers was upset so baby followed them to Penny’s cabin to see what was up and come to find out that Penny had gotten pregnant from a