The True Edict of Women

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Recommended: Portrayal of women in media disadvantage

The movie Bridesmaids defies the stereotypical role of women by showing the unseen manner-less and crude side of the gender throughout multiple scenes of the film. In each scene the main characters, Annie, Helen, Lillian, Becca, Rita, and Megan, act in obscene ways that are not socially acceptable for women. They all come from different social classes but are forced together for the wedding of Lillian. The gender role of a woman is a very traditional, narrow, and specific idea that does not allow women to be open and crude as they are in this film. The film shows the crude, vulgar, lusting characteristics that are not normally highlighted and acknowledged in films. Scenes like the dueling speech, food poisoning in the dress shop, and the morning after, are all examples of ways this film defies the stereotype and the divide of class by money between the women.
Women are often stereotyped as put together, classy, and always acting with grace and edict, but Bridesmaids brings all of the opposite characteristics these women hold to the attention of the viewers. Stereotypes as defined by Judith Andre have multiple functions, “it may protect our self esteem; it may shield us from facing an unchangeable, unpleasant fact”(Andre 50). These unchangeable facts are what women hide because the gender is told for so long that those facts are undesirable, and when they hide them they are becoming part of the stereotype. A woman talking about farting is not “lady-like,” but it is apart of life; everyone does it. To protect women self-esteem they do not talk about it. Women try to hide these undesirable facts because they are ashamed of them due to the stereotype and the expectations the gender role has. The movie Bridesmaids shows how differe...

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...re taught the roles and because we all act upon them and try to fit the stereotype of the role we embed it deeper into our society. It is a complicated concept that affects many aspects of ideology like class, sexuality, and race. Genders and the stereotypes that go along with them are defied in the film Bridesmaids throughout the whole movie.

Works Cited

Andre, Judith. “Stereotypes: Conceptual and Normative Considerations.” Multicultural Film: An Anthology. Spring/Summer 2014. Eds. Kathryn Karrh Cashin and Lauren Martilli. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2013.

Riseman, Barbara. “Gender as a Social Structure: Theory Wrestling with Activism.” Multicultural Film: An Anthology. Spring/Summer 2014. Eds. Kathryn Karrh Cashin and Lauren Martilli. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2013.

Bridesmaids. Dir. Paul Feig. Perf. Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, and Rose Byrne. Universal, 2011. DVD.

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