Analysis Of 'Some Like It Hot'

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“It’s a whole different sex!” Jerry (Jack Lemmon) exclaims in ‘Some Like It Hot’ (1959), while admiring Sugar’s (Marilyn Monroe) body. It is with statements like this that Billy Wilder’s movie challenges traditional views of binary genders. While probably unintentional, this movie uses cross-dressing , among other things, to parody the performativity of gender. This method of subversion was not conceptualized until the 90’s by Judith Butler in her books ‘Gender Trouble’ and ‘Bodies that Matter’ (171-189; 223-242), showing how ahead of its time the film was. ‘Some Like It Hot’ subverts heteronormativity by deconstructing binary genders, separating gender from sexuality and satirizing heterosexuality.
In his article ‘Sex, gender and heteronormativity’, Terrel Carver points out that the ease with which Jerry and Joe
In ‘Bodies That Matter’, Butler states that “homophobia often operates through the attribution of a damaged, failed gender…to homosexuals…and…is often also a terror over losing proper gender” (238). However, in this movie, Joe acts distinctively feminine as “Josephine”, thereby losing his “proper gender”, while clearly retaining his heterosexual desires for Sugar. Therefore by losing his gender, he has not lost his sexuality. The film completely subverts the idea of a sexuality caused by gender and considering how central this causation is to heteronormative idealism, the film hereby subverts heteronormative institutionalism. While Osgood’s desire for “Daphne” is only apparently heterosexual, the power dynamic in their relationship is constantly changing. This is particularly clear in their dancing scenes, in which the role of leader is switched several times. The fact that Osgood is not deterred by this removal from heteronormative roles, shows that he accepts the queerness of the relationship , thereby also subverting institutionalized

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