Gender Roles In She's The Man

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In the movie She’s the Man, A young girl's high school soccer team gets cut. The girl named Viola wants to join the boys soccer team but they're not a coed team and she is told she cannot play with the boys. She impersonates her twin brother named Sebastian, who is away in London for a few weeks. She tries out and makes her school's rival team, Illyria, as her brother. The gender binary is challenged in many ways throughout. Viola falls in love, with a boy named Duke that loves a more feminine girl named Olivia. Olivia falls in love with Viola as Sebastian. Sebastian becomes a popular lady’s man on campus. The real Sebastian comes home early. Viola confesses her love for Duke whilst disguised as Sebastian on the soccer field and admits what she had done, she shows her boobs to prove she's a girl.
The producers of the 2006 film sought to analyze the difference of treatment between males and females in the same sport and high school setting. By …show more content…

The film genre is a romantic comedy but there are intricacies relating to gender and gender expression that could easily go unnoticed. The fact that Viola’s only option was to become a boy speaks volumes. Her ability to transform never changes who she truly is but establishes the patriarchal society we live in. Her role as a female is held to a higher standard but a lower regard.Violas behavior as a girl is unacceptable but perfectly fine as a boy. It's inappropriate for the girls to want to try out for the boys team, even amusing to the boys and their coach. According to the coach “girls aren't as fast as boy, or strong or as athletic”. The coach declares it a scientific fact and furthers on to say “girls can't beat boys”. It is unnatural for girls to compete alongside boys because they are viewed as the inferior sex. There is such emphasis placed on men’s sports as opposed to the insignificance of women’s sports in our

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