Twelfth Night Vs. She's The Man

Twelfth Night vs. She’s the Man

The use of Sex Appeal in Different Eras

Sex appeal is used in movies and advertising in today’s society to grab the attention of viewers. In today’s society, one cannot go through the day without running into some form of sex appeal. It is used in commercials such as the Carl’s Jr. Commercials when they have a beautiful girl in a bikini eating a cheeseburger from their establishment. This grabs the attention of both male and female. This is done by making women believe that if they eat their burger, they will look just as pretty and sexy as the model. The men want the burger because it makes them think of the pretty model eating it. They use good-looking actors or actresses in movies who often show off their

body’s to entice the viewers. The clips of girls in bikinis or men with their shirts off are used in the previews to peek one’s interest so they pay to go see the movie. Sex appeal is a very bold attention grabber, one that has become bolder in today’s society. In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night you did not see much, if any, sex appeal. The sex appeal in She’s the Man is a bolder approach to capturing the audience’s attention compared to the romantic approach that is seen in Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night.
When the book Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare is compared to the movie She’s the Man written by Andy Fickman one can see that the movie was written from Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night.

The movie takes on a very different approach to the story line changing Shakespeare’s underlining issues. She’s the Man uses sex appeal to its advantage to grab the viewers’ attention and keep them engaged. This paper will cover the different ways She’s the Man uses sex appeal in the story line, whereas Shakespeare uses more of a romance story line. The sex appeal in She’s the Man is a more modern day attention grabber than what is observed in Twelfth

Night.
Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night takes place in the 1600’s during a time women did not have any rights. They were not allowed to perform on stage so men would play the part of women. Shakespeare always mocked the law of his time in his plays. The story line is about a girl named Viola, who is separated from her twin brother Sebastian after being shipwrecked out at sea. Due to the fact that Viola was a wealthy female traveling alone, she decides it is safer to pretend to be a boy named Cesario. She then works for the Duke, Orsino, of Illyria to help him woo Lady Olivia. The Duke asks Cesario to go on his behalf and tell Olivia how much he loves her. In Viola’s response, it is implied that she is actually in love with the Duke herself when she says,
I’ll do my best
To woo your lady: [aside] yet, a barful strife!
Whoe’er I woo, myself would be his wife. (9)
This grabs the audience’s attention because they are now absorbed in the love triangle that is starting to form and are immersed in what will happen next.

Viola continues to go back and forth between the Duke and Olivia but Oliva falls in love with Viola’s male alias Cesario. The three go on with this love triangle throughout the book using a romantic feel to keep the viewers engaged. Until the end of the story when Viola’s twin brother shows up, is mistaken for Cesario, and marries Olivia. In the end the Duke finds out the Cesario is actually a women and not a boy and they end up marring each other. Olivia is relieved she married a man and not a woman and they are all happy in the end. Shakespeare never uses sex appeal, but uses romance to appeal to his audience.

The movie, She’s the Man uses Shakespeare’s storyline and turns it into a modern day version of Twelfth Night. The Duke is now a soccer captain named Duke Orsino and Viola and Sebastian are twins of a very wealthy family. Olivia is just a popular girl at Sebastian’s school, which is called Illyria. The same love triangle between the three exists, but Viola pretends to be her brother Sebastian. She goes to his school pretending to be him with the intentions of playing on his school’s soccer team to prove girls play just as good as boys. The movie uses sex appeal to grab the attention of its

viewers.
She’s the Man has a liberal take on Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night. In She’s the Man, the girls are dressed very provocatively showing a lot of skin. The girls have on short and low cut dresses showing off their legs and revealing cleavage. The girls wear make-up and bright colored lipstick. There are many parts in the movie where the focus is on the different female character’s bodies and their sex appeal.
In Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night, the woman of this time dressed very differently. They always wore dresses, this was considered lady like and was the only acceptable attire for the time period. These dresses had about ten layers and were very heavy. The dresses covered most of the body showing only the hands. The women did not wear make-up either. They always wore their hair up and curled with some form of a hat or veil covering most of their hair. Do to the way women dressed and were not allowed on stage, Shakespeare used a more romantic approach in Twelfth Night.
The men in She’s the Man wore clothes very different from Shakespeare’s time as well. The men also showed a lot of skin in the movie. They wore shorts and muscle shirts and there were even scenes in the movie they did not have anything on but a towel. This grabs the female viewer’s attention by having good-looking men in the movie showing off their muscular bodies. Thus keeping the female viewer lured into the plot of the movie with sex appeal.
During Shakespeare’s time in which Twelfth Night is set, the men wore shirts and tunics with puffed shoulders. Instead of pants like men today wear, they wore tights. Men then also wore hats, although not the type an individual would wear in today’s society. Their hats were made of fine materials such as lace and had feathers and brooches on them. Men wore accessories like heavy gold chains around their necks. The way that the men in Shakespeare’s time dressed would not be considered “manly” in today’s world.
In Fickman’s movie She’s the Man, sex appeal was used to grab the attention of its viewers. In one of the first scenes, Duke Orsino is in his dorm room without a shirt on. The actor used to play Duke Orsino, is Channing Tatum who is a teen heartthrob with a masculine build. This grabs the attention of young teen girls watching the movie. Another example of sex appeal in the movie is the scene where Viola is at the carnival juggling both characters, she comes out dressed like a girl wearing a very tight fitting low cut dress. This grabs the attention of the male viewers because her outfit leaves very little to the imagination. Throughout the movie, Fickman uses sex appeal to keep the viewers intrigued. When Viola is trying to make her herself popular as her brother Sebastian, she enlists her friends to help her. Kia walks up to Sebastian pretending to be an ex-lover and say’s to him, “I’ve been thinking about you at night, late” (Fickman). This is an example of sex appeal by implying sexual innuendos.