Adapted from William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, She's The Man is one of my personal favorite films. A teen romantic-comedy, She's The Man is the story about a girl named Viola, played by Amanda Bynes, who's girl soccer team got cut at her high school. Therefore she pretends to be her twin brother, at the rival high school he attends and joins the soccer team. Throughout the film with the complications of almost blowing her cover, cat-fights in the bathroom, to falling for her roomate, She's The Man is a funny movie.
However as She's The Man is not a 'Christian' film, this artifact talks about evil in the empire about the sexual hierarchy. The film may not address the issue directly but it is implied. As mentioned before Viola becomes upset at the fact that her high school cut her soccer team. When Viola finds out she adresses the issue to the men's soccer coach and comes up with the idea of allowing the girls to try out for the soccer team. Hearing the idea, the soccer coach laughs and mocks the girls and saying that girls can't do anything boys can and that boys are just better than females. This scene then goes with what Walsh and Keesmaat were trying to explain in chapter 11. Even though it says in the bible that women should be 'under' her husband, the woman is also to be set free of the hierarchy of the empire. Even though I may sound like a feminist by this point, even though I am not, I believe that there should be an equality treatment to both sexes. Some may be upset at the fact that a woman can throw a football better than a guy or that a guy can knit a scarf better than a girl, but despite the 'abnormal' examples, that doesn't mean that we should treat each other poorly. Instead we should be happy and encourage one another.
Even though women may or may not be able to do everything a male can, why do you think that women should or should not be limited to what they can do?
How important is communication?
I agree. i think that this movie shows how some people think women are inferior to men, and i just don't agree. I think women and men can do the same things if they truly put their minds to it.
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with being a feminist? At the very least, feminism is a good critique of cultures that have been dominated by men throughout history. At its root, feminist thought questions our gender assumptions and seeks to address the power imbalance. And that isn't a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteAs you mention, Walsh and Keesmaat address this in their reading of Colossians. While we looked at the biblical narrative using an imperial hermeneutic, you could also look at the story with a hermeneutic that highlights the amazing and culturally subversive role of women throughout.
It seems like this artifact is challenging gender assumptions, too. And as you rightly note, that is a good thing!