Issues of Sex and Gender in Film The Heat - Movie Review Example

The Heat (film) in Since we live in a patriarchy society, male-dominance is default. When one analyses music, TV shows, Internet, custom, law, sports or even a public performance, he or she can easily identify this default or attribute that is so highly honoured by society. Movies are one of the greatest examples that underscore and emphasise this default through its plot, characters’ behaviour, dialogues etc. Films are not merely a means of entertainment but are also portrayals of either true or fabricated stories, which reflect on the issues faced by people living in the contemporary society. Thus, moviemakers expect men and women to go to male dominant movies, and enjoy male-character- driven franchises, for instance, superhero films like The Dark Knight, Spider-Man etc and also comedies like The Hangover trilogy. A recent movie, called The Heat, which was directed by Paul Feig, has been agreed upon as a gender-neutral movie by critics compared to common male-lead heroic characters of other movies. However, despite the neutrality in the grounds of gender that the movie portrays, there are still stereotypical character roles presented in it. Even if it is called a neutral movie, it reflects on gender issues in areas of organizations, race, class, ethnicity, religion and sexuality. Various laws and acts have worked towards establishing equality between men and women, however, there are still visible and invisible obstacles for females in organizations. For instance, it is much harder for a female to get promotions in male dominant fields. Generally the case is that for a manager, it becomes difficult to make decisions related to promotions when there are multiple candidates for a single position. He or she may use a variety of criteria, such as experience, education and reputation to decide who is best suited for the job. However, the manager sometimes considers other qualifications such as when the candidate is found to be over competitive. In the movie, The Heat, Sandra Bullock plays the role of a professional FBI special agent. She portrays the character of a methodical, upright, put-together lady, who is a highly skilled and effective investigator. The movie plot proves this, as it reveals that she has solved more cases than any of her male colleagues. However, when she asks her boss for a promotion, he turns down her by saying that no one likes her, saying that he has got “countless complaints” of her “arrogance, competitiveness, showmanship.” This is the reason why she is denied the promotion, however, as a solution, the boss suggests her to work on people skills as a test, and sends her to Boston to try to bring down a drug kingpin. However, one needs to first analyse the validity behind the boss’ decision, and for that it is important to first examine the words he used to describe Sandra Bullock. The words “competitiveness and “showmanship” are used in the complaint files against Sandra Bullock, however, imagine a situation where Sandra Bullock was a male, then these very words would be interpreted as complements. In that case, “competitiveness” would mean active and strong, and “showmanship” would refer to the self-confidence of the person. This is because these words, especially in the police field, are used for description of men and not women, therefore these qualities in her, become unacceptable for her colleagues as well as the boss. Human beings since the ancient times have been hardwired to think that women should be subordinated and not hold positions superior to men, as well as that they should follow men and not lead them. If Bullock were described as a caring, mother-like, as well as calm and composed individual, these would be considered complements, and she would have been probably promoted right away. The general culture of human beings as well as certain perspectives of the society as a whole has declared some words to be purely descriptive of men whereas others to be those used to describe women. Thus, when these words are used in association with the significant other gender, then the meanings of the words become totally opposite, for instance, a complement for one gender may become a disgrace when used for the other. Considering the case of females working with men in a male dominant organization, it is seen that these female employees are not fairly evaluated or treated by colleagues because men simply cannot accept females’ excellence, especially in fields such as the police. Sandra bullock did not harm or threat her co-workers ever and yet they feel intimidated by her and complain against her excellence by saying that she is acting like a man. Wood (2007) supports this issue in her book that women in male dominant fields may be given unrewarding assignments and also kept isolated form key networks of people and information. Furthermore, male colleagues mostly consider women as unimportant or insignificant members of their team, thus, this was the same in Bullock’s case. On the other hand, promotion is not the only issue that women have to face in the workplace or organisations. There are other significant issues that women face everyday where they go to work, and one of the most major problem is that of pay or salary that women receive. A lot of people actually believe that the various equality laws and acts have aimed at completely establishing equality among men and women. However, this is not the case, is it can be seen that women are paid less compared to their male counterparts doing the same job and who is in the same position in the organisation. Therefore, there exists in a gender pay gap among men and women, and in 2012, the ratio of women’s to men’s median weekly full-time earnings was 80.9%, a decline of more than one percentage point since 2011 when the ratio was 82.2 % (You might want to add the source here). Thus, despite women excelling in the same job as much as men do, their pay is still lower than that of the latter simply because they are females. Another challenge for female employees is the ‘glass ceiling,’ which is an invisible barrier that limits the advancement of women, and is seen to plague Sandra bullock in the movie. If her boss was a woman, Bullock would be the first choice for promotion due to her incredible skills and excellent performance. However, since the boss is a male, he is prone to think twice and is more inclined to promote one of his male subordinates. This happens in the real world too and it is responsible for limiting women’s careers. The United States is considered a diverse country because many people from the around world have immigrated to this nation and now call it their home. As a result of this, there exist several races and ethnicities in this country. Although Asians, African Americans and other races fare a great life in the US, our “text” describes the nation as a white world, because it predominantly belongs to the white people. Most characters in the movie, especially the ones in higher positions, are white. When Sandra bullock calls her boss to try to get a restraining order to put Melissa McCarthy, who is one of main characters, away from her, her boss is engaged in an executive meeting, where four high positioned FBI men are present - three are whites and one is an African American. Although there are other black people that have been portrayed throughout the story, they are easily killed or just stand as extras without any dialogues. For instance, one scene shows that one black man is tied onto a chair because he diverted drug from the drug king in order to make extra money. Two men, one white and the other an African American, are standing while a white man interrogates the guilty man. A black person shoots the guilty man, and in a second McCarthy comes in and shoots the black man, thus only the white man survives. Therefore, it is seen that African American or other races are easily expressed as worthless in many movies. Studies show that Asians have a higher median household income than white people do, but one cannot say that Asians dominate the country, as their population is relatively low and they are not represented in government to any great degree. Thus, it is noticed that higher positions comprise of white men whereas lower positions are accorded to the darker races. Majority of people believe in particular ideas such as age, gender, education, religion, income, family origin that put an individual in a higher or a lower position in a society. In the movie under study, gender puts individuals in a different level. It is clear that males are given higher position than females, for example, Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy’s bosses are males. In the office scenes both the FBI Department and Boston Police Department, men are mostly superior and women are inferior. A male FBI agent bends over to a female employee, who is sitting on the desk, and shows her what to do or what he needs. Females are walking with papers holding tight onto their chests. A man is walking with his hands in pocket and a woman is holding a file and showing him something. These are all examples of gender stereotypes that have been well portrayed in the movie. Taking another example, Bullock constantly calls her boss “sir” and always answers properly to him. However, there is only one exception where a male is under Bullock, but even he does not behave the way bollock does to her boss. This subordinate orders her “not to talk” to him “in that tone,” and likes to flirt with her as he says “If you gonna boss me around, at least buy me dinner first.” It is difficult to see men under women in “text,” and even if there are, they act like they are of the same position, or see a female boss as simply a woman whom they can flirt with. Ethnicity refers to a collection or nation of people who are consciously associated by common origins and shared experiences. McCarthy is an Irish descendent and the only known ethnicity in the movie. Irish characteristics are stereotyped through several movies. A scene in this movie shows McCarthy’s family gathering at the table to welcome one of her brothers who is released from jail. Outside is bright light, but her brothers are holding a beer bottle in their hands. Her father and three brothers are sitting and talking loud, while her mother is bringing chicken nuggets to the table. McCarthy talks about her brother who just came out of the jail while her three brothers disagree and start shouting their own opinions. It seems no one is listening because everybody is talking at the same time. These examples are the stereotype of Irish hard drinkers, who are loud and hot tempered. Also, the movie viewers can assume gender roles in Irish culture, same as that of many cultures, that is, cooking and serving job of the wife. The religion mainly reflected in this movie is catholic especially one of the main characters, McCarthy, is an Irish descendant and the majority of people on the island are Roman Catholics. In her parents’ house, there is a picture of Jesus playing baseball. A ball is flying out to the sky looking like a star. When her family is in danger, she tries to move her whole family to a motel, and tells them to get in the car as fast as possible. However, her father is busy with taking out the picture of Jesus from the wall, and saying “I don’t want them to take my treasures.” He does not take any other valuables but only this picture of Jesus. This reflects that the religion is the most important element deep inside their hearts. The movie viewers can also notice that they are practicing monogamy, which is prominent in catholic belief. Heterosexuality is the only sexual orientation portrayed in this movie. McCarthy is sexually active and is shown to have relationships with a couple of different men. Her parents are heterosexual, and her two brothers have girlfriends. The club owner working for drug lord likes hot girls around him. People do not seem comfortable with homosexuality. For example, McCarthy sees two policemen stand closely talking and laughing, and she mocks them saying, “Get a room.” People in this movie seem to see closeness of the same sexes and react a typical rejection to them. Furthermore, age also presents a major issue in this movie, for instance, a nightclub owner uses age as a curse. When Bullock and McCarthy tail a local nightclub owner and try to place a bug on his cell phone in an effort to get information on a drug lord, there is the problem of getting too close to the man. As a solution, McCarthy makes Bullock look sexy like other girls in the club by cutting her long pants making it shorter as well as making her blouse look sexier. Finally she gets close to the night club owner, however, he says, “You’re the first chick over forty to give me a boner.” Later when he realises that he has been bugged, he gets angry and shouts, “You guys look even older in the lighting.” Thus, he humiliates them by using their ages, likewise age is also used against women in workplaces in order to insult them. One usually associates age to seniors, where several societal norms marginalize seniors, treat them with disrespect, make them feel unwelcome and otherwise generalize them as if they were all the same. But on a deeper note, it is revealed that age does not merely connote to senior citizens. If a female is single and ages over 30’s, she might have be considered as hysterical or having PMS constantly when she shows her emotions. Also people might have said that she needs a man to cure the hysteria or PMS. However, one does not have similar notions for females in their early 20’s. If she gets mad or upset with colleague, one thinks they have a conflict or disagreement, but when it comes to females over 30’s and especially single, people tag them with psychological, mental, or hormonal problems. Before taking this class, I did not see any major issues in this movie. However, after taking the class I got a deeper understanding of the various themes portrayed in the movie, and thus I realised the various gender issues present. I also realised that one is unable to recognize these issues because they have been consciously and unconsciously exposed and shaped to think that this is what normal is. However, with knowledge and clear concepts of gender, one can easily identify gender issues prevailing in the workplace, class structure, ethnicity, religion, sexuality and age, as has been aptly illustrated in the movie as well. Read More