Tootsie~Gender Roles!

                                                           Tootsie and Gender Roles  


          Ever hear someone say to a girl "Haha cool story babe! Now go make me a sandwich?" Have you ever heard someone say "Oh the sink is broken, I'll get my husband to do it cause this is a man"s job?" Well these little statements are part of a much larger idea called gender roles. What is a gender role you may ask? Well, it's a the way a man or woman should act, look or behave based upon the outlook of a society. The film Tootsie is a perfect portrayal of both male and female gender roles in society.

          The main character in the movie, Michael is a very stubborn man. Due to this, he has a great great deal of difficulty getting roles in plays' movies or TV shows and for this he blames his manager when in reality, it is him that gets in his own way. Mike has a female friend named Sandy who is interested in acting positions as well and knowing Mike's theatrical background, she asks him for assistance to practice. Mike treats Sandy as if she is a toy as oppose to a human being by toying with her emotions and yelling when she made a mistake instead of talking it out with her to fix it. Even at his birthday party, he treated the women there like objects instead of people and he saw nothing wrong with that. When Mike discovers that a role in a play he was signed up for was given to someone else, he becomes determined to get a new role in something all on his own. Mike finds a role in a TV show as a female nurse.... One problem..... Mike is a dude. How does he fix this? he did what any reasonable man would do! He put on a wig, some make up, a dress and his favorite pair of high heals and became Dorothy Michales to audition for that role!

         Once Mike, or Dorothy becomes a part of the cast, he meets a cute blonde named Julie who he instantly falls for. At that time, he could not even introduce himself to her for that would blow his cover and his TV role would be a short lived history. As the film progresses, Mike learns more than how difficult it is to keep his hair looking good and making sure his eyeliner isn't running. From dealing with  the director of the show, Dr. Bruster, Julies's father and Julie's ex boyfriend, Mike learns that women are not just toys, they have feelings and potential to do great things, not just cooking and cleaning, and in some cases, a woman can be stronger than a man. PLaying the part of a woman even for just a little while showed him the error of his ways in so many fields and gave him reason to change them.

        I think that this film challenges the idea of gender roles. I say this because because as a woman, Mike went against a lot of the typical female gender role characteristics such as always catering to the man, doing what people say with no if, ands or buts and many more. Even though Mike is not physically a woman, it show women that they can be their own person ans stand up for themeselves and they don't need to check crap from men or be phycically or mentally abused by them.