Gender roles

Deborah Tannen’s article “How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently” points out the difference between male and female students in a college classroom. In Tannen’s opinion, male and female students use language differently. Males become best friends by hanging out and doing things with each other. Females form the bond by sharing their secrets. According to Tannen, males also tend to like challenge and argument more so than females. Males are stereotyped as tough, irrational, and violent. Females are usually relying on the males to take charge. In the movie Neighbors, there are some representations of gender stereotypes. Like most college movies, women are underrepresented in those movies. There is a lack of strong female lead characters in this movie. Despite that, the movie gives Kelly (Rose Byrne) something more to do than being the supporting wife to the husband. In addition, despite the usual portrayal of gender roles, Kelly usually is the one to take the initiative to make plans to destroy the fraternity. There is a particular scene in the movie where Mac, Kelly and their friends try to infiltrate the party. They want to break the fraternity by making Teddy and Pete fight over Brooke. The group want Teddy to see Brooke and Pete hooking up. This scene presents Kelly as a strong female lead. Kelly is the leader of the group. She shows her domination by telling each members of the group what to do. In contrast, Mac doesn’t have a plan. He has to follow his wife’s lead. Kelly is more rational than her husband. The group is able to get Pete and Brooke to hook up. They manage to stir up conflict between the two fraternity brothers. As a result of the plan, Teddy found out and got mad at Pete. Pete tries to apologize at first but then they eventually fight each other. The fight starts almost immediately when Teddy sees Pete. Teddy wants to show Pete his domination. They use violence to solve the conflict. In Neighbors, as a male and as the president of the fraternity, Teddy likes challenges. He does everything he can to assert powers. Teddy fits into the typical gender stereotypes. Moreover, Tannen claims that males like challenges more so than females. This is true for Teddy’s character. Teddy wants to fight Pete for sleeping with his girlfriend. Mac’s character also fits into Tannen’s claim. Mac wants to appear as a tough guy. Mac and Teddy fight each other later on in the movie at the biggest frat party of the year. In Neighbors, we see the guys fight but not any girls fight. This shows that males like to take control. It relates to college education and the interaction between male and female students in college. Male students tend to dominate the class discussion. In my opinion, the movie Neighbors did a pretty good job in giving more power to the female lead. I liked that Kelly’s character isn’t just there to support the males.