The Battle of the Sexes
"Rip Van Winkle" really taps into the idea of men and women as adversaries. This idea wasn't new in Washington Irving's time, however, and it still applies to modern society. Pick another comedic work (a book, TV show, or movie) and explain how it portrays the battle of the sexes. According to that work, who wins the battle? Why is this such a popular conflict?
posted by Jared at 10/23/2006 03:22:00 PM
2 Comments:
A comedic movie that shows the battle of the sexes is, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. In this movie you see how the wife and the husband have many different opinions on how to raise a family. The wife wants to feed them and the husband wants to heal them with windex, but the wife listens to the children. She understands that they have wants and dreams that may not be about the family business. The husband however is portrayed as a person that is only able to see what he wants to see happen. If he wants his daughter to work at the family business, then she will work at the family business. In this movie you get the famous line, “ Let me tell you something, Toula. The man is the head, but the woman is the neck. And she can turn the head any way she wants” (Maria Portokalos). I think that the wife or women win the battle because not just in household cases, but also when it comes to empires women have had a huge influence on men. The reason that it is such a popular conflict is because if you can prove that you are better than a person or group of people, then you are able to control them. That is why people compete, to see who is better. Just in a case that is at this magnitude it would end up with one group controlling the other.
The subject of battling sexes is a typical theme is entertainment, and can be seen for example in the TV show Everybody Loves Raymond. Raymond seems to be competeing constantly for the attention and approval of his wife and also to keep his "momma's boy" attitude. It is obvious that the women will win every time because it's an unfair fight and they are more manipulative and controlling. This battle of the sexes is such a popular conflict because not only is it found in literature and on the TV, but it is also seen everyday. We see boys competeing to the attention of girls in school by showing off, but a girl can easily blow him off to "win." It is sometimes easier for girls to get jobs or benefits in jobs because of their looks whereas guys miss out on these perks because of their gender. A typical, everyday conflict between the sexes simply makes good entertainment.
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