Film Review: She’s the Man
By: Taylor Berthaume
All throughout history minority groups have sparked revolutionary changes in things such as civil rights through the use of minority influence. This is a type of social influence which results in a change of views amongst the majority group. It involves an individual/minority of a population persuading other members to accept their argument, even if it contradicts the more popular view of the majority. That is why the movie She’s the Man is a great example of how a minority can make a change while surrounded by people who believe the opposite.
The plot of the movie is focused on a teenage girl named Viola Hastings who plays for Cornwall Colleges women’s soccer team until it gets cut from the program and the men’s team refused to let her play with them. The movie starts with Viola finding out her twin brother, Sebastian, is sneaking off to London with his band and he wants her to cover for him because he is supposed to be at an elite boarding school called Illyria. In order to continue playing the game she loves she agrees and decides to pass herself off as Sebastian, in hopes of joining their boys’ team and beating Cornwall to prove their coach and her ex-boyfriend wrong. 
Once she arrived at the boarding school the struggle to conform to how a “basic” male soccer player should behave began. Although after a while the team started to trust her and accept her as one of them on and off the field. This allowed her to accumulate idiosyncrasy credits which would help her in the end by making people rethink what they previously believed about women playing soccer with men.
In the end when the real Sebastian ended up coming back from London a day early Viola was forced to come out and tell the truth. Once everyone realized she was a girl a lot of the people around her immediately went back thinking she can’t play with the guys and that she might get hurt or isn’t good enough. That was until they seen her kick and make the game winning shot and then people resumed the beliefs that they had about Viola when she was acting as Sebastian, and that she is just as talented and strong at playing soccer as the guys.
Overall, it can be seen that by the end of this movie many opinions and beliefs were changed. Although this movie leaves a lot of unanswered questions to consider like why women and men can't play on the same professional teams and if this were to happen in real life would Viola really be allowed to finish the game due to these rules. Lastly, I hope you all enjoyed reading this and I encourage everyone to watch this movie because it is a very good comedy film.
Overall, it can be seen that by the end of this movie many opinions and beliefs were changed. Although this movie leaves a lot of unanswered questions to consider like why women and men can't play on the same professional teams and if this were to happen in real life would Viola really be allowed to finish the game due to these rules. Lastly, I hope you all enjoyed reading this and I encourage everyone to watch this movie because it is a very good comedy film.
This video shows an example of how after she revealed herself some people went back to their previous beliefs.
Resources
Kassin, S., Fein, S., & Markus, H. R. (2017). Social Psychology(10th ed.). Boston, MA:
Cengage Learning. P. 278-280
Mayle, J. (2014, July 30). Pinterest: She's the Man Images. Retrieved March 06, 2018, from
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/336433034637424778/?lp=true
She's the Man. (2018, March 03). Retrieved March 06, 2018, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She%27s_the_Man
Waude, A. (2017, July 28). Minority Influence: How Eccentric Opinions Can Influence Entire
Groups. Retrieved March 06, 2018, from
https://www.psychologistworld.com/influence/minority-influence
Winning Goal Scene - She's The Man. (2013, December 19). Retrieved March 06, 2018, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAA0fwMKxKo
Like I said in a comment on another post, there was a girl who played football on a different team when I was in school. However at the middle school level she was no longer allowed to play. In her case I think it was fear from other schools that she would kick their butts on the field. Why the sudden shift when it was officially school teams instead of pee-wee though I never understood. When it comes to sports that both men and women already have professional teams for one problem that was proposed when we had a discussion in school is that already many kids get left out and by combining teams it's likely more will even with 2 teams that are co-ed. At the professional level I think and even the level of the heads of school sports it probably mainly comes down to sexism on various levels.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comments basically it comes down to sexism a lot of kids are taught from day one. Once children reach a certain age they are divided by their sex and this continues for the rest of their lives. When looking at professional sports especially. Most people watch these sports and are told that the people who play these sports are the best there are, but they are mostly referring to male athletes. Using your example of females in football it brings up the question of why more female prospects are given the opportunity to play football freely and even tryout for the NFL. The same goes for the MBL also.
DeleteI enjoyed your post and I've always loved this movie. I agree with you that there are many unanswered questions at the end of the movie. My question for you is how did you feel when people went back to believing she couldn't play soccer as well as the boys and do you think that is how it would happen in real life?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your response. Once the main character told everyone who she really was it made me feel upset that people automatically went back to their original beliefs about women playing sports with men. I feel this way because all throughout history women have proven they can be as good or even better then their male competition. That is why I think this actually happens in real life and that no matter what women do others will still hold them to an overall lower standard.
DeleteThis movie was great and I think it puts a spotlight on several gender stereotypes and conformity as well as challenges the beliefs that typically follow, for example keeping male/ female sports teams separate. The only thing that concerns me about this movie is how accurate or realistic it is in portraying a 'real world' situation, but you're right it does raise many unanswered questions surrounding popular/majority beliefs when it comes to sports and gender differences.
ReplyDeleteA debate I recently came across in the news, that I believe relates well with the final question you pose in regards to why male/female sports teams are generally separated, surrounds a Texas state wrestling championship in which a transgender boy won in his weight class against girls, due to state rules that students can only compete in the league that matches the gender marked on their birth certificate, he was banned from competing in the boys league. Was this a fair decision? Given the boy is also taking testosterone as part of his gender transition, was it fair to put him in the girl's league, even though the hormones may put him at a physical advantage? Or should the physicality not be a determining factor? I'm curious to hear what others think, and feel free to check out the original article, if you're interested you can find it at this link: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/27/517491492/17-year-old-transgender-boy-wins-texas-girls-wrestling-championship
I have read the article you shared and found it very interesting. It brings up points a lot of people don't know how to go about on deciding whether hormones are the defining reason women and male athletes should be separate. This question I fell is becoming more and more common because transgender people are becoming more open and have more opportunities to be who they want to be. Although as of now there are no straight forward answers to this continuous debate and who knows if there ever will be.
DeleteIt is an interesting subject when it comes to the topic of men and women's sports teams. On one hand, you have physiological differences between sexes, but on the other, you want equality among all people, even in sports. I agree that people should be allowed to do what they want with their lives, and compete and perform at whatever level they choose. In this blog post's example, it seems like a pretty blatant case of sexism, that they chose to cut the female soccer team, and not allow her to play because of her sex. People should get the chance to try out on whatever team they want, and if they're good enough, then by all means they should have a shot.
ReplyDeleteI remember watching this movie a long time ago. This article was an interesting read, and it's always interesting to take a look at a show or movie in a new light.
ReplyDeleteThis was one of my favorite movies when I was younger. I think it provides a very positive message for young women who might feel like they can't do the same things men can do. The comedic relief helps deliver the message without it being overpowering. I think it is unfortunate that a lot of men's sports teams receive more support and funding than women's sports. I do not believe that women and men should compete together, but I do think that if they are separated, they should be equal. I believe women and men should have equal opportunity to compete on a sports team. If there is no team for women for a specific sport, I do think it is right for a woman to be allowed an opportunity to compete for the men's team.
ReplyDeleteI remember this movie from when I was a kid. I think it is a good example of breaking those barriers created surrounding sexism. Similar to what Eddie was saying, I had a football player on my high school team who was a female and she was known as the kicking queen. She was called this because she won homecoming queen and won the game with her kick. She would kick the ball, but never played on the field other than that. She was primarily a soccer player and used to. It is a great real life example of how this similar situation could happen.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love this movie! I'm so glad to see someone used it for this specific topic of majority influence and gender differences. This movie is a really good example of showing girls that they are able to accomplish anything if they put their minds to it, never give up and pursue through any situation! In middle school I was actually able to play on the boys basketball team because we didn't have enough girls for our own team. I remember always getting looked at weirdly because people didn't think I belonged on the team.
ReplyDelete