Gendered in Movies

Elle's Education

Throughout the movie Legally Blonde there is an indirect emphasis on how gender influences the way we think and act in the classroom. A couple of scenes in the movie support Deborah Tannen’s argument about gender roles in the classroom. Tannen explains throughout the article, How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently, that males have no problem speaking up and females shy away from it. Elle’s confidence plays a key role defining the type of student she is. In the scene with Professor Stromwell Elle is the typical dumb blonde, female student. Elle was unexpectedly called on but forgot to do the assignment so the professor kicks her out of the classroom. Tannen mentions in the article how most women fear public humiliation, which Elle felt in this scene. However, if a guy were put in this exact situation he would probably walk out without looking back. The following class, Professor Stromwell calls on Elle again. Although she looks uneasy and nervous, Elle was able to correctly answer the question. Elle had thoroughly read the required reading but being put on the spot made her doubt her knowledge. This brings us back to the topic of confidence. Elle came into Harvard with low self-esteem because she did not feel as though she was worthy of an Ivy League school. However, throughout her time at the university she gained confidence, which we see in the scene with Professor Callahan. This scene consists of Warner sharing his opinions on a sperm donor case. He has no problem speaking up and even gives off a cocky smirk after he talks. However, Elle had the courage to dispute what Warner had to say and ultimately won over the opinion of Professor Callahan and the rest of the class. Warner slides down in his seat embarrassed to lose to his ex, let alone a girl. Although this example does not exactly support Tannen’s argument, it displays how things could be different if females had the confidence to make their case. Instead, females tend to shy away from threatening situation and things that would “challenge” them. This movie allows the audience to take on two very different perspective of gender in the classroom. Elle is portrayed as a timid female who has trouble speaking up and later on portrayed as a confident female more then willing to speak her mind. This is one of the many reasons this movie is entertaining and moving. However, the scene with Warner and Professor Callahan does not stay true to Tannen’s theory.

This movie is all about a woman trying to find who she is and where she is headed. Throughout each scene we see Elle grow as a student and as an overall person; Elle gradually changes from an incompetent, self involved, shallow, sorority girl to an intelligent, capable, motivated woman. Though her changes may be apparent in other aspect of the movie, it is truly visible in the classroom scenes. As mentioned previously, confidence is a huge factor in the classroom environment and Elle was able to achieve her dreams based on her confidence and drive to do better. If all girls became more confident, they would find themselves speaking a whole lot more in the classroom and overall improve as students. 

Legally Gendered
Throughout the film Legally Blonde, featured many different representations of gender. The film is based in Harvard Law Graduate School and shows plenty of aspects of college education. Legally Blonde was surrounded by gender stereotypes that relate to the essay written by Deborah Tannen. The film had many scenes where common college concepts and gender behaviors became very apparent.

In this particular scene in Legally Blonde, Elle is attending Professor Callahan’s lecture. He asks Elle “would [she] rather have a client that committed a crime malum in se or malum prohibitum?” Elle responds “neither… I would rather have a client who’s innocent.” The students erupt in laughter over Elle’s response. Professor Callahan states “dare to dream Miss Woods” then proceeds to ask Elle’s rival Vivian the same question. Vivian gives Elle a side eye then responds, “Malum prohibitum, because then the client would have committed a regulatory infraction as opposed to a dangerous crime.” Professor Callahan praises Vivian as she flaunts her engagement ring from Elle’s ex-boyfriend in her face. Before Professor Callahan can continue with the lecture Elle raises her hand. He calls on her and Elle says, “I changed my mind. I'll take the dangerous one, because I'm not afraid of a challenge.”

Tannen states in her essay How Males and Females Use Language Differently, “speaking in a classroom is more congenial to boys’ language than to girls’, since it entails putting oneself forward in front of a large group of people, many of whom are strangers and at least one of whom is sure to judge speakers’ knowledge and intelligence by their verbal display.” This was evident with Elle in the previous stated scene. Elle was chosen to answer a question by her professor and was laughed at by her peers with her response. This begs the question, if a male student was put into Elle’s place would his response be laughed at? Tannen would agree because it is more congenial for males to put themselves on display to be judged.

Tannen stated that more males than females like “ritual opposition: public display followed by argument and challenge.” She also says “It’s not that females don’t fight, but that they don’t fight for fun. They don’t ritualize opposition.” This claim is true based on Elle’s rebuttal to Vivian’s answer. Elle didn’t want to challenge Vivian, but after she flashed her engagement ring Elle took that as an invitation to challenge her. Elle doesn’t ritualize opposition like Tannen mentioned, but since Vivian made it personal with the engagement ring Elle had an impulse to publically challenge her.
           Legally Blonde displays learned concepts about college education. In the scene Professor Callahan randomly picked Elle out of all the students in the class, which happens constantly in education. Also in previous scene, Elle waits to be recognized before she gives her rebuttal. This is learned behavior that you should raise your hand and wait to be called on. Tannen stated, “One’s sense of timing, of one’s rights and obligations in a classroom, are automatic, learned over years of interaction.” Being in a school system for 16+ years can reiterate concepts like raising your hand or being randomly picked. This scene briefly touched on common concepts, learned or instinctual, that exists within college education.

           

As Tannen says in her article, How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently, behaviors are different for men and women. She makes a claim stating that it’s easier for men to speak in front of larger groups and easier for women to speak in front of smaller more personal groups of people. This is seen often in college classrooms today. The difference being huge lecture classes with 100 plus students and smaller classes like our URWT class with 20 or so students. With that being said, have you ever noticed who speaks up the most in your large classes or any class in general?In my movie Neighbors, Seth Rogan’s character is a new father and a younger married man who lives next to a newly arrived fraternity. When the fraternity moves into the house next door to Rogan, his wife and young baby, the younger couple tries to be cool with the fraternity guys. Their plan is to be cool with the guys but also let them know to keep the noise down sometimes. When approaching the frat house Rogan has his hat turned and his wife has Ray Ban style sunglasses on. He uses language that he thought was popular slang such as “Yo” and “what up” thinking he’s acting hip in front of guys younger than him. He was also the first one to speak to the guys, supporting Tannen's claim. When I saw this scene for the second time all I could think of was my parents and how they try to act cool around my friends.  Growing up I had the parents who tried to be cool around my friends but in my opinion failed miserably most of the time. Just like Tannen said though, men usually can talk better in larger groups so my mom would send my dad when I had multiple friends over. Then my mom would come downstairs after dad or when I had one or two friends over. I guess she just felt comfortable with a few of my friends while my dad didn’t really care who they were or how many friends were over at the house. Plus the fact that my guy friends liked my dad and thought he was cool probably helped. I thought them being so lame wasn't a normal thing but after seeing this movie I see that maybe it was. The way this associates to college education is that I don’t think that Tannen’s claim is correct. In the few months that I have been here at UNC Charlotte I have noticed that women in fact speak up more in classes than men, especially freshman girls I don’t know why but it’s what I have observed. My claim disagrees with Tannen’s claim yes but I think that maybe this will change as we get older.

As stated my group’s previous blogs, the image/ perception of a practice, institution, program or person is important. The image can easily effect the public’s perception of said image. Having an image that is less than favorable can prove to be harmful to the development of society. Something genuine like charity or a non-profit organization should not be looked down upon because of one unfavorable incident. This blog is dedicated showing how images can be exaggerated in a negative or positive way to the audience being the public perspective in this case. Society rarely looks to the real original source of what they are being told about which in some cases creates something worse than stereotypes… ignorance. Ignorance or the lack of knowledge will never have a positive effect on anyone especially those who can really benefit from what the stereotype denounces. This blog will attempt to give very persuasive examples of one of the most stereotyped aspects of our society. Education is seen as a right to passage part of today’s society. This makes education highly sought and respected. Today’s society is very rebellious which invites the threat to education when its purpose is challenged.  Tannen describes todays society by pointing out specific reasons such as sex and upbringing. This ties into the movie I chose to write about. 

Accepted 
The movie Accepted also featured stereotypes of the typical Ivy League school with the fictional school Harmon College. The dean of Harmon College stated, “Rejection. That's what makes a college great. The exclusivity of any university is judged primarily by the amount of students it rejects.” This is widely believed by many prospective and rejected students. Many prestigious schools seem like they send out more rejection letters than acceptance, which makes the school look even more luxurious. The dean was overly obnoxious with how he wanted Harmon College to be elite, to the point where he wanted to bulldoze South Harmon Institute of Technology just to make a park-like gateway to “keep knowledge in and ignorance out” Accepted mentioned stereotypes of college education in general also. Accepted featured students trying to break from the norm of most institutions to create their own.

A professor of South Harmon Institute of Technology stated “we throw a lot of fancy words in front of these kids in order to attract them to going to school in the belief that they're going to have a better life.” This could describe many universities across the globe. College is assumed to provide students a leg up in life than just receiving a high school diploma. Although a college degree can help you achieve many comfortable occupations, some degrees leave you wondering where to go from there. The phony professor also said, “You know a lot of people say that college is a time when young men and women expand the way that they look at their world. When they open their mind to new ideas and experiences and when they begin that long journey from the innocence of youth to the responsibilities of adulthood. The movie addressed sexism by overcoming it in their alternative college. All students played a part in the certification of the institution. This is a different but a much better approach in comparison. to other plots and settings of movies.