The art of ballet by Photochiel made available under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial- No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic LicenseThere's quite a famous movie named "Billy Elliot" that has some connections with one of our main themes, gender. It's interesting that it not only includes the differences between genders but also highlights the constructed, repressive "system" of gender roles. That is, society forces you to become a person they have "preformed". For instance in a scene, dad tells Billy what he should be doing: "All right for your Nana, for girls. No, not for lads, Billy. Lads do football... or boxing... or wrestling. Not friggin' ballet."
However, Billy refutes the pressure on him, and gradually becomes a successful ballet dancer rather than continuing the family tradition of being a tough and strong miner, arguing with his father in the process.
In the end, though, we see a happy ending, and the idea of "freely being yourself" is underlined.
It's not important to be briefly summarizing the movie but to talk about the ideas behind it. Do we have to define masculinity or being a man with your habits? Why are we supposed to be like the majority? Are our possible habits really decided before we even get to know about them? These questions can be multiplied in succession, each one with a potential to be a discussion topic. All in all, this movie, even if you like it or not, provides a great example to personal liberation.
If I remember correctly, there's a scene near the end where Billy's father watches him dance, and that brought tears to my eyes. Imagine what this hard and gruff miner had to sacrifice in order to do that. But his love and pride were stronger than his 'tough guise' in the end.
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