Tootsie and Gender

Tootsie (1982) takes place in the 1980's with an actor named Michael Dorsey (David Hoffman). He can never keep a stable job as a male actor because he is just not the right kind of actor and is too difficult to work with.He helps future actors and actresses by training them, he is particularly angry at the women in his class. When he is invited by his long time friend Sandy Lester (Teri Garr) for acting advise for a part in a hospital soap opera he goes to her apartment and tries to influence her to get mad because the part requires her to be strong and independent which she isn't. When she fails the audition Michael tries to get the part by dressing up like a female Dorothy Michaels, and actually ends up getting the part and falling in love with one of the actresses Julie Nichols (Jessica Lange). All havoc breaks loose with his two egos one as Michael and the other as Dorothy. This complicates both lives by mixing up many of the gender stereotypes.

Tootsie really challenges common gender roles quite a bit in the movie. Typically most women in films are weaker and less free then the male counter parts, but this movie is the opposite because our main male/female character stands up for women who are being mistreated. Also in the film Dorothy is actually given a part of power in the soap opera as hospital administrator. When she is faced with men trying to be with her, instead of doing the typical falling for the man role she tries to pry herself away many times in the movie. Most gender roles including being able to take care of children and be motherly, but as Dorothy shows us she is far from motherly when having to take care of a child. It was mainly the female gender roles that were challenged, we still had the sexist males, and the love lost father.

This movie is very similar in its main message to another film called Thelma and Louise (1991). The two films both included women/a woman try to bypass stereotypes and gender roles. Of course Thelma and Louise had a more violent approach in the beging as Tootsie was more passive and didn't include that much violence. Both of the movies stood up for women's rights for equality. Thelma and Louise included the use of force to gain equality while Tootsie gave a somewhat less effective verbal approach.

This movie was the most enjoyable film about the very serious note of gender stereotypes in our world. This showed us that you don't need to be a certain gender to preform certain jobs/ tasks. It makes us realize on a positive note that women should be treated just as equal as men. This is how I interpret Tootsie and its great use on how you don't have to be a certain gender to do different things.