The Unconventional Heroine

Hussah Alzamil

The Unconventional Heroine
            Every human being on Earth is born free, but many are born shackled into the expectations of society. I never understood that. I was born in a conservative society that believed in specific gender roles; women are supposed to cook and clean, while men worked.
            I grew up on movies that challenged these specific gender roles, challenged the way people saw the world, movies that challenged me. I never had a favorite hero, I had a favorite heroine who taught me to say no and to always follow my own path. In She’s The Man (2006) a romantic comedy starring Amanda Bynes as Viola Hastings, Viola dresses up as a guy to pursue what she loves, soccer. She was not afraid of following her dreams, and she chose her own future. She disrupted social norms, and did what she wanted. She disrupted gender norms with the use of comedy and did not yield to social perceptions of femininity.
During the first few scenes of the movie, Viola (before impersonating a guy) is seen as a social pariah for not being feminine enough; she hates debutant balls, chews her gum loudly, and doesn’t care about anyone’s opinion of her. It is gender inversion at its best; a powerful woman and a weak man dynamic. We can see it reflected strongly in the scene where Viola shoots the winning goal for her team while the goalie (her ex-boyfriend) cries “like a little girl” as said by one of the teammates. And it’s that sense of gender inversion that made the movie a safe haven of sorts to me.

 In a patriarchal society, I am expected to follow all the “rules” of femininity, from keeping my cooking and cleaning to nurturing and teaching. I refused to yield to social norms even as a child. I believed a woman has the right to love and do what she wants. And it’s movies like She’s the Man (2006) that helped me stick to my beliefs. I no longer believe in the term “gender role”, there is no role a specific gender can do while the other can’t. Women should be able to pursue their all their dreams without conforming to societies perceptions and rules.

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