Gender Roles In Billy Elliot

This role has diminished through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, but the need to be masculine remains in countless men. Makeup, tights, and ballet shoes are not considered manly. Therefore, a subsequent stereotype has become prevalent. Persistently, people erroneously believe all danseurs to be gay, weak, and feminine. Frequently, male dancers are left to feel inadequate and are discouraged from their art because their manliness is questioned. Yet, the 2000 film, Billy Elliot, juxtaposes the stereotype of male ballet dancers with a titular character who defies all expectations. The man’s historical role as provider and protector causes men in professions such as ballet to be considered effeminate; however, a man with a profession in the arts is no less masculine than the majority of males and can be just as prosperous as any other man.

Commonly, males provided for their family while women took care of the home. Gender roles were necessary for survival in primitive times because of the volatile, Darwinian environment. However, as the world developed, gender roles were still engrained in society and patriarchy was solidified. Thus, husbands have become dominant at home and in the workforce and earning income became a fixed job of men (Farrelly 4). Likewise, Jackie Elliot is shown destroying his dead wife’s piano for firewood is symbolic of traditional gender roles. This incinerated piano was once used by a woman in an expressive, sentimental manner; however, it is destroyed by Jackie for the pragmatic use of firewood (Daldry, Billy Elliot). Unfortunately, men are pushed to believe that they are responsible for the welfare of their entire family and are given a stressful amount of