Gender Roles In The Help

Dustiny Cyr (Belaski)

Mrs. Merrick

AP Language and Composition; Period 3

9 May 2016

AP Final: Essay

Directions:

TYPE OR PASTE YOUR ESSAY HERE

Chosen Essay Prompt:

Examine a popular movie in terms of gender roles, and write about it. In what ways do the characters reflect conventional roles, and in what ways do they step out of those roles?

The Help: Gender Roles The strive to reach gender equality can have the ability to influence individuals to band together for a single cause. In Tate Taylor’s movie The Help, Taylor displays accounts of gender roles among a group of African American and white individuals living in Jackson, Mississippi. Through his directing Taylor has allowed for the characters within The Help to come

Taylor allows for his audience to become accustomed to the life of wealthy white families. Many women did not have the same wife/motherly responsibilities that mothers and wives in today 's society hold. In Tate Taylor 's The Help, when white families obtained enough wealth they could then have an opportunity to hire another minority (typically an African American minority) to take on all of the responsibilities that they deem as a burden. Given the opportunity, some white women typically still did not display respect for those who they hired. In The Help, the white men would typically be the ‘ backbone’ of their family not only providing financial support but societal status as well. Throughout the movie, the white women generally would stay at home and complete tasks and hobbies that they enjoyed participating. Usually assuming the roles of childbearing, many white women did not have a place within the working community. For years, a woman who pursued her education was seen as a threat. Although very few women went against these stereotypical roles, Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan became one of those exceptions. Graduating from college and pursuing a stable writing career Skeeter became both disliked and feared by many of the women within Jackson, Mississippi. Not wanting to simply become a child bearer for a man, Skeeter continuously pushed for a more promising

During the 1960’s many American’s believed that a man stood as the ideal model for masculinity, dominance, and stability. However, women began to fight for their right to have the same equality as men granting them a slow but steady leap towards gaining equal rights. In Tate Taylor’s The Help, Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan, Aibileen Clark, and Minny Jackson are characters used in order to display women’s fight for feminism through the incorporation interracial strength. In the movie, Skeeter’s ability to work with Aibileen and Minny formed a big statement with the public due to her willingness to integrate her work with African American women. Although some may not have been aware of it, but Tate Taylor may have purposefully used the roles of these women in order to effectively capture women’s strive for feminism during the