In Twelfth Night, the Duke Orsino is in love with Olivia. Viola falls in love with Orsino, while disguised as a boy, Cessario. Olivia falls in love with Cessario. This love triangle is only resolved when Olivia happens to fall in love with Viola's twin brother, Sebastian and at the last second, Orsino decides that he actually loves Viola. The movie She's the Man some-what mirrors this play and twists it into a more modern version. The title page of this movie goes something like... “Everybody has a secret… Duke wants Olivia, who likes Sebastian, who is really Viola, whose brother is dating Monique, so she hates Olivia, who’s with Duke to make Sebastian jealous, who is really Viola, who’s crushing on Duke, who thinks she’s a guy…”Sounds about right except some major homo-social/sexual tensions they leave out of the movie that are included in the play. While I think the movie does a great job of "destroying social norms" like this buzzfeed article suggests, there are still homophobic qualities that were pretty disappointing, but that's just how Hollywood and our society still work right now.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/lilyhiottmillis/21-times-shes-the-man-totally-destroyed-gender-norms#.yraMYmYo5

What fascinates me the most about these differences between the actual play and the movie is that the differences mostly surround the homo-social/sexual relationships found in the play. Like the fact that Duke Orsino is definitely attracted to Viola when she is dressed as the boy, Cessario. After they are married, while she is still dressed as a male, and even calls her "boy." In the movie, there is no sexual tension between Duke and Viola ( while she is dressed as Sebastian) and there is even some homophobic qualities that come out of Duke when she sometimes forgets to act more manly and when they are jumping on the bed scared of the spider.
And in opposition to the play, when Viola and Duke end up together, she is in a dress at a ball.



Also, there are a ton of derogatory comments from the coaches made toward the soccer players in the movie referring to them as "girls," or "playing like girls," etc. While I understand athletics is added into the movie version, why is a film that is "destroying gender norms" adding these comments in and then having one of the same characters saying his team doesn't discriminate. This seems contradictory to me but maybe it's because I'm so conscious of these issues, especially after taking this Shakespeare course!

So, my question is, why is our society less progressive in this take on the play than Shakespearean society, especially when we claim to be so progressive towards these homophobic issues?