After reading Twelfth
Night and other Shakespearian works that include transvestite theater, the
inclusion of soccer to the plot of She’s
the Man, seems like the perfect plot enhancer.
After discussions in class about Shakespeare’s characters,
such as Viola, Rosalind, and/or Portia ability to effectively act as a male. It
makes sense that the writers of She’s the
Man would want an activity that perhaps their female, in disguise as a
male, would realistically be able to take part in. Of course, there is an
argument to be made that a female could do this for any sport, but without
getting into a gender debate, soccer makes the most sense.
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| Men or Women's soccer?? |
Soccer is one of the few popular sports with male and female
equivalency. Think about it. There if
football, a primarily male sport, with no other “female” equivalency. With
baseball there is softball, a completely separate sport. In men and women’s
basketball, although they are very similar there are several different rules
for each gender, plus despite the similarities, the basketball size is
different for both. In volleyball, the net for men and women’s are at different
height. Unlike all the sports mentioned above, there is an equivalent to men’s
soccer for women and the rules do not change based on gender.
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| Viola probably could have worn her hair up... |
I feel that there is a modern day anxiety questioning
Shakespeare’s ability to realistically portray a female dressed as a male and
for it to appear plausible. We have examined different interpretations to how
to handle cross-dressing, comical, realistic, effective. After reading reviews
on She’s the Man, many people are
critical towards the plot, saying it’s not really believable—which isn’t necessarily
the point. Even though overall the movie is handled as a comedy and probably
not meant to be believable, there is a sense of realism to it because of
Viola/Sebastian’s ability to take part in a sport that is meant for both males
and females. I wonder how the movie would have been different if the sport
would have been football, per say.
Alex-
ReplyDeleteI found it very interesting and intriguing that you put the parallel of women and men's soccer together. The very fact that the soccer game was even apart of the movie, I find very interesting. When comparing the Twelfth Night and She's the Man, the fact that she's on a different type of playing field is also an important thing to remember. In Twelfth Night, she's on the playing field between a man and a woman which on either side are very gendered, where in She's the Man, she's on a much less gendered playing field by having a sport such a soccer which is unbiased towards one gender or another. In my opinion, if they would have had football, basketball, baseball, etc., it may have had an even better effect of conveying the gendered field Viola was on in the Twelfth Night.