Author Archives: atavoularis

I know the final scene of Billy Elliot is the scene where he is playing the lead role in Swan Lake.  I had heard about Swan Lake before but decided to do some research about the plot of the ballet and where it came from to see why this particular ballet was chosen for Billy’s final scene.  I know it’s one of the few famous ballet’s where a man plays the lead character, and I find it intereting how a swan, which is usually a traditionally feminine symbol centers around the life of a man instead of a woman.  According to Wikipedia “Having a man in the role of lead Swan puts love between men at center stage, and the naturalistic choreography given to the swan corps discredits the archetype of the swan as a pretty, feminine bird of gentle grace.”  This is obviously the perfect choice for Billy being that transcending archetypes of masculinity and femininity is a central theme in Billy Elliot.  Billy chooses a traditionally and stereotypically more feminine hobby in dancing ballet, going against certain hetero-normative ideals, just as Swan Lake blurs the lines between masculinity and femininity with its central character being a male ballerina.

As I was watching The Full Monty, I kept thinking about what Professor McGlynn was saying about the whole “who does the looking?” When the strippers were on stage, I never would have made the realization that women are still being objectified even though they are attempting to objectify a man when the camera was panning the floor while they were screaming.  When I was thinking about it later, I still couldn’t really think of any films I’ve watched where women were doing the objectifying.  I wonder if that’s even a possibility being that they’re still objectified in The Full Monty, a film that’s supposed to flip masculine and feminine ideologies on its head.  It’s interesting to think about this because if a male stripper is still able to objectify a woman whilst he is doing the stripping, then when would a woman be able to do the objectifying?    The scene where the three women use the men’s restroom and start talking and acting vulgarly doesn’t seem to criticize male behavior but only really makes a mockery of the women themselves as the woman in the ridiculous lime green outfit and tights urinates like a man.  So where exactly does female empowerment lie if it’s not even in The Full Monty, a film that shows men at their weakest and most vulnerable?