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| I see what you [I] did there! |
Gracie Hart, played by Sandra Bullock, is one of the most unfeminine women in the world; even the guys respond to her as if she herself is one of them, and not of the opposite sex. She epitomizes everything that isn’t related to the Miss America beauty pageant; Gracie relies on brute force and her high intelligence when it comes to just about anything. Despite her lack of womanliness, and good manners in general, she is chosen by her colleagues to go under cover as a contestant in order to catch a terrorist. Gracie’s transformation, aided by a staff of ‘professionals’, is astonishing, but it is only surface deep. Swapping her messy ponytail and baggy clothes for a more groomed look and short skirts. She herself is still the quick tempered agent, commenting as soon as the painful transformation process was over that, “I am in a dress, I have gel in my hair, I haven't slept all night, I'm starved, and I'm armed! Don't *mess* with me!” to all of her male coworkers. You would think her credibility with them would remain the same, regardless of the significant change in appearance, but alas, you are mistaken.
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| Isn't she beautiful? :) |
At the beginning of the movie, Gracie got herself in some trouble during a mission. Losing some credibility amongst her fellow coworkers, they still treated her as they always did before; like one of the guys. When she transformed into the beauty, they suddenly stopped with the jokes, and started treating her like a lady. Now, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate it when a guy holds the door open for me, but if he suddenly stops treating me how he used to before an appearance change on my behalf, I’d be annoyed. Does suddenly having more femininity in appearance justify such a change in behavior on the behalf of her male friends? I don’t think so. They should have been treating her as such long before the transformation, or at least continue treating her as one of the guys.
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| Where is she hiding the gun? :o |
Though Gracie is treated more like a lady, she also begins to lose more credibility still. She is intelligent, perceptive, and actually knows what is going on behind the scenes of the pageant. Do her superiors believe in her enough to actually make sure that her hypothesis of someone plotting to do off with the crowned winner of Miss America? No, they brush her away as if she herself had become one of the ditzy contestants. I bet that if she had been in her baggy clothes and tangled hair, they probably would have stuck around for a little longer, and made sure that the mission truly was finished.
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| I believe she is thinking, "Really now?" with a dose of sarcasm |
The interactions that happen within the movie are humorous, and I still find it enjoyable to watch. However, I do not appreciate how degrading it should be to all powerful women that the heroine in this movie went from high to low, just because she learned how to put in some effort into her appearance. It is a slap to the face that this movie showed such immaturity within the male characters perspectives’, and if such a thing were to happen in real life, I would have less respect for those men.
I apologize for going over the length, but I believe that every word I wrote was necessary to get my point across. Analyzing this movie opened my eyes to a completely new perspective of it, and I hope it did for you as well.
Your evaluation was very interesting. This is my mom and sisters favorite movies but I have never seen it. The part of your evaluation that I found the most interesting was the analysis about the degrading view towards women. Not seeing the movie I do not really know what you are talking about but your seem to have a pretty strong opinion on it which is good because you should. You say that it is a funny movie so that does give me a reason to watch it because I love comedy movies, but it seems to be kind of a chick flick. I am surprise other people have mot made the same observation about the view towards women like you did because I know a lot of people who have seen this movie. I am very impressed with your evaluation and I may just watch the movie next time with my mom and sisters to see exactly what you are talking about. Because I do not like when people degrade women because my mom is one of the strongest people I know and for people to degrade women is degrading her which is disrespectful.
ReplyDeleteIt may be a chick flick, but I know many guys who watch it proudly by themselves. I do, however, recommend first watching it just for the amusement, and then later watch it through my lens. I don't want you to ruin the experience of the movie in itself by thinking that all the men in the movie are jerks :)
DeleteI really enjoyed reading your evaluation on such an awesome movie. "Miss Congeniality is an all-around favorite and a movie that every girl can agree on. It is a movie that can put you in a great mood and it has a very good lesson; that everything is possible. A also really like how you added more than one picture to your evaluation. The pictures made your evaluation stand out to me and kept me interested in what was coming up next in your writing.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you say that the maturity level of the men on the movie, "Miss Congeniality," is disappointing. But I don't think that the movie would be the same without it. Without the guys' immature behavior towards Gracie’s transformation, it would not have seemed like such a drastic change. Making the drastic change of Gracie shows the audience a lot about what Gracie’s character is really like. Gracie’s drastic transformation also showed her struggles and how vulnerable she was at the beginning stages of her transformation from a tomboy to more of a lady. We see her find a way to make it and complete her mission as well as possibly finding a lover. When usually she was just seen as “one of the guys.”
Well I unlike Jackson watched the movie, I want to get this assignment done at a decent hour and the first ten or so people had evualuted movies I have never seen, so I had to watch one of them and Miss Congeniality happened to be one that my family owns. Since I am suppose to disagree with your evaluation I'll try my best. I believe that Gracie never had much credibility to start off with. She messed up a mission because of her actions in the beginning of the movie. But her 'transformation' did seem to invoke some sort of change within her peers. She was still wasn't the perfect agent but become more noticeable and more attractive, for lack of a better word. The change in the behavior of the guys was geared to be more reflective of a stereotype. In short I don't think her looks related to her credibility and that there wasn't enough evidence to suspect Kathy Moringside. They really didn't have anything on her, we as an audience however did which impacted our views of how the scene were the agents were off the case came about. Good evaluation, those are just my observations after watching the movie and trying to find something I could argue against.\
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your evaluation because this is one of my favorite movies. I think it is a very humorous movie and I love Sandra Bullock and her character Gracie. Even though you made a great point when you talked about how her coworkers began treating her differently when she had her transformation I don’t think this is something necessarily bad. You mentioned that you thought their change in behavior was annoying and that her appearance shouldn’t change the way people treat her, but I disagree with that. I think that the change in the men’s behavior towards Gracie is a big part of her character transformation and the plot of the story because it shows how she changes from a tomboy to a real woman who then relates to the other contestants in the pageant which allows her to solve her case and be the hero of the movie. I think this is a very normal thing that would probably also happen in real life. The way people perceive you is how you will be treated and this is something that we see happening in this movie. Other than that I agree with your evaluation and I think you have a great taste in movies :) !
ReplyDeleteI love this movie! However, I do not agree that it is degrading to women at all. Many people say and think that pageants are degrading to women, but I think they are empowering. Women should embrace their beauty and if that is in the form of a pageant, then hey might as well. For me, I like getting the door held open for me by a boy, whether thats because I look good that day or the guy is a just a gentleman I am not sure, but either way it is a great feeling. I think that women should embrace beauty and intelligence, just as Gracie does at the end of the movie. She is still a smart, strong woman even though she won Miss. Congeniality in a beauty pageant. Overall, this movie is great and super funny. Although it may make fun of pageants for the stereotypical girls in the pageants I think that it also say that women can be smart, strong, and beautiful.
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