Media Analysis Blog
- leah johnson
- Mar 13, 2017
- 4 min read
Ahhh yes, the classic "I had no idea a woman could ____" interaction between male and female.
It seems rather comical watching a clip like this and seeing a man react in such a disbelieving manner at a woman’s ability to perform such laborious job duties on an everyday basis. Today’s progressive society is summoning up equality between male and female on just about every level—especially intellectual and career ones. It’s common to meet females who do jobs that just a few decades ago were categorized as manly work. There are now female mailmen, firefighters, engineers, police, mayors, pilots, astronauts, and the list goes on. It wasn’t because women weren’t mentally capable of holding these offices back then. It was simply not a woman’s role to be anything other than a housewife and at most, a secretary.
Here, you'll see a clip from Hidden Figures, an Oscar-nominated film (based on a true story) that came out in January, 2017. This film not only tackles the issue of race inequality, but also stereotypes of male and female inequality. In the olden days, progression of gender equality was either non-existent or highly frowned upon. Women were not given the same education as men and so how could they possibly know how to do things outside of their aprons and pearls? This scene stands out among many due to its context, rhetoric, and the potential questions it raises in one’s mind. Are men smarter than women? Why is there such surprise that women are capable of doing hard jobs and not just being a housewife? What sorts of mental barriers do men have when it comes to intellectual equality with women? Do men seem turned off by a woman’s intelligence? Granted, this film setting takes place in 1960’s Hampton, Virginia, so it’s not shocking that anyone would react this way to a woman doing math equations that will send a man around the earth—much less a colored woman (gasp).
In this scene, you see a rather traditional, “macho” looking man interacting with a seemingly traditional, delicate, every-day-lady. “Macho” has an implied meaning of typical masculinity, which is indicated by his military uniform, his tall stature, his stiff posture, and his broad-set shoulders (because let’s be honest, a man’s physical build can speak volumes for how manly we think he is). In other words, it looks like the perfect warrior coming to swoon the damsel. Now, I’ve seen this movie a dozen times and it’s becoming one of my favorites (thanks to its positive equality themes and pro-women-empowerment message). If you haven’t seen the film, the characters here are just getting to know each other after catching each other’s eye. As they move through greetings and small talk (and possibly a bit of flirting), he brings up her rumored day-job as a computer for NASA, which she confirms to be true. The interesting bits of this scene is piled under knowing that he has a romantic interest in this woman that he finds to be beautiful and strikingly peculiar at the same time. She also is physically attracted to him, and so their communication is sprinkled with a bit of spice—especially when he says the words, “I had no idea a woman could do that sort of…”. The body language between the two characters shifts at this point, from slight flirtation to something a little more…uncomfortable. He trails off after seeing her facial expression transform, which was probably for the best. This left the audience waiting for her reply and thinking, “Oh he’s done it now…he’s let his sexism spill out”. Upon seeing her indignant expression, he even tried to cover up his previous statement and speedily redefine his intended meaning by telling her that a job like that is very “taxing”, but it was too late. The damage was seemingly done. His foot was “in his mouth”.
What happens next is almost magical in the eyes of a girl watching this film. The female character then proceeds to tell him all the “taxing” things she does on a daily basis and just how educated she became do those “taxing” things. I don’t think he meant to insult her intelligence, but his preconceived notions about the mental capabilities of a woman had just been flushed down the toilet. Everything he thought he knew of the female mind was changed in just a matter of minutes. What is also fascinating is the attraction he feels toward her still persists over her freakishly intelligent abilities, but you'll have to see the film to see the romantic outcomes (you won't find spoilers here). Here’s this attractive female, who is a mother, a traditional family woman, kind and mild, with the mental abilities to surpass the average male. The purpose I gathered from her rant was not to boast about her educational accomplishments, but to illuminate the need for the elimination of the sexual stigma that a woman can’t be that smart or handle that sort of mental load.
“It’s not because we wear skirts—It’s because we wear glasses” is one of the most significant lines in the entire film because it has underlying gender communication meanings. When one thinks of a skirt, the immediate accompanying thoughts are often stereotypes that coincide with it, such as feminine, dainty, female, traditional, housewife, sexy, sensual, secretary, etc. The same stereotypical word game happens when one thinks of glasses. We tend to associate glasses with adjectives such as intelligent, smart, nerd, books, studious, serious, determined, boss, mature, etc. The message that the female character wanted to convey to the male character here is that she is more than just her femininity and the sexuality that comes with it. She is more than just the stereotype that being a female means you can’t do anything outside of the typical female-oriented jobs. She is more than just the color of her skin and the statistics that accompany it. She has the capacity to be both lovely and brainy, both feminine and strong, and both traditional and progressive. She has a functioning, thriving, and powerful brain that is capable of difficult things, solving difficult problems, and doing them faster and more efficiently than the white, alpha males in her field. In this short clip, one see’s the sweet beginnings of the gender stereotypes slowly but surely decaying.
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