Reading Gender: "Billy Elliot"

The 2000 film "Billy Elliot" deals with the roles of men in many layers. The underlying purpose of the film is not merely the points of plot, which allow men to defy stereotypes, but also to expose the hypocrisy of people to desire change which benefits them, but not to accept change which they do not understand.

Hypocrisy is most clearly open to the viewer in the scene in which the dance teacher, Mrs. Wilkinson (played by Julia Walters), comes to the home of the Elliot family, and entreats Billie's father, Jackie (played by Gary Lewis), to allow his eleven year old son to audition for a place in the Royal Ballet School. This scene is the culmination of Billie's rebellion against social norms, in the same way that the scene in which the coal miners are running from the police is the culmination of the father and brother's characters rebellion against the social construct that as laborers, or blue collar workers, they have no right to complain. They work against this assumed role of subservience by going on strike, while Billie does so with his ballet training. The "discussion" that ensues is more of a yelling-match than anything else, between Mrs. Wilkinson's character and that of Billie's brother, Tony (played by Jamie Draven). At one point Tony puts Billie on the table and commands him to dance, this displays the powerlessness of Billie's position both as the youngest member of the household and more symbolically of his being placed in to a definition of a man by the society (rural, conservative, traditional England) he was born in to. The commandeering attitude of Tony's character exposes the hypocrisy of men fighting for change on their own terms, but not accepting that change in ways they are don't understand.

An interesting aspect of the film is the fear of Billy’s character becoming somehow soft or effeminate by becoming a dancer, when the very men that are in fear of this are subservient themselves. Tony and Jackie’s characters are subject to the whims and fluctuations of the coal mining industry and those who run it, which places them in the more traditionally viewed feminine role of taking orders rather than the traditional masculinity of being he who gives commands. Billy has also, inadvertently, placed himself in a position which allows him more freedom, and thus a higher status as a man by choosing a profession which allows him the choice of which roles to portray and what schedules to adhere to. This is shown quite subtly in the film by Billie: first dancing against a brick wall, then a wall of tin which is less rigid and easier to break through, to dancing in the street which represents the freedom his career will afford him.

Films must be read critically just as literature, and gender must be read critically as well. There are pages and pages of observations which could shed light on the roles of gender in the Western world inside the film “Billie Elliot” which will, no doubt, draw sympathy and attention to the plight of men imprisoned by gender roles.