Remember the Titans
reflects and reproduces the cultural ideology that sports – especially football
– are an exclusive, male-dominated arena.
The film accomplishes this by repeatedly portraying images of
traditional masculinity – images of father figures, aggressiveness and anger,
and homophobia, for instance – and by marginalizing female characters who
attempt to invade the male-dominated field. The film also asserts that the
bonds of masculinity and brotherhood that are forged on the field of play are
strong enough to bridge even the widest cultural, political, and racial
chasms.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Marginalization of Female Characters
The cast of Remember
the Titans is male-dominated, but there are a few women scattered
throughout. Though these women are
present, they are hardly main characters and even the most prominent of the
female characters is only acceptable because of her role in the patriarchy.
Gerry Bertier’s mother: I had to look up her up to even know her
name, I’m not sure if it is mentioned even once in the movie. Gerry’s mother probably has about 4 lines in
the entire movie, all of which involve enforcing or obnoxiously disrupting
practices of masculinity.
·
Gerry’s mother refuses to let Gerry go
play basketball with Julius and tell’s Gerry that he must attend church with
his mother. In this scene, Gerry’s
mother points out to Gerry how ashamed his father would be if he knew what
Gerry is doing. Thus, his mother is here
to enforce the rules of patriarchy that Gerry’s father can no longer do now
that he is dead
·
The scene directly after Gerry is in the
car accident Julius approaches Gerry’s mother with tears in eyes. Gerry’s mother looks at Julie stone-faced and
says “You’re strong. Those tears aren’t
going to make my boy walk again.” What does this enforce? Real men don’t cry and grieving the loss of a
teammate is not worthwhile; it will not solve anything. Julius must suppress his emotional reaction;
otherwise he’d never be able to face Gerry.
In turn, these men must channel their sadness into anger, an appropriate
male reponse, and use it to win.
Gerry Bertier’s girlfriend: the only thing Gerry’s girlfriend serves to
be in a cog in the machine for the male-bonding occurring throughout the
movie. Luckily, Gerry keeps his senses
and doesn’t allow this superfluous influence on his life impact the male
relationships he had with his teammates or his ability to succeed on the field. Remember, women are a distractin.
Julius Campbell’s girlfriend: She doesn’t have a name. What is her role? A prize for Julius’s success on the field. Julius and his team make it to State? Julius is rewarded with sex from his
girl. She is even referred to as “my
girl.” (“I gotta be with my girl
tonight.”). The suggestion here seems to
be that Julius’s male obligations to the team can be sacrificed if he’s
transferring himself into another male role:
the sexual being. It is expected
that a man would sacrifice time with his friends to “get some.”
Sheryl Yoast: probably the most interesting of all
the female depictions in the entire movie, Sherly Yoast the young female
tomboy, child of Coach Yoast. She is
seemingly disruptive to the patriarchy (a girl who knows a lot of about
football, whaaaa??), but at closer evaluation, she is marginalized just like
the other female characters in the film.
·
Throughout the film, male characters are
constantly making remarks about Sheryl’s tomboy behaviors, especially from the
Boone family. Coach Boone is extremely resistant to Sheryl’s behavior,
constantly saying things like “don’t you want to accessorize?” or “why don’t
you go play with dolls,” which is an extremely insulting
way to address a young girl who has a superior
knowledge of sports. Along with this, Coach Boone’s daughter is incessantly
making comments about how weird she is.
Arguably, Coach Boone’s daughter acts as a foil to Sheryl, once even
refusing Sheryl’s offer to play basketball because she had just painted her
nails.
·
There is also the question of why the
film has this tomboy-like character.
Yoast is a single father, and so my suggestion would be that Sheryl is a
tomboy so the movie is not distracted by Yoast’s status as a single
father. It also reminds me of my own
experience as a sports fan growing up.
o
I like sports because my dad and brother
like sports. My father refused to bend
to accommodate my status as a woman, so I had to alter my female status to
better fit his male lifestyle. I too adopted tomboy characteristics as a way to
relate to my father. Because of this, I
relate to sports, and sometimes other aspects of my life as a “typical man”
would because I desired acceptance from my father as a young girl. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve managed to rework
my identity to include those aspects of being a “female” that I enjoy and
appreciate; however, I still maintain many of my “male” characteristics from my
youth.
o
I see a lot of me in the depiction of
Sheryl in this movie. Yoast cannot be
expected to adapt his masculinity to accommodate the rearing of his child. That was supposed to be his wife’s job. Thus
Sheryl must enter the patriarchy as a way to relate to her father and be
including in his world.
·
Despite Sheryl’s efforts; however, she
is still marginalized. A few scenes that
come to mind:
o
Someone saying “why don’t you get that
girl some pretty dolls or something?”
o
She is the one serving the boys water at
camp
·
And of course the epiphany we are forced
to face: we find this girl funny. Even though she acts exactly like zealous
male fans, she is comedic in her reactions to football. Why? Well, she’s a woman and women don’t
watch sports like that. In fact, they
don’t know much about sports at all.
Who's Your Daddy?: Father Figures
American sports, particularly football, are characterized as
being watched, encouraged, and activated by males who are parents or become a
father to a team. This is seen
throughout Remember the Titans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey_IYIKbH8Y
-Coach Boone begins the football season without respect; he
gains it by becoming the most masculine out of the team
-Coach
Yoast is defended as if he is the teams own father after the announcement of
the new coach
-This is
continued throughout the film: practices, conversations between coaches, games
-Once he
has asserted his masculinity, he is respected and loved
-Other father figures act as the mouthpiece for their
families or the society in general
-Fathers
speak for players
-Protests
by parents
-Fatherhood isn’t just seen as an acting out of masculinity;
it is seen as necessary to masculinity
- “You do
have a dad?” -Gerry-Without a father, a man cannot learn masculinity
-The role of father figures in the movie reinforces the idea
that sports in America are based on rough, masculine, male-dominated values
-Mothers
have little to no voice
-Yoast’s
daughter, with no mother figure, becomes an anomaly
Visal Representations of Masculinity
Masculinity works in many ways throughout Remember The Titans. Cinematically, the
movie itself is a journey that fails to focus on anything but masculine
identities, and seems to draw parallels to the ability of male bonding and
football to overcome any social issue.
In “Remember The Titans.”
Visually the movie reinforces the importance
of masculinity in various ways. All of the major characters are men, with the
exception of Coach Yoat’s daughter Sheryle. She is portrayed as a tomboy who
hates dolls, only loves football, and sports jerseys from time to time. In one
specific scene, she sits and exchanges football tips with the head coach while
his own daughter (in a dress with painted nails) plays with dolls and rolls her
eyes. The juxtaposition of the masculine identity in Sherly and feminine
identity Boone’s daughter would be cute if the movie wasn’t so obviously
slanted to favor Sheryl.
The problem is that this is an entirely made up identity.
The real Sheryle was one of four daughters, did not live with her father, and
apparently was not near as crazy about football or sports as they made her look
in the actual movie. Why masculinize the
identity of a character that is irrelevant to the plot?
But Sunshine drops his long hair and tie-dye clothes, and eventually becomes more synonymous with the masculine identity that the rest of the Titans represent. By the end of the movie, he is a wrecking machine who single handedly crushes three defenders in the final play. Oh, and he looks like this:
Ultimately,
it seems that the only explored trait within the characters of Remember the
Titans is masculinity. All of the team
players are hulked up on testosterone and football. Sheryl, the only female who gets any real
screen time, is masculinized for no apparent reason. Meanwhile, Sunshine is ostracized at the
outset and is only accepted by his teammates once his masculine identity
develops. Women are brushed aside
throughout the entire script as creatures who don’t understand or are annoyed
by masculinity/football and whose only concerns are to paint their nails or
play with dolls.
Fitting into the Historical Moment
Although it was not as apparent as in the 1960s and 70s,
racism was still an issue at the turn of the 21st century when Remember the Titans (2000) was
made. In an article from the Los Angeles Times, Gregory Allen Howard
(the writer of the Titans screenplay)
says that he moved to the town of Alexandria, Virginia to try and get away from
the stress and racial tension of Los Angeles (Howard). Alexandria was recommended to him by
relatives who lived there and praised the town for being “well-integrated”
(Howard). Howard wrote the screenplay
and was turned down by nearly every producer in Hollywood, claiming that no one
would want to see another emotional, inspirational movie like Remember the Titans (Dretzka). In another article from the Chicago Tribune, as a response to the
denial of his sappy, inspirational movie, Howard is reported as saying that his
intention was not to fight racism but to fight cynicism (Dretzka). This comment helps to place Titans within the historical moment;
around the turn of the century, people had become somewhat complacent when it
came to the issue of racism because it was not as apparent as it was in the
decades before, but Remember the Titans
effectively got people thinking and talking about racism by reminding them that
racism didn’t disappear with the end of the Civil Rights movement and that
peaceful coexistence of different races requires effort to maintain.
Works Cited
Dretzka, Gary. "Screenwriter Runs Longest Yard." Chicago
Tribune 01 010 2000, n. pag. Web. 7 Oct. 2012.
Howard, Gregory. "Remembering the History of
'Titans'." Los Angeles Times 30 009 2000, n. pag. Web. 7 Oct. 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey_IYIKbH8Y - "Who's your daddy?" Video ClipImages:
http://content8.flixster.com/question/56/84/54/5684542_std.jpg
- Titans At Gettysburg
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