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Roberto Cortes

Professor Mejia

English 114A

1 November

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roles and stereotypes by producing scenes UgElhg[represent cultural gender and.

society.

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Bob's role as a family man is expressed as being the money provider for his

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famity this further reifies the cultural gender myth that the man should be the one

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brings home the "bacon". This is shown at the beginning of the movie when we see Bob
working in a office answering insurance claim calls. We know that Hellen isn't at work

because hob receives a callfrom Hellen and we see that she is at home bathing the

baby. Later towards the middle of the movie,

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Hellen

gives him a pep talk saying "have a great day honey, help customers!" Bob replies
"bring bacon?" in a tone that assumes that that's the goaloHellen the replies with a
smile and a nod. By smiling and nodding Hellen is agreeing with the typical stereotype
that is imposed on men. Ir

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who is worthy of represenlqgfryElqman should be. But in modern

times this has been challenged, now that many more women are going to work

Cortes

alongside their male counter parts, this leaves the question "in the air" do you become
less of a man if you're not the one providing for the family? ls it wrong for women to
bring "the bacon" home?
Hellen further represents what a "perfect" spouse should be like as interpreted by
gender myths. Hellen represents gender myths that say that women should stay at
home to cook, clean and look after their kids and should look physically attractive. We

know that Hellen represents these values as we constantly see her vacuuming and
washing dishes throughout the movie. In addition at the beginning of the movie we know
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that she's been a stay at home mom for at least a year, because bob and Hellen have a
conversation over the phone in which they talk about how Hellen has finally finished un

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packing every box after one year, as they talk Hellen is seen bathing her new born
baby. Hellen is also always seen as the parent that lectures the kids, we see this at the
beginning of the movie when she is called down to the office of her son dash's school
because dash has super speed and has been bothering his teacher. Later we see at the

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dinner table how she attempts to get bob to lecture his son but l6ob is actually thrilled
that his son got away with the feat, she has to intervene and say that it's not okay. As
the scene continues dash and her sister violate start arguing, Hellen calls bob but soon
realizes she must dealwith them herself. This shows how the man's job is only to bring
money into the family and how the women's job is to make sure the kids are doing good
in school, and to keep them under control and lecture them whenever she has to. All of
that just mirrors the mythical gender roles that have been imposed upon society by

society itself that say women should be in charge of the cleaning, cooking and kids.
Hellen also represents the stereotype that a perfect spouse should be tall, skinny and

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are further explained in Susan Bordo's work on women,
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gender and physical appearance, Bordo talks about how women are expected to
change their bodies only to please society and what socie$ thinks women should look
like, This puts a lot of stress on women who can't be the exceptional women the public

expects them to be And are left wishing they could be. Hellen is seen as a perfect mom
who is physically flt even after giving birth to three children, yet she still Iooks like shes
in her twenties only because her creators wante

make her seem perfect.

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ln addition the character Mirrage up holds gender myths about women just like
Hellen does. Mirrage is the secretary for the evil villain of the movie, she just happens to
be a woman and a secretary. Women in Hollywood are often represented as secretaries
or just second to main roles in movies and The lncredibles didn't make and exception in

her case. ln Hollywood women are almost always in movies to serve men and for the
purpose of making a man's work easier as seen in this case. Mirrage goes out to the
city to spy on bob in order to determine that he is in fact Mr. lncredible she then takes

this information back to her boss and he makes the decisions from there. This fuels the

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gender myth that a women should serve man and tha!a-w_oilen shouldn't 9e the gne

Mirage also appears early in the movie wearing tight skirts and clothing, this is

af to appeal to a male audience

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and to appeal to Mr. lncredible in order to create her "sexy

mysterious" profite. This example of how gender myths are reflected in the movie can
also be a direct connection to bordo and her work,
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Cortes

created and changed in order to appeal to men is directly put into practice and seen in
the movie.
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Another example in which we see gender myths reflected in The lncrediblesisin

the fact that the major characters in the movies are always men, this is a direct tie to

gender myths that say that men are always the ones that save the day, that men are the
leaders and that men are the best fit for important roles in movies. ln this movie we
have two main characters from which the whole story evolves. We have Mr. lncredible

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and we have Syndrome the villain. As a kidrsyndrome was Mr. lncredible's

number one fan after countless attempts at becoming his side kick he disappears from
the movie only to later come back as the evilVillain Syndrome who wants to destroy
every super hero alive only to become the only super hero alive and get the recognition
he dearly wants. These very important roles are both played by men and we see how at

the beginning of the movie women in this case Elastic girl or Hellen are

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make a man's job easier when Mr. incredible is fighting a villain and she suddenly
appears onlv to help hrnr. We also see that as Mr. lncredible is going through the list of
super heroes Syndrome has killed, they are mostly all male, this is in re-sponse to the
gejrder mut! that a man_elways rescue-s wojr.re! gnd is the sllong ong. Furthermore we

Mr. Incredible working out daily lifting trains as if they were weights, which of course
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flee'ls to be he can do since he has super strength, he goes home every day only to measure his
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This is an effect of gender myths that say that men should

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football with his son.

be tall and strong and very fit, that only then they are considered men. The men that

can protect their families with their bare fists if they need to. The tough man that society

Cortes

wants him to be. A perfect man in society based on gender myths is he who is tall,
strong and provides for his family and he who is always stoic and never cries, a man
must never allow anyone to know he has a weakness, he must always stand tall, strong,
stoic and proud like a super hero, just like Mr. lncredible.
Media is the perfect way to get a glimpse at how society thinks at a specific age
and time. We see gender myths broadcasted through music, books and movies

everyday these myths are reified through scenes that promote gender myths. The
movie The lncredibles is just one of the many films in which gender myths are deeply
rooted, the directors and actors might see it as normal and mean no harm, but these
gender roles are almost always incorrect. \Mth todays on going change in society
values, and societies interpretation of gender roles such as the question "should women
be allowed to participate in combat?" myths are directly being challenged and if you look
into the future thirty years from now society will have a different idea about what a

women and a man should be. As this topic is one that is always changing. Just look at

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