The exploration of gender issues in "Gregory's Girl" by Bill Forsyth, is developed by the playwright's skill in presenting stereotypical views of boys and girls whilst at the same time, challenging them.

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Heather Smith

The exploration of gender issues in “Gregory’s Girl is developed by the playwright’s skill in presenting stereotypical views of boys and girls whilst at the same time, challenging them.

        Gregory’s Girl is a play written by Bill Forsyth that explores teenage life and problems they face during the 1980’s in Scotland. Bill Forsyth explores gender issues and stereotypical views between adolescent boys and girls. Both challenging and supporting views are given in this script.

        Immediately at the start of the play, gender issues are presented to the awaiting audience, in a typical stereotyped way. It portrays the view that “Boys play football, and girls don’t” to the audience. “GREGORY, watch the bloody striker. ANDY move out! Get off your line, Andy, now!”

This shows the typical view of boys playing football. By introducing football this early into the play it gives the theme of the play. By introducing the stereotype here, it makes this point of view stick in the minds of the audience. This is important later as there is a challenging stereotype portrayed which goes against this.

        The character Madeline is introduced next. She is Gregory’s younger sister. This character is quite an interesting one during this script because although Madeline is a younger character compared to Gregory, she is portrayed by the playwright to be much maturer and acts as a mother-like figure giving Gregory advice and help along the way. When she say’s

 “It’s complicated. He use to be football mad. Now that he’s growing up, you know… adolescence”, and “I think his proper shorts are in the wash” both show this in a not-so-subtle way. This shows another stereotype presented by the playwright although it is not as obvious. It shows that females mature quicker than males. This is an excellent supporting example of this. Bill Forsyth also reinforces this particular stereotype throughout the play in order to strengthen the remembrance and significance for the audience to grasp.

        Gregory is next shown as a stereotypical teenage male, who thinks about himself constantly and will push others down in order to reach the top. This occurs after the first football match. The playwright has portrayed the character of Gregory as a very persuasive character in this scene. He is talking to Phil (the P.E teacher) and trying to persuade him to let him stay on the team, an utterly outstanding example of this is when Gregory say’s “I’m going to be fine. What about Andy? He hasn’t even started growing yet. He’s going to be real trouble.” Gregory’s character is portrayed to support the stereotypical view of the teenage male that I previously mentioned.

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        The next scene is a fine portrayal of male stereotypes. Humour is also added to the play at this point, the stereotype creates this in a great way. This scene contains Andy, Charlie, Eric, and Pete. They are outside the nurses’ hostel peering into the windows in hope of an explicit view of the nurses. The scenery is dark and the lighting is dull. This adds to this scene as the scenery helps to create humour along with the stereotypical view in the audiences’ minds. The stereotype that Bill Forsyth has presented here is of the male gender becoming extremely ...

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