The scene that I would like to analyze would be the opening scene when John and Jane are participating in their marriage counseling. However, the roles are already reversed. John really wants to work it out and talk about the issues they are having. However, Jane is the one who doesn’t want to talk about their issues and problems and even convinces him to cancel the sessions. John even continues to go even after Jane decides she doesn’t want to go.
Let us reverse the sexes in this situation. Now we have John not caring to be at the marriage counseling sessions and Jane trying to work everything out and keep the marriage alive. This is what as a society we usually see and portray in a failing marriage. It’s the husband fault for not wanting to go to therapy and the husband who doesn’t believe in a marriage counselor. It’s always the wife trying to fix the marriage and the wife forcing the husband to go to therapy. This is your basic stereotype of the feelings that go into marriage counseling.
I believe that the sex reversal on John and Jane would change the film. Jane is not your typical emotional housewife and John isn’t your non sensitive and emotional husband. He is sensitive and wants to work on his marriage where as Jane continues to ignore the situation. Throughout the movie it’s John who always shows his sensitive side while Jane keeps her emotions inside. Again, this is not what you would see from your typical husband and wife. The wife is always trying to bring out the emotional side in her husband while the husband tries to keep his emotions inside.
Another scene in the movie that I would like to discuss was when John and Jane had a little breakup. They both handled things differently. John went over his is friend’s house and talked about what was going on. Jane bought a bottle of alcohol, goes to work, drinks the bottle and passes out. Now let’s flip the roles again. If it were John drinking and passing out after their breakup it would be the “usual” way of handling the break up and Jane going over to her friend’s house and talking about her problems. This is what we as a society are used to seeing. The men are supposed to hit the bottle and drown their problems while the women look to their friends for comfort. This is what our society is used too. Men aren’t supposed to be sensitive and emotional, they need to be strong and do the “manly” actions when it comes to the break up. We don’t see the women drinking their problems away, they are supposed to get together with friends and look to them for comfort.
This movie constructs something different from what we are used to seeing in society. Usually it’s the husband who needs to be dragged into therapy and the wife who wants to work on their marriage. This is what society is used to seeing; however there are cases where the men want to work on their relationships just as much as females do. They also want their marriage to work and show emotions. This film impacts our reality with change. This film shows the hard-nosed wife, ignoring her marriage problems, and turning to drinking when things get tough. As a society we are used to the husband and males acting this way. It definitely shows a gender role reversal in all aspects. By switching the roles in the film, you get the standard roles that society is used to believing and seeing.
This film is full of your non typical gender roles, which I believe is refreshing to see. It’s cool to see that “bad girl” type wife and the more down to earth husband. By reversing the roles you get your typical movie of the wife being emotional and the husband being the bad guy. Aside from all the action in the film, the normal roles in this film really give society another look at the husband and wife personalities and how each person is different when it comes to handling their marriage and problems.
