Miss Congeniality

Miss Congeniality is an American police comedy film, starring the beautiful Sandra Bullock. This movie can be considered as one of the girly movies, and it includes the ten common traits of the girly films that we learned in sociology class.

Define Gracie Hart

Gracie Hart (Sandra Bullock) is FBI agent shows no signs of having any femininity in her behavior or appearance. Her appearance is a crucial aspect of her identity. She has the feeling of ambivalence about the role of romance, marriage and work in woman’s life. Thus, Gracie can be defined as the protagonist, because she is a single woman who works for a living, and whose work defines her.

Eric Matthews (Benjamin Bratt), is Gracie’s colleague whose assigned to lead the high profile case of a terrorist called “The Citizen” instead of her to stop the attack. Both of them determine that “The Citizen” 's next target will be the Miss United States beauty pageant. Eric assigns her to go undercover as a pageant contestant to see if she can catch “The Citizen”. This movie takes place in a large, well-known city, which is San Antonio, Texas; where the beauty contest takes place.

The Transformation

The FBI used the assistance of the previous pageant contestant coach Victor Melling (Michael Caine), to do the impossible task of transforming Gracie, not only into a woman, but into a credible beauty pageant contestant. Victor represents the consumer culture, in which everything goes right with him. There is a theme of personal transformation, as she becomes beautiful and attractive. Gracie enters the contest as Miss New Jersey. She suits the example of the Miss United States beauty pageant. She had the ability to transform which helps her lead to resolve her conflicts and to achieve her goals.

The Past.

Gracie has difficult time to proceed in the transformation. Victor continues to teach the tomboyish Gracie how to dress, walk and act like a contestant. She is not used to such behaviors. She has the sense of nostalgia or glorifying the past during the contest when she demonstrates self-defense techniques during the talent competition. She has the hard times when she can’t continue in this undercover job. She thinks she doesn’t belong to this place.

The Happy Ending

Gracie gets to know the other contestants. Then, she discovers the evil element is present at the pageant. She will do whatever it takes to crush that element and protect her new friends, namely the other innocent contestants.

Gracie displays some femininity during the movie. She begins to have more womanly feelings and that attracts the attention of men, in particular, she starts to attract Eric.

When Eric fails to support Gracie, he then realizes that Gracie’s suspicions are correct, and he returns to help her. Gracie surprises everyone, including herself by discovering “The Citizen”. She and Eric save the day, and they arrest the criminals. At the end, Eric admits his crush on her, and she starts a relationship with Matthews. She finally lead succeeds in her goal of having affair with the man of her choice.

Neo-Feminism in Confessions of a Shopaholic

In Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009), the lead character, Rebecca, is a recent college graduate who is deep debt because of her shopping addiction. Ironically, She lands a job as a financial advisor in a New York magazine. Rebecca lies about her credentials to be able to get the job to support her addiction as well as to pay the bills. As a perfect Hollywood love story, Rebecca falls in love with her boss, who happens to be a rich entrepreneur. Although the film is about a young woman’s struggle against her typical feminine addiction, the end result is that she gets together with a rich guy who would be able to support her. She also becomes famous by doing her articles and lands an interview on national TV.

This film contains the traits that “constitute the ‘commonplaces’ of the genre, and which are linked to the neo-feminist paradigm,” (36) as Hilary Render mentions in her book Neo-Feminist Cinema. 1. Although the film is clearly directed at a female audience, Rebecca’s character “underlines appearance as a crucial aspect of feminine identity” (36). She’s always dressed fashionably, has makeup on, hair done in perfect waves, and acts in the typical feminine way that is socially constructed. The film begins by her speaking about the dream of owning nice shoes. 2. The ‘marriage plot’ is another trait included in this film. Rebecca ends up with the rich handsome guy of her own choice, who happens to also be in love with her (if only life worked that way). 3. “The protagonist is usually a single woman who works for a living, and whose work in some way defines her; however at the same time regardless of the role she plays, she is distinguished by her girlish personality and looks” (36). Rebecca lands a job as a finance advisor—a job that would typically call for a serious look, but our lead keeps her colorful, ‘girlish’ sense of style through out the film. Even during an important luncheon, Rebecca is dressed in a white suit and high heels, unable to escape her girly attitude and cheery personality. 4. One of the most important traits is the consumer culture presented in the film. This trait, according to Radner, is crucial in the setting, “as well as often providing tools that enable the heroine to resolve her conflict” (37). Rebecca connects with her boss in the scene she helps him shop for the important luncheon. Her addiction and knowledge helped her gain the love of her life.