Response on Tootsie

Personally, I enjoy watching this movie as it depicts the importance of a balance life. This movie portrays Michael who is a big loser that no movie company wants to accept him. He indeed has a good talent in acting, but due to his snobbery and hot-headed temper, the movie world seems to ignore him. However, when he becomes Dorothy, he begins to show more politeness and care yet still pretending his pride. Balance traits of men and women in him. Thus, Dorothy immediately becomes a famous idol especially among the women. He puts women to have equal power to men.

This film shows the common stereotype of women. Women are still illustrated as powerless, frail and have no authority. Perhaps this condition is similar with the circumstances at that era where women still have not the same power as the men. The term masculinity and femininity are strongly emphasized in each gender so that men are identical with masculinity and women with femininity. Thus, this film wants encourage the emancipation of women to speak up. Women are not under men, but they are equal with the men.

The interesting part of this film is that it uses men to promote the gender equivalence. This idea could be quite bizarre at that time if we consider that women are put in the second class. Why a man would even bother to go to lower class? Nevertheless, they author introduces Michael Dorsey who first posses an egoistic and bad temper characteristics, which are commonly associated with men’s traits. He transforms into Dorothy with more balance traits, but he is still having some ego but with more caring and loving attitude. Rather than promoting the women to have the same position as the men, this film goes deeper by portraying a man who transforms to a woman. This creates a deep impression that not only a woman should not be too “feminism” but also a man should not be too “masculine” and. Dorothy could be very successful because she posses Michael’s masculinity with additional of woman’s feminism.

Actually, I do not like the way the author put women as a very frail human being. For example, he puts Sandy as a woman that easily fall in love with Michael just because Michael sleeps with her once. She even forgives all Michael’s fault without further taking initiative of what actually happen on Michael. It seems that women are too passive. The same case happens with Julie. Even though she knows that the director is cheating on her, she does nothing because she needs his support. Was such discrepancy really happened at that era? Were women so powerless at that time that women just accept everything without bothering to check further?

Furthermore, the fact that Julie falls in love with Michael in the end of the story gives a big question mark. If only, Dorothy were purely a woman, would Julie also fall in love with her? Would this later explain why the term “Lesbian” exist? Or, they would be still being a very harmonious friend? In my opinion, the term “Lesbian” do not need to exist in this story. Even if Dorothy were a woman that charms Julie very much, they would not be a lesbian. The story would go such as Dorothy would be acting more as Julie’s mother that take care of her and teach her how to be a woman.

Overall, this film is very good. There are a lot of humour that it does not make me felt bored. The important message sent that one has to consider the importance of balance masculine and feminism character. If on that era, women were really as weak as illustrated, they should be motivated by this film to go and fight for the justice. The same case happens with the men, men should consider to posses some traits which formerly they thought as femininity, e.g.: caring and sensitive, into their own personality.