The Flip Side series of short movies (up to four minutes per movie) directed by Jay Diaz is a fine demonstrator of gender roles and how they are applied in societies. It shows the life of five couples, in everyday instances, like going camping, celebrating a birthday, and watching a football game, and how each gender performs and thinks in the workplace, vacation, and clubbing, among others. Parenting and dating are also showcased. The exciting part of the series is that roles are completely reversed, and men appear more emotional, sensitive, and having acquired all traits and attributes that a woman usually has, while women have taken male-dominated roles at the same time. For example, when getting ready for a night out, it takes forever for a man to get ready, and his girlfriend forgets to compliment him on the great looks, while another woman opens the car’s door for her boyfriend to sit in, and a third one appears watching football to the last minute, when the boyfriend is ready and urges to get going. The night ends with a woman getting push-ups before she goes to bed, and a boyfriend sleeping on the couch because his girlfriend was looking at another guy.
The movies show how female and male roles are passed on from generation to generation, and from parent to same-sex child. It explores how people are used to perceive gender roles and projects a world where the roles of females and males in society are swapped. It also addresses the serious issues of victim-blaming and assault, as both women and men experience them. Through a humorous path, the film portrays how a child gets to learn the female and male-related attributes and their value, and how people living in recent times have come to accept roles that have been inherited, without evaluating or thinking things through.
Unlike the psychoanalytic theory, according to which, all gender-related attributes are developed through biological sex differences (Etaugh and Bridges 55); the Flip Side series of short movies clearly show that gender roles, traits, and behaviors are socially constructed, and not inherited in the biology of humans (Etaugh and Bridges 54). For example, we are all used to the concept that men are stronger, and they handle all hard work that includes physical strength. Also, we consider men more skilled when performing activities out in the natural surrounding (e.g. camping). They can set up a tent, cut wood, show great enthusiasm for their outdoor adventure, as if it is passed on to them in their genes. Fathers take their sons with them, to teach them how to find the right wood to light a fire, how to cut wood, and tip them, to anything that relates to the wildlife. Women, on the other hand, are usually more clueless and far less enthusiastic to leave the comfort of their home, they sit on a chair, reading women’s magazines, leaving the men do all the work. Nobody is expecting them to do something else. In the movie, roles are flipped, and women take their daughters hunting, cutting wood and exploring the forest. Gender development is no longer male-biased, as Sigmund Freud has elaborated (Etaugh and Bridges 56). But, the movie wants, in fact, to portray that, in the real world, women do feel inferior to men, as the superiority of the male organ is depicted in most parts of an ordinary life. When watching the film, it all seems so awkward to the audience, and the roles applied on each gender seem so “wrong”; even unequal or unfair. However, nobody is complaining when it happens in everyday life, only because everybody has accepted –and performs- their roles. Any deviation from the given gender roles would only look unusual.
The film has some elements from the psychoanalytical theory, as it shows that the source of learning is parents. Children have an emotional bond with the same-sex parent, who is their mentor. Fathers have a somewhat passive role, and avoid becoming engaging with things like setting up a tent. Interestingly, the boys look up to their father and also seem unable to fit in a natural setting outside the house. Despite the fact that mothers in the film seem more indifferent and less emotional when experiencing significant parts of their life, like a pregnancy, they also relate to their same-sex child, building strong bonds with the child. The same applies to fathers and sons. The film shows powerful ties between parents and same-sex children, which allows the film to evolve and get more into the social learning theory, especially observational learning (Etaugh and Bridges 56). A mother is shown giving her daughter her first beer, as part of a significant milestone in her life, narrating how she –the mother- had lived the same thing with her own mother.
When the media models and real life models show the same gender-stereotypic behaviors, children do not get confused and acquire their role as attributed per their gender (Etaugh and Bridges 56). Young male adolescents offer beer to one another, as this is what men usually do when they hang out, and beer is what they are required to drink when out, most of the times. Women, on the opposite side, are expected to drink mostly wine. The sight of a female drinking beer the way men do is not widely appreciated and well-liked. However, children need to observe all this and get engaged in both same-gender and cross-gender imitation, before they finally perform gender-appropriate behaviors (Etaugh and Bridges 56). This is why, the film shows boys experimenting with behaviors that are consistent to a girl’s nature and vice versa. If this movie was to be shown as a means not to enjoy but project the right gender roles, children would be vacillated, and child development would be put to the test, probably confusing children of their actual gender role.
Reinforcement, as part of social learning theory, is also an element shown in the films. Mothers are seen congratulating their daughters on their bravery when changing a tire, because every girl needs to know how to change a tire, or set up a tent. In fact, daughters pursuit to perform gender-related tasks as a means to get the anticipated reward from others, including their parent, especially the parent of the same sex. The social cognitive theory does not consider such behaviors, where children learn by observing and behave in order to get rewards, as gender typing (Etaugh and Bridges 57).
Top students are considered nerds and are never popular among their peers, in the school environment. Those that engage and excel in sports and are fashion icons, on the other hand, are acceptors of significant popularity. Every peer wants to look like them. It is not a gender role, but the general acceptance of things. In a Flip Side movie, entitled High School, the beautiful and the most handsome female and male students respectively want to date the popular nerds. Both pulled by external rewards, meaning to get peer appreciation and acceptance and trying to make sense of their social environment, the film blends the social learning theory with the cognitive developmental theory (Etaugh and Bridges 57). Students search for patterns and rules that “govern the functioning of females and males and then follow these in an attempt to best adapt to social demands” (Etaugh and Bridges 57). If the rules that govern want females to look at their best, be thin, and always wearing makeup, then this is what other girls would try to adapt to. This s what society (the school) anticipates from them. And, if males have to be athletic, macho, and young Casanovas to be socially accepted, these norms are passed on from generation to generation. This promotes gender stereotyping, and the series of short films discussed try to capsize them, by showing people the exact opposite of what everybody is used to, in terms of gender roles and accepted gender-related behaviors. As for the psychological well-being of individuals (here students), it is believed to be strongly related to high masculinity, as masculine-type traits are usually more valued, compared to feminine-type traits (Etaugh and Bridges 62). That is why the higher a student’s masculinity, the greater their self-esteem, and the lower their depression and/or anxiety. Therefore, one’s psychological well-being does not relate to androgyny (Etaugh and Bridges 62). The Flip Side series showcase the same thing, only nerd-girls, are shown having masculine-type traits and feeling great about it, and the same applies to nerd-boys while everybody else is given characteristics that are more commonly attributed to females.
Works Cited:
Diaz, Jay (dir) (2012). “The Flip Side”. Web. < https://screen.yahoo.com/flip-side/flip-side-football-party-030000157.html>
Etaugh, Claire, and Bridges, Judith (2009). “Women's Lives: A Psychological Exploration, 2nd Edition”. Print. Pearson. ISBN-13: 978-0-205-59418-4
