Zerio Dark Thirty

Your role in society is greatly determined by which gender you are. For many years society has determined what is acceptable for genders even though there those who look past that. Males are expected to provide, lead and financially support their families and society. Females on the other hand are expected to support males, take care of domestic errands and nurture others. These roles can be switched but it has taken society many years to accept this switch and even then only few do it. The classifications of these gender roles are shown in the film Zero Dark Thirty and also show the gender role switch.

In the movie Dan plays the ultimate male role. He is the leader of his team and takes no crap from anyone. He is the one to torture terrorists until they beg for mercy or die protecting the information he wanted. He is also the one to complain and show the truth behind war to his new female partner Maya. In the first half of the film, Dan, proved why males were the leader of society by being aggressive but also looking out for his country. Maya on the other hand proved why women are second in society because of timid approach in interrogating the suspects.

As the movie went on, there was a gender role switch. Maya understood that in order for her to be taken serious in a male’s world, she must act like one. She started to use different tactics Dan used such as water boarding a suspected terrorist into giving information she wanted. She started to take command and demand the respect she deserved. All the males started to follow her commands, even those higher up than her. One example was when she single handedly found out where Bin Laden lived but no one was taking action. She wrote every few days a number on her boss’s office to let him know how many days have passed since the discovery.

I personally believe the director (a female) used the characteristics of gender role perfectly. She was able to accurately portray roles of women and men in society. We were shown that males were dominate and overall had the final say in society and how everyone else depends on that. The gender switch plays a crucial role in showing that society can function with a woman who takes on the male’s role. We saw that the take down for the biggest man hunt in history was due to a female who switched roles for the better. Is gender construction usually seen in movies? No. but did it work for this particular film? Yes.