Congeniality: “People who have the quality of congeniality have a gift for getting along with others. They are warm [and] friendly…”
Miss Congeniality came out 15 years ago and marks a film we see few of these days: so called chick flicks. It was a film made for women, written by two women (and a man), and starring a woman. It was a feel good film for women and whilst it has it’s sexism like other films it critiques it and criticises it rather than letting it simply be another part of the world it is creating. On the surface it looks like a very superficial film perhaps, especially judging by its poster – Sandra Bullock sporting a pink dress with her leg poking out to show off her gun strapped to her leg because hey she’s an FBI agent as well as pretty. Yet the film stands out because it, like others such as Legally Blonde, takes the trope of dumb pretty women and smashes that stereotype into the dirt where it belongs.
Ever since men created the patriarchal society that we live in they deemed themselves the smart ones, the logical and rational ones; in contrast to that they decided that women were simply to be looked at, that they are over emotional and not rational, and that they are certainly not as smart as men could ever be. In amongst all that they failed to acknowledge that they had created a world where women don’t have the same access to education that men do, that rationality without emotions is impossible (try deciding what food you want to have without emotions, you can’t because feeling good about pizza is why you want to eat pizza), and that looking attractive doesn’t mean you can’t be intelligent. It is one of the many double edged swords men have hurt women with – you can be pretty or smart but fuck you if you want both.
So the writers of Miss Congeniality, I assume, saw that, saw how both men and women view beautiful women, and saw the epitome of pitting pretty women against each other: beauty pageants. Some argue that these pageants are “outdated and anti-feminist”, to quote the film, and that whilst I agree that putting women in competition with each other doesn’t help Feminism and that women largely being judged on their looks reinforces a world where women exist solely for the “male gaze” – but the film actively works against both of those points. The film understands the world it exists in and shows us that beauty pageants are about way more than Pretty Woman Versus Prettier Woman.
Bullock’s character starts off being cynical, she is masculine in her appearance – as is constantly commented on by her male colleagues, noting that they don’t see her as a woman – and she openly insults the women in the pageants for being dumb. When she is tasked with having to join the pageant as a contestant to help save the women from a bomb threat, part of her job as an FBI agent, she is very reluctant. Why would a woman like her, who has a punch bag in her bedroom, want to put on a bikini and parade around for an audience? She argues that she doesn’t even own a comb, so why would she all of a sudden want to care about her appearance?
Michael Caine’s character is tasked with ‘fixing her’, a task he thinks would surely be impossible in two days considering her unladylike walk, her propensity to say ‘yeah’ and not ‘yes’, and someone who is a woman yet drinks beer (gasp). The film is full of ideas about women having to be feminine, and it is full of male colleagues who happily sit by and mock the women and objectify them. But all of these ideas, I feel, are eclipsed by the rest of the film and the self-awareness of the writers; they create developed characters in the women and they show exactly how the women of pageants have turned showing off their ‘poise’ into trying to make a change. “World peace” – a line associated with beauty pageants that make many laugh and roll their eyes. It is seen as an obviously unattainable ideal, a naïve view of the world that we live in, and yet another sign that the pretty women who hope for it live in a bubble of their own beauty.
But I disagree. I fully understand the world we live in and whilst conflict is a nigh on impossible thing to get rid of I think it is a very lazy and defeatist attitude to accept the violence it causes. Male violence is a very real problem this world faces – from wars, to rape, to domestic violence and all in between; it is something that men commit regardless of their race or age. Women just do not commit violence in the same numbers, with the same propensity for sexual violence, and they are more likely to go to jail for fraud than physical abuse. Yes women commit crimes, and yes some of those are violent crimes I’m not denying that but I am saying that it is not unrealistic for women to imagine a world where talking, logic, rationality and discussing their emotions can be used to solve problems rather than murder, destruction, and punching people in the face.
Miss Rhode Island, Cheryl, in the film is portrayed as perhaps naïve, innocent and quiet – she is described as a ‘loner’ and an introvert; yet she is more than that, much more. She plays drums on stage at a club whilst covered in paint, she twirls batons that are on fire, and she has a welcoming heart for our clumsy protagonist. After being tasked with the mission of ‘girl talk’ Bullock’s character shows us that the pageant women are ready to party and let loose but more than that they are there to help each other, despite being in competition with them. In a loud club, covered in neon paint, and alone Bullock, or New Jersey, and Miss Rhode Island are talking and Cheryl tells a secret she has never told anyone before – she was assaulted by her ex-teacher. She shrugs it off as something that happens all the time, as though it’s no big deal and Bullock is quick to help her.
It’s this admission that shows us a lot about women and the world they live in, a world created by men and that benefits men. Her secret is something she is ashamed by, as we can tell by her never having told anyone before, but it is met not with disgust but with a reassurance that it isn’t normal, that it should never have happened to her and that as a woman Bullock is there to help her and teach her to protect herself. This self-defence aspect is revisited later on after Bullock needs a new talent at a moment’s notice; she brings her male colleague on stage and shows the audience a few handy tricks for fighting back against a male attacker who is bigger and stronger than you. This is where we learn to sing. S is for Solar Plexus (elbow to the chest), I is for Instep (stomp on the foot), N is for nose (elbow to the face), and G is for groin (fist to the dick).
With the rates of male violence against women from strangers, their friends, and the men in their family all women should be equipped with basic self-defence. Yet because male violence is the thing we are not allowed to name – try it and you will see that men do not like to acknowledge that they are the ones committing the vast, vast majority of violence – we are not taught how to deal with it. Women must seek it out, they must pay for classes at places they must find, they have to buy their own books on it and buy their own weapons to deal with a threat that they did not ask for. They have to prepare for an almost inevitable attack from men, they have to avoid dark places alone, and they have to change their lives to avoid something that men should be the ones avoiding – they should be choosing not to commit violence against others.
But men under a patriarchy will not stop committing violence because it is beneficial to them. Violence is seen as an answer, it is seen as a solution, one that is seen in films and TV across any genre. Murder of dehumanised women is fodder for unimaginative writers to move along the plot, to cause their male characters pain, or simply for no reason at all. There are many shows that are violent without criticism of it, they are violent without looking at its consequences, and there are many that never name it or its effect on women. The rare shows that do, such as the brilliant Top of the Lake, get labelled by people who miss the point as ‘hating men’ and women are once again left facing a threat from men.
Miss Congeniality is a film that takes the world of beautiful women and adds heart, it highlights the comforting nature of women, and it shows that women in a world of violence against them come together and help each other. It shows a world where men take credit for women’s ideas, where women aren’t listened to, and where they are even sometimes hated by the women who should help them. As the film ends I would hope men aren’t left only feeling turned on by the attractive women in bikinis but that they see women using a world that wants them solely for their beauty using it to make a change, to spread love and co-operation and, yes, trying to achieve world damn peace.
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