Gender Stereotypes In Mrs. Doubtfire

Register to read the introduction… Doubtfire is a comedy film that is based on Anne Fines novel, Alias Madame Doubtfire. Mrs. Doubtfire was released in 1993 and starring Robin Williams and Sally Field. The basic plot to Mrs. Doubtfire is about a man, Daniel Hillard (played by Robin Williams) who just lost his job. He has a soon to be ex-wife name Miranda (played by Sally Field) and three children. Miranda and Daniel are battling each other for custody of their children. However, Daniel loses custody of the children because he is unemployed. When he finds out that Miranda is searching for a nanny, he desperately pretends to be a woman in order to “apply” for the nanny position. Daniel switches between being a man and a woman and learns to act like a woman. Mrs. Doubtfire is not just a comedy made for children. Embedded in the plot, you can easily apply the social construction of gender theory. When seen through the gender lens, Mrs. Doubtfire reinforces the …show more content…
The girls dress in cute dresses, wear bows in their hair, and are emotional to the idea that their parents are separated. The girls in Mrs. Doubtfire show gender norms appropriate for girls by showing that girls wear “girly” clothes, act passively and act emotionally. The girls learn to be girls by observing their mother. Before Miranda goes out on a date, she is trying to decide which dress to where and focusing more on her appearance. The girls are learning that in order to attract a man, they must dress a certain way and focus more on their appearance. The boy also reinforces gender norms in that he focuses on “manly” things over “girly” things. For example, the boy focuses more on sports and less on school. When Daniel is dancing on the table, goofing around, making jokes and disobeying his wife, the son is observing all of this. So then he starts to disobey his mother and talks back to her, reinforcing that males have dominance over