Manly Jobs?

Assignment

Film Analysis/Cultural Critique

Focus:

Much of our work for this assignment has involved visual rhetoric. We have discussed how to read 

images such as photographs, advertisements and movie posters for purpose and content. We have 

also talked about the elements of visual images, including shape, arrangement, space, color and size. 

In addition, we have read essays about interpreting signs, metaphors and archetypes in American 

films, as well as how to apply issues of race, class, gender and violence to film storytelling. Lastly, 

we have read about how to construct an argumentative thesis and essay.

Task:

Turn the central idea you’ve been examining in Exercises 1-3 into a thesis for a 4-5 page 

rhetorical analysis/cultural critique of your movie. Your thesis/essay should be argumentative. 

For evidence, use the poster(s), the scene (or scenes) from the movie, two sources from the 

readings above and your observation. For example, you might discuss how the movie marketing 

for the film (including but not limited to the poster) reinforces the movie’s theme. You might use 

one scene or several scenes from the movie to show how the film itself reinforces your thesis. 

Finally, you might use your observation to show how the film’s theme rings true in real-life 

settings, making it a universal statement about humanity. These are just suggestions, however. 

You may find other ways to make your point more efficiently.

Manly Jobs? 

by: Benjamin Reed

     In our society we have some job titles labeled as "manly." Jobs that require the most handiwork or that are the hardest are sometimes given a reputation that only a man can do this job. In the movie North Country, a woman named Josey Aimes was ridiculed and harassed for working at a factory in the 1980's. Even though it is a fictional account of what actually happened the movie portrays accurately how some woman were mistreated in the work place. Why do we see women as less capable for some jobs in our society? What makes a man more fit for these jobs? Why must we put women down for just doing their job? The movie North Country shows a woman and her struggle to gain women rights in the work place. 

     The movie opens up with Josey in court telling a lawyer how tough it is to work at the factory under the conditions she was in. Josey describes a life of pleasure and leisure and then adds, "…and you think you're tough. Wear my shoes; tell me tough…". Josey is trying to show that she wasn't able to live that life of leisure because she had to be tough and endure all of the hardships her job presented in order to keep it. While this scene is playing it is alternating between another scene where we see Josey, her son, and her daughter; this is the reason she needs to keep her job, to have enough income to support her family, seeing that there is no man in the picture as of yet. Josey has to be tough in order to support her family and that is what she is trying to get across to the lawyer and the jury. Josey's job was working at the local mine, which had always been a "man's job" until recently when they started accepting more women, however, the men still outnumbered the women thirty to one. The men at the factory were less than happy about this decision and did not like the idea of having women do the job that men have been doing for so long. This mind set that men had during the late 1900's was to protect the status quo and for so long men were the ones who worked and women took care of the house and family. Now that times were changing and women were becoming more equal in society, men took that as a threat and started to subjugate women and treat them like they were lesser human beings. There is a scene in North Country where Josey is washing dishes with her mother and her mother says something along the lines of, if you work at the mine it will shame your father. This scene shows that even Josey's mother has this mind set that women have a certain place and should not take the place of a man, but why must men have the upper hand and not women?

     Men have always had the upper hand in American culture up until recently when men and women started to become more equal in society. Prior to the present, however, men have always been the ones to provide for their family and do all of the hard work. Earlier in history this was the way and it was necessary for survival, but with the progress of our nation and advances in technology throughout time we have eliminated the exclusivity and need of jobs that only men could do. The men in North Country saw this as a threat and feared that the women workers would take their jobs. There is a scene where Josey goes to see her boss about a harassment issue and he says, " Your taking jobs where there aren't any to take. These boys aren't your friends; I'm not your friend. You got no business being here and you damn well know it"(North Country). Him saying this proves the point I made above, and gives reason to why the women are being mistreated, competition. Out of competition the men mistreat the women who work at the factory by harassing them in hopes that they will leave their jobs and the status quo will return. What the men did not take into account is how far they were going and to what extent they were harassing these women. 

     Sexual harassment, in any case, whether it be major or minor, is wrong and should not be used as a means to get what you want out of someone, but the men in North Country failed to see this. They used sexual harassment as a way to put the women down and establish a superiority over them. They take advantage of these women who are just trying to do their jobs and make money just like everyone else who works at the factory. There is a scene where one of the woman, Sherry, is cleaning one of the mining rooms with Josey and two men walk up and start verbally harassing them lightly. Then one of the men asks Sherry for a cigarette. She reaches in her shirt pocket and he stops her and says, i got it. He then proceeds to reach inside of her shirt pocket and starts to grope her chest. He does not stop when Josey says to leave Sherry alone, he only stops when one of the men come by and say get back to work. These are the sorts of things the men would do to make the women feel uncomfortable around the work place. Another example is when the men write derogatory words toward women on the women's locker room walls in feces. These things they do are to make the women hate working there and feel less capable of doing their job. If you feel uncomfortable in your work setting you can not perform your best, and this is what the men were going for. 

     These women were more than capable of doing their job and did not deserve to be harassed at work. In the text "The Hollywood Sign: The Culture of American Film", Maasik and Solomon say, "…products have successfully distracted their audiences from the inequalities of modern life…"(Maasik and Solomon 365), and this is referring to the so called "Hollywood-Centered 'culture industry' "(Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon 365). Although in this text it says that movies have distracted us from modern life, I think North Country opens up our eyes to what was really going on. It tells of the first class action sexual harassment case and how sexual harassment laws were put in place to protect all women. 

     Now in society we see women working with men, together as equals like it should have been the whole time. North Country really shows how far society has come and how much we have changed. This movie won awards and is liked by many people not only because the story line is engaging and somewhat suspensful, but also because of the message it sends. The message it gives viewers is that you should always stand up for what you believe is right and justice will be served. Movies like this show that society likes a strong female character and a story where the odds of the protagonist success are low, but they win anyway.