Week 7: Whale Rider (2002)

Koro has a traditional mindset and represents people who are likeminded as him. He wants everything to stay the same, e.g. the rituals and traditions of their community and town, how the men must always lead and girls follow behind, and so on. He has an issue with females wanting to be the leader (i.e. Pai wanting to learn the ways of leadership, but Koro repeatedly and stubbornly telling her that she can't do it simply because she's a girl).

These traditions are based on patriarchal ideology, and Koro believes in this system entirely. Thus, reserving the chance to learn this part of their culture for the boys in the village. For instance, when Pai wanted to learn how to use a fighting stick, she seemed just as qualified as the other boys, but she was still not allowed despite her efforts. It's ironic because Pai wants to learn so badly and feels that she can do it, but isn't given the opportunity to do so - not even a look to see how well she is or an explanation as to what she has been doing. Yet, the boys are dragged into this, even though they show hesitation and little interest - they were given the opportunity to learn simply because it was expected of their gender roles. As boys, they have been taught that they must be strong, able to defend themselves and fight their enemies as they grow older; they're expected to be fit, masculine and to lead a village.

This can be applied to many communities and traditions given that it is very common in customs and beliefs that have been passed down generation to generation. Women and girls are usually not allowed to be the head and not given equal opportunities as their counterparts - boys and men.

Week 5: Strictly Ballroom (1992)

1. Courage and conformity

This Baz Lurhmann film touched the themes of courage and conformity. It seemed to focus on those who do not conform to the rules of ballroom -- you get ridiculed when you are different from the rest. When Scott's character decided to incorporate his own dance moves into his dance routines, he was frowned upon -- it was something that you should not do, everyone had known this. When he broke the rules by doing so, people were surprised and did not know how else to react other than negatively. In order to be creative and innovative, one must take a risk. Scott took a risk that was out of the norm in the world of competitive ballroom dancing, and people did not like it.

By taking a risk and following his heart by doing so, this risk could have led to failure as no one supported him and no genuine feedback was given to him. At some points in the film, Scott was close to giving up and giving in to do what was expected of him, rather than what he felt was good for him.

In the end, though, Scott ended up going with his instincts and decided to take that leap, even after being disqualified. The positive and encouraging reactions from the audience surprised the judges and proved them wrong. This action takes a lot of courage to perform and go ahead with.

2. Control and self-expression

Barry and the rest of the people of the Australian Dancing Federation (ADF) treat the dancing industry as a business, even Scott's mother thinks the same. Barry seems to be afraid of losing his power. He says that if one cannot dance it, one cannot teach it. With an increasing amount of young talents rising up, it is not surprising that Barry would be intimidated that someone else more talented would take his place and shoo him out of his current position instead. By having this sort of control in the competitions, the competitors will feel the need to follow these rules in order to win -- hence why not many people have attempted to do their own moves during these competitions.

These unreasonable rules seem to be a distraction from the bigger issue -- that Barry gives an illusion of his own control, almost to a point of brainwashing the rest into thinking that there is only one way to dance. Which is pretty ironic, considering that dance is widely known to be a freedom of expression of the self. Thus, to let it be contained in an ideal box and having checklists of certain moves to make sure that everyone stays within their safety net seems quite paradoxical. Barry is afraid to let go and try new things, thus his obsession with holding onto power, even driving him to do horrible things such as lie to Scott about the demise of his parents' careers as ballroom dancers, for his personal gain.