It is important to understand however that Wilder’s use of language may not cause the average cinema goer to assess the binary languages that exists between male and female roles and relationships as “The figure of woman has long served as a powerful and ambivalent patriarchal symbol, heavily overdetermined as the expression of the male psyche. Yet it has also been a site of gendered discourse” (Mokhtar-Ritchie). Some Like It Hot clearly reflects its time which is the 1950s and the characters were formulated and written for such a time even though the film clearly highlighted some formidable thematic issues that went against the grain of the stereotypical notions of masculinity and femininity it still broadly reflected its time. The representation of women clearly was done by the dominant interpretation and control of men. In the 1950s women just left the factory’s and the duty’s that were predominantly dominated by men in the second World War. Instead of working alongside men when they returned from war; women naturally assumed the duties that they were used to which was that of a homemaker; “The role of women in the 1950 was repressive and …show more content…
Marilyn’s infamous portrayal of female sexuality, packaged in a subtle, thoughtless and innocent packaged, was represented well throughout the film. In many ways Wilder’s movie is important because of the strong debate around sexuality and gender discourse it evokes; “Some Like It Hot stands out from other cross-dressing comedies, attested to by the academic attention it continues to receive in a variety of film discourses and its undiminished popular appeal” (Anglean). In a way the film subtly challenges the largely mainstreamed discourse on gender by going against the dominant cultural conforms around femininity and masculinity. The movie was able to portray the forbade portrayals of gender due to its comedic field; “introducing ambiguity, reveling in the interstitial spaces that they create, and highlighting the permeability of constructed and constricting gender conventions’’ (Anglean). In spite of the largely popular discourse around gender and sexuality the movie is able to attract; it is still a movie that has a universal narrative structure; one in which Marilyn’s character Sugar Kane is adamant at acquiring her dreams, and Joe and Jerry, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon’s character seeks survival and refuge after witnessing a