Adapting to a New World, Case Study Example

New in Town is a romantic comedy film about a woman who was transferred from a big city to a small town to help in alleviating the business conditions of a blue color manufacturing plant. However, Lucy, the protagonist in the movie,faces a lot of challenges adjusting to the new town. The plot of the film is enjoyable mainly because of the small-town warmth. Seeing acquaintances and friends helping each other as well as providing handmade gifts to each other is a refreshing aspect vivid throughout the movie.

Furthermore, the characters’ actions to help each other while having fun augment the positive spirit of the movie. Also, the characters are more engaging by helping each other out. However, despite the film being entertaining, theplot is highly predictable. The characters were also unoriginal and used old jokes, an aspect which ironically depicted an old in design movie despite being titled New in Town. Another element thatrepresents an old by design narrative is Lucy’s belief that she can tackle any challenge. There are many movies and stories about women who believed in themselves without fear of any difficulty.

The director of the film, Jonas Elmer, struggles to instill creativity in the movie. He copycats the Fargo character playbook throughout his narrative. Therefore, the book lacked creativity since it used old jokes and character traits. However, despite everything sounding and looking old, the director managed to achieve humor in the movie. Similarly, the underrated J.K Simmons produces a spectacular performance as a plant foreman. Therefore, New in Town is generally an average movie but possessesfunny instances and ethical,social teachings, particularly in the scenes that characters helped each other out.

The media usually plays a vital role in people’s lives. It influences people’s perception of themselves as well as the world in general (Greenwood & Lippman, 2010). The media can be categorized as TV shows, movies, and magazines, among many others. In many media presentations, gender is represented in different ways (Benshoff& Griffin, 2015). In most types of media presentations, women are usually assigned to minor roles (Popa &Gavriliu, 2015). However, in the movie New in Town, Lucy is represented as the main protagonist, an aspect which aids in representing how women in leadership behave and conduct their undertakings.

In the movie,Lucy represents all women in leadership positions and how they perceive things in the workplace. The director managed to exhibit women’sability in the workplace by subjecting Lucy, the protagonist, to a new working environment. However, despite the challenges associated with a modern working environment, Lucy managed to overcome most of her problems. First, Lucy received a frosty reception in New Ulm Minnesota. However, after some time, she was accepted by the locals.To that end, it is evident that women struggle with acceptance in leadership positions because of toxic masculinity exhibited by many men (McInroy & Craig, 2015). Similarly, it is usually tricky for women to support each other in leadership positions (Collins, 2011). However, Lucy managed to exercise her leadership ability and managed to capture the heart of many people in New Ulm Minnesota.

The director also manages to portray women’s ability to make critical decisions during hardsituations. In the movie, Lucy is seen considering her goals and priorities to save the town, which was on the verge of collapse due to the closure of the blue color manufacturing plant. After reviewing her priorities, Lucy decided to adapt a former yogurt line to ensure the entire Ulm community is kept in work despite the closure of the blue color manufacturing plant. In this case, the director portrays feminine leadership as perfect for the society since women leaders usually make decisions on the interest of the community, rather than self-interest.

In conclusion, men and women are usually represented differently in movies. Most movies use men as the protagonist due to the nature of the society perpetuates gender disparities. The disparities exhibited by many movies generally influence people’s perspective on gender roles. However, the film New in Town challenges the conventional gender power structure where men are typically assumed as powerful compared to their peers the women. In the Movie, Lucy is used as the main protagonist an aspect thatchallenges conventional gender power in movies. Different scenes in the film also justify women’s ability to undertake activities perceived to suit the male gender. For instance, Lucy is assigned the duty of overseeing the restructuring of a struggling plant apposition, which would otherwise fit the male gender, based on the conventional gender disparity in the society.

Similarly, Lucy’s role in the movie depicts that women can be economically independent as opposed to the belief that most women depend on their spouses for their upkeep. The director of the film manages to exhibit women as people who can make sound decisions. In the movie, Lucydecides to remain in New Ulm, Minnesota, to save the community by keeping them in work. Her directive was to close down the blue color manufacturing plant, but she decided to establish a yogurt production line that will employ the people who were on the verge of losing their jobs due to the closure of the color plant.

References

Benshoff, H. M., & Griffin, S. (2011). America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies. John Wiley & Sons.

Collins, R. L. (2011). Content analysis of gender roles in media: Where are we now and where should we go? Sex roles, 64(3-4), 290-298.

Greenwood, D. N., & Lippman, J. R. (2010). Gender and media: Content, uses, and impact. In Handbook of gender research in psychology (pp. 643-669). Springer, New York, NY.

McInroy, L. B., & Craig, S. L. (2015). Transgender representation in offline and online media: LGBTQ youth perspectives. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 25(6), 606-617.

Popa, D., &Gavriliu, D. (2015). Gender representations and digital media. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 180, 1199-1206.