How femininity is represented in the role of teenage boys in The Perks of being a wallflower and Submarine

Thesis:

• Both The Perks of being a Wallflower and Submarine do not conform to the usual representation of femininity in rom com/drama films, as they both follow a teenage boy in a feminine role. They do this to show that boys can be just as feminine or even more so than girls

What will i be discussing?:

•I will be discussing how these two independent films use teenage boys in a role that would usually be a female role.

•The perks of being a wallflower is a drama/romance that would usually portray a female in the main role instead of a male. Submarine is a romcom/drama that does the same.

•Both films represent femininity within teenage boys, that is different to usual romance films as it is trying to make you think about the boys point of view with ‘young love’, rather than a girls point of view.

Outline of the films:

•The perks of being a wallflower is  based around a teenage boy starting high school who is trying to be normal, during the first year of school he finds an unusual group of friends, in which he falls in love with a girl who is older than him.

•Submarine follows a teenage boy on his journey through his first love and unpopular school life, where he tries to fit in.

How they are different to normal films of the same genre:

•In the usual romance films, the main role is played by a teenage girl, however they replace a girl with a boy. Both films are independent, this shows as the message of the film is that boys can be just as feminine or even more so that girls.

•They change the roles to show a different point of view from a boy instead of a girl, this does not follow normal ways of a romance film as usually girls are usually seen as the gender with feelings, but this shows femininity through boys.

•Both films are independent and they show the message of the film being boys can be just as feminine or even more so that girls. This is because 

Scenes that compare and contrast my two films:

•In Submarine the main character Oliver gets into a fight and is seen as feminine as he cannot fight back. This shows that Submarine makes their main character seem weaker, more girl like, as he gets beaten up. After he is beaten up, it cuts to hi laying o the floor with a nose bleed, they use a high angle looking down on Oliver to make him seem weak and so making him more feminine. 

•In The Perks of being a Wallflower, Charlie the main character starts to cry and gets overwhelmed with the fact that his friends have left to go to college and he feels he has no one to confide in. This makes him seem more feminine as he shows his feelings, which is seen as more of a girl like thing to cry and show their feelings.

 

• In my second clip of The Perks of being a Wallflower, Charlie is narrating it, showing that he is writing to someone about his feelings, sort of like a diary. This is more of a feminine trait to do, as boys do not necessarily write down their feelings. Also the clip shows Charlie sitting down and writing down what is being narrated, as he is doing this the light quite bright and makes him look sort of angelic, this is more of a feminine thing to be innocent and angelic.