Reflection on Tootsie

The movie was about Michael Dorsey, a talented but unsuccessful actor. He was infamous for being difficult to work with. After a few months unemployed, he dressed as woman to try out a role. Interestingly, he got the role and quickly became very successful as a woman.

As Dorothy, Michael portrayed a difficult women that always stand up for herself against other male characters and demand their respect. It reached the highest point when Dorothy angrily demanded another casting member to pronounce her name correctly: "It's Dorothy, not Tootsie. Dorothy. D-O-R-O-T-H-Y." This trait soon became a desired trait of many women, especially Julie, a co-star that Michael liked. It implied that women wanted to stand for themselves, but was unable to do so. Apparently the reason were more due to the society's expectation and stereotyped look at women than their innate ability to express themselves. It demonstrated how our male dominated society would restrain women (from being themselves?).

Another interesting thing was how Michael responded to different genders. As Michael, he lied to his "girl friend", Sandy. Saying that he did not promise her anything, he refused his fault. While at the same time, as Dorothy he told Ron, who was going out with Julie, how Julie is hurt when he lied to her and went out with other girls. It was amusing that Ron used exactly the same reason as Michael to defend himself, but Dorothy rejected it totally. How could he miss it so easily as Michael? Is it because he did not put his feet into the shoes of women to think?

Overall, the movie was very funny and interesting. If you are curious about how two men proposed to Dorothy, how Michael was thought to be gay by one girl, and lesbian by another, or how Michael escaped from all the troubles he caused, I recommend you watch it!

P/S: finally finish this writing. Not satisfied but I've pondered over it for a week already. It was really hard to elaborate my thoughts. Writing is really difficult.
P/S2: the real difficulty is in maintaining the writing concrete and coherent