My Big Fat Greek Wedding Movie Analysis (Free Essay Sample)

The movie is about a woman named Toula who comes from a big Greek family that owns a restaurant. Toula has a brother and sister that has three children. Toulas' father Gus has been pushing her to get married and have children since she was a young girl. Gus believes that it is a women's job to take care of her husband and have a lot of babies. Toula's sister Athena has done all of this while her brother works in the kitchen of the restaurant with no partner. Toula has always been picked on for being different or for being Greek in general. Since Toula is not the more conventionally good-looking woman she finds it hard to go out with men and therefore is single with no kids herself. 

One day Toula sees a male teacher come into the restaurant named Ian and his friend. She falls in love with Ian the moment she sees him. Toula begins to do a whole makeover on herself by switching to contacts from glasses and learning how to do her makeup. Once she thinks she looks beautiful she wants to take computer classes in order to do something more with her life than just working at her family's restaurant. Gus is completely against the idea but Toula tricks him into letting her take the classes. 

Toula then begins working at her aunt's travel agency. One day, Ian walks by the window of the agency and sees Toula and begins to flirt with her and take her on dates. Her parents do not like Ian because he is not Greek, in order to marry Toula Ian does convert to Greek for her father's and family's approval. After converting and hanging out with the family, Ian is given the blessing to marry Toula. At the wedding, Toula's parents surprise the couple by buying them the house that is right next door to theirs. The movie ends with the happy couple living in the house with their daughter. 

This movie tries to chapter eight in the textbook called Sex and Gender. In our society, certain genders are expected to do certain things at certain times. As the years go on we have gotten better with equality between genders but we still have a long way to go. For example, women have always been expected to find a husband by the time they are in their twenties and have lots of babies. They are expected to do all the cooking and housework while also taking care of the kids. This is seen in the movie as Gus tries to push Toula to do all of the things even though it is quite clear she wants to be her own woman. 

Toula did not follow in the classic feminine roles that her father and family have set upon her. These roles are still expected, on a smaller scale, in our society today. The newer generations are changing the masculine and feminine normalities to where anyone has the chance to be anything they wanna be. Toula shatters her family's expectations and goes to pursue higher education after high school, looks for a job that makes her happy, and falls in love with the man she chooses. Change is an amazing thing once you are opened up to it, Gus was completely against Toula doing anything that would make her her own person, but after seeing how happy she was and all positivity he had a change of heart.

Inequality between the two genders has been around for quite a long time. Women's pay is less than a man's, we are expected to pump out kids and look perfect, have the perfect hair and face, and much more unreasonable expectations. The newer generations are putting these old norms to rest and creating awareness of the change that needs to be made. During the movie, Toula had a brother who is single as well and works in the kitchen. Gus showers him in love and tells him it does not matter that he is not married yet because he is perfect and it will happen when it happens. However, Gus ridicules Toula all the time for not being married and tells her to do it soon because she is starting to look old. This is a perfect example of inequality between genders. 

Change is hard to come by, especially when they are people who are so opposed to change. During the movie, Toula is ridiculed for wanting to do things differently, not just by her father, but by her whole family. They would treat her differently because she was not following the norms that they were used to. Instead, Toula wanted to grow as her own person and try to expand her mind to new ideas and concepts. She chose to do this by changing her look and wearing makeup to start, this made her feel confident and should not make women feel as if they need makeup and the conventional good looks to get far in life. 

Gender normalities are something that has to change if not for our generation but for our future generations so that they can live better lives than our own. This change is possible and is being made every day, from when a company finally matches pay between men and women for the same job, to when people don't stare at a single working mother trying her hardest. Toula was the first person in her family to want to try and break the mold, and that is all that is needed. That first person or the first step is all that is needed to start a chain reaction to change things for the better.