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Peeraya Rujjanavet

6280143

Sociology

Dr. Deekana Tipchanta

December 2, 2019

Movie Criticism - On the Basis of Sex

“Why are you at Harvard Law School, taking the place of a man?” said Erwin Griswold,

former dean of Harvard Law School (as cited in Cort & Leder, 2018). On the Basis of Sex is the

movie based on the true story of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an icon of

feminist. Throughout the movie remarks gender inequity problem and shows the struggle of

social reform.

The gender stratification in the States can be clearly seen that men have a higher status

than women. The agent of socialisation is one of the contributors to inequality in gender. As

shown in the movie, male peers in Ginsburg’s class are making fun of her and told that she is not

fit in the class. And after she graduates, it was hard for her to get a job because lawyer

companies mostly employ men and they used the excuse that if they hire women, they will have

a problem with their wives or she will not get along with male colleagues. This shows that

women were denied to be in the same position as men. In the movie, it is evident that the power

of the states takes an important role among other social institutions. Thus, it causes the tension in

gender stratification since the law regulates based on the traditional norms and some of it has

already been replaced. Hence, the power ranked high in social-global stratification since they can

force people to do what they want. Besides, most of the jobs in political positions are worked by
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men. There is a gap between the political power that makes women oppressed by men. In gender,

their roles are clearly distinguished; men have to go to work and women have to take care of

their family and children at home. Female doesn’t have the power to make the decision over

men. Furthermore, it leads toward the marriage life and family structure that women are only

expected to remain the primary role as wife and mother. In addition, the theoretical perspective

was applied throughout the movie. Firstly, the symbolic interactionist perspective was shown in

one of the scenes in the movie. Ginsburg’s student was doing the final copy of her legal brief and

found the word Sex was repeated in the paper. She suggests that Ginsburg should change it to the

word Gender because it might be too distracting to use the word Sex and people can interpret in

other meaning. Secondly, the judge was argued to maintain the same law to follow their social

norm because it might ruin how the country’s functions which cover the functionalist

perspective. Lastly, the conflict theory was presented all over in the movie as men want to

maintain their power and privilege over women. The gender stratification has been maintained in

the U.S. and it applies to many conceptions.

In order to make the changes toward gender discrimination in the U.S., they have to break

the inequality in social norms. Though, the social mindset is a concept that has been with people

for centuries. As Ginsburg fought against gender discrimination, it is not easy for her to make the

judges accept that the world has been changed at some point which is one of the obstacles for

social reform. People are scared to change and think about the negative sides of it first without

considering the benefits. The community has to resocialization and learn to adapt to new things

in life. Ginsburg tried to show the way to arrange the adjustment in life by propagate the idea to

the surrounding people, and illustrate the positive outcome of the transformation. These make

people open-minded to accept the new perception. In addition, the fair opportunity for both men
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and women, and lawful regulation improve respectively after people accept the concept of

gender equality.

The gender stratification that has been maintained in Thailand has a great transformation

compared to the past. The Gender Inequality Index conducted by the United Nations

Development Programme shows that Thailand has higher human development because it was

ranked 93rd in 2017 and the rank has been changed to 83rd in 2018 (Human Development

Reports, n.d.). This refers that Thailand starts to take strong action against gender discrimination

since the number improve dramatically in one year. The factor that has been made toward greater

gender equality for women is the declining of adolescent birth rate, sharing of seats in

parliament, and decreasing the number of labor force participation rates. (Human Development

Reports, n.d.). Because these rates show the prosperity of women in health, empowerment, and

economic status which indicates that Thailand has some movement to fix this problem. However,

Thailand still has some social constraints that discriminate such as unequal pay or sexually

abusive. To indicate the ongoing discrimination, Muntarbhorn (2018) comments, “The picture is

less sanguine in reality. Women's access to high levels of decision making is all too limited, as

seen by the few women appointed as ministers”. The practical solution for this is that the

government should take part to close the gap in education, offer equal pay jobs for both men and

women, and empowering women’s ability through social media.

In conclusion, On the Basis of Sex point out gender discrimination in our society and

reveal how much of the social reform has changed over the year. As this quote is mentioned in

the movie “the Court should never be influenced by the weather of the day but inevitably they

will be influenced by the climate of the era'' (as cited in Cort & Leder, 2018), it is the same with

people's attitude that there are some changes in society, people should accept and adjust to it.
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Resources

Cort, W.R. (Producer), & Leder, M. (Director). (2018). On the Basis of Sex [Motion Picture].

United States: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

Human Development Reports. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/GII.

Muntarbhorn, V. (2018, March 8). Challenges to gender equality in Thailand. Retrieved from

https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1424306/challenges-to-gender-equality-

in-thailand.