Bringing "The Heat": Reversing or Reinforcing Sexual Stereotypes

The movie combines the powers of America's sweetheart and America's new favorite raunchy female comedian. The Heat, released in 2013, stars Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy who portray an FBI agent and Boston cop on the hunt for a ring of drug dealers that are violently taking control of Boston's streets. Sandra Bullock stars as uptight FBI agent Sarah Ashburn that is vying for a new promotion and trying to crack this case to impress her boss. Melissa McCarthy, quite conversely, stars as hot tempered and foul-mouthed Boston police officer Shannon Mullins that plays by her own set of rules and is trying to save her brother from getting involved in the drug market.

This is one of my most favorite movies- I just happen to find their casting selection brilliant and the plot hilarious. However, what brought this fantastic movie back to mind was our discussion in class about which stereotypes surround women and which surround men. As a class we came up with quite a startling list of stereotypes. We agreed that women are emotional, bad drivers, weaker, domestic, crazy, needy, clingy, materialistic, dramatic, feminine, bad at math and science, nurturing, and bad at sports. Men are assertive, stoic, strong, aggressive, unemotional, independent, competitive, dirty, stubborn, not nurturing, masculine, and good at math and science. What struck me most about these lists were how confining they were. That's where the movie The Heat comes in. 

These two characters in the movie seem to completely reject the list we came up with for the stereotypical female. Both Bullock and McCarthy play characters that are completely independent, unemotional, not naturally nurturing or understanding, not clingy, and non-materialistic. These two are competitive and stubborn as well. Thus, the two seem to reject the female stereotypes and actually embrace more of the male stereotypes. Maybe that is part of the reason this movie is so funny: these women are not sexy or elegant. They are devoted to their careers figure out how to crack the case between the two of them. 

However, one scene does stand out, especially in relation to Ferguson et al.'s (2005) analysis of the "Promiscuous Female" stereotype and the nature of the application domain. This scene is one where Ashburn and Mullins are trying to get a bug into the cell phone of a person of interest. They find the guy at the newest club and decide that they have to dance like all of the other girls to get close to him. But Mullins decides that it will have to be Ashburn that gets close to him and that she cannot hit the dance floor in her FBI suit. So they go into that bathroom where Mullins revamps Ashburn's outfit: 

This last image shows how Ashburn leaves the bathroom and the outfit that allowed her to successfully seduce the man in question enough to get the bug into his phone. Thus, those stereotypes that Sandra Bullock's character rejects through most of the film are embraced in this scene: she is clingy and promiscuous, feminine and kind of crazy as she attempts to get the man's attention with her 'dirty' dancing. Ferguson et al. (2005) found that their study and their activation of the promiscuous female stereotype "through exposure to a  popular television show can affect subsequent judgments of other women" (p. 485). They also found that subjects placed in the condition with exposure to a promiscuous female judged women as less likely to succeed at a prestigious university (p. 484). This is directly played out in this part of the movie. Ashburn becomes the promiscuous woman in this scene to get the attention of the man in question, something she never would have gotten in her professional suit. After the two leave the club, they run into two DEA officers that are tracking the man that Ashburn just bugged. The men, based on Ashburn's dress, judge both Ashburn and Mullins to be inadequate in doing their jobs. They say directly that they are in the way and make fun of Ashburn's unshaved legs. Just as Ferguson et al. found, Mullins was subsequently judged based on Ashburn's promiscuity. Both the male DEA officers think these two women to be incapable and belonging at a desk somewhere rather than in the field. 

Therefore, this movie is complicated. Most of the movie shows the two main characters outrightly rejecting the promiscuous female stereotype and female stereotypes in general. However, this scene with the phone bugging is a crucial step in the progression of the case. Without the information from the phone, Ashburn and Mullins would not have been able to shut down the drug operation by the end of the movie and save Mullins' brother. Thus, even though the end of the film shows the two women on top and successfully carrying out their mission without any male assistance, there still is this judgment of female promiscuity and female inadequacy. 

References

Ferguson, T., Berlin, J., Noles, E., Johnson, J., Reed, W., & Spicer, C. V. (2005). Variation in the application of the 'promiscuous female' stereotype and the nature of the application domain: Influences on sexual harassment judgments after exposure to the Jerry Springer Show. Sex Roles, 52(7-8), 477-487. dii: 10.1007/s11199-005-3713-y