I was watching the
chick flick, She’s the Man, when I have noticed that it touches one of
the mechanisms of evolution—sexual selection. The main character is teenaged
Viola, a girl whose soccer team got cancelled, and so she decided it would be a
really good idea to enter a boy’s school as her brother, in order to continue
playing. Of course, much drama ensues and soon the eruption of confused love
triangles emerged, and with that, the clichéd intersexual and intrasexual
“selection” amongst the characters also arises.
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| Viola, or, "Sebastian" |
Viola, dressed up as a
Sebastian (her twin brother) meets the good-looking Duke, with whom she falls
in love. However, he is interested in Olivia, who develops a crush on
“Sebastian”. Meanwhile, Viola’s sexist ex-boyfriend Justin, sees Viola and Duke
in a suggestive position, and swears to “take it to the field”. First of all,
this movie is an excellent, and entertaining, example of sexual selection.
Intrasexual selection could be shown through several relationships: for
example, Viola, who tries to win Duke’s affection from the good-looking Olivia;
Duke and “Sebastian” fighting over Olivia (or more like Duke was being obtuse and
convinced that Sebastian is “stealing his girl”) and also Justin and Duke’s
quarrel regarding Viola. All of these are sexual selection within the same
gender (well, technically with “Sebastian”), fighting for mates of the opposite
gender. On the other hand, intersexual selection is also shown at the end when
the other gender picks a “mate”: Duke has chosen Viola after all is, of course,
revealed like a happy move should end things with, Olivia picks Sebastian (the
real one, who came back) and Justin—well, Justin gets nobody.
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| And of course, happy ending. |
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