Communications and Media

Gender communication and behavior has been different since the beginning of time. There are those that are rued by others opinion of their physical, emotional as well as other aspects of ones life. Film has represented this well in the award-winning film Precious in which the title lead faces life as a teenage mother bombarded by hardships. A book that supports different forms of gender communications is Julia T. Woods Gendered Lives in which the author explores how different male and female communication and interaction differ from one another. This reflection paper seeks to co-relate the film and book.

Gender Communication in Precious and Gendered Lives
In the film Precious, the women all have different views of the world and are defined by appearance or by relationships with others. (Woods, 2009, p. 119)

 In the narrative done by Precious, she seems to have resigned herself to the fact that she will not amount to much because the world, especially Mary Lee, considered her fat, stupid and useless. This means that the females in this film are defined by their looks and shows Preciouss upbringing is why she is negative about herself. The book, Gendered Lives (2009), states

But we dont reflect on ourselves from a purely personal perspective. Instead we look at ourselves through the eyes of othersIn fact we can experience self only after experiencing others and their views of us. (p. 161)

Mary Lee seems to believe that she will never find love because Precious took that from her. As a result, she does not love her grandchildren as well. This may as well have been the reason why Precious has given up as well on love, as seen in the film when she says that she has never had a boyfriend or has never been kissed which results in her accepting what her father did to her as normal and daydreams to block it out. This makes Precious think its not normal to be single.

Men are seen as the sexually assertive and dominant. There is a scene in the film where some boys demand for sexual favors from Precious but when she ignores them, they disrespect her. It is said that men are considered the more superior sex and that whatever they say, goes. This is seen when the book discusses renowned male movements like the Promise Keepers and the Million Man March which do not allow women to be a part of while there are others that believe that femininity has destroyed families, twisted women, and caused grief to men. (p. 115). It is stereotypes like these that have caused a number of women to take the back seat in relationships and society. This is seen when Mary Lee seems to have relied too much on her boyfriend for physical and emotional support she was not only unable to save Precious from his sexual abuse but she also resented her for taking away her emotional crutch.

In the film, the women use their experiences to not only teach others about life but to also better understand them. For example, Preciouss classmates talk about reasons that caused them to drop out of school and it is at the alternative school that they have a second chance. Mary Lee tries unsuccessfully to make the social worker see why Precious and herself had been unhappy and didnt get along. Miss Rain was one of those that believed, loved and cared for Precious when her home life got worse. Precious is determined to make it and have her family despite what society has negatively led her to believe about herself.

In the film, femininity is challenged when Precious uses violence to get through to those that offend her, as seen in situations at school. Miss Weiss does not reveal anything about her family or her race, which means that she does not use emotion to get by as other females would.

In conclusion, the film Precious shows a group of women that have been faced by adversity in their life and they are determined to better their lives either by going to school, helping those in need, having faith in those that have lost faith in themselves and still determined to have a happy family despite coming from a broken one. They have decided not to be defined by their relationships with others but as independent agents.(p. 120). By the end of the film, we see that there is hope for them all despite their situations.