I have chosen to write on my favorite movie “Something To Talk About” starring Julia Roberts and Dennis Quaid.  It is their characters that I will be studying for this assignment.  Grace and Eddie are married to one another.  I thought it would be interesting to look at both the female side and the male side of the situations taking place.
             Grace and Eddie both work for their fathers.  Grace’s position is as the stable manager on the family ranch where they train and race horses in the Grand Prix.  Although her position is in management she is rarely involved in any major decisions.  Grace’s father generally reserves the right to keep the decision making up to him.  I believe that her position is very stereotypical to her gender role where women are not usually given positions of high power or authority unless it is undesirable to a man.  For example, Grace’s father makes a decision to buy a horse to run in the Grand Prix, without consulting her, then tells her to inform the employee who was already scheduled to ride for their ranch that he would have to wait until next year to ride.  Grace tells her father that it is wrong to do this and explains this employee will quit.  Her father replies by telling her this is a great opportunity for her to use her people skills to make sure he doesn’t.  This is a perfect example of how women are portrayed as more sensitive or emotional and are more suited for situations of this nature.
            Eddie also works for his father and although we never hear exactly what his position is we observe him in a business suit, going to the office, meeting with clients, having dinner with clients, and having a secretary.  This again is very stereotypical to his gender role where men hold positions of power.  I found it interesting that both characters work for their fathers, different types of businesses of course, but have very different responsibilities.
             Grace and Eddie have a daughter named Caroline.  The parenting roles played by both characters are very stereotypical.  Grace, the mother, is the caregiver who carries the everyday responsibilities of parenting while Eddie, the father, is portrayed as the parent whose time with the child is spent joking and playing because he is off providing for his family the majority of time.  While Eddie is shown as the businessman and provider Grace is shown attending charity meetings with other women creating cookbooks to sell and selling raffle tickets.  Both are very stereotypical gender roles.
             The movie begins with men having more power than women buts switches hands in the end.  Harmony is also very important, as they find out after they experience a huge conflict.  Grace discovers that Eddie has been unfaithful when she spots him outside a building kissing another woman.  After calling his office to hear that he is out for a meeting the rest of the day and receiving a message on the answering machine at home, she goes looking for him in her pajamas with her daughter in the car.  Eddie is found at a bar with the same woman she saw him kissing.  She confronts him and leaves to go stay at her parents’ house.  This is the conflict that will be so important and change her life and others.
             Harmony is very important and Grace is reminded of that by both of her parents.  First, Grace’s mother comes to her office where she tells her that Eddie just slipped and that all men do at one time or another.  She also tells Grace that from now on if she is having problems that she should try to keep it a family thing and to just come to her in the future.  Next, Grace’s father tells her at the dinner table that he is sure Caroline misses her father and that having problems is one thing but running home without even trying to work them out is another.  He tells her that Eddie is a good father and a good provider and that is not so easy to come by.  The most important thing in the conversation is when he tells her that he is involved with Eddie’s parents on a business deal and how Grace leaving Eddie has made it uncomfortable for all of them.  Harmony is so important that Grace should just accept that Eddie slipped up, suck it up, and forget about it to maintain peace and harmony for their daughter and families.  It seems that society determines good mothers by the sacrifices they are willing to make for their children while determining good fathers by what they can provide.
         Eddie’s role throughout the movie is stereotypical.  Eddie portrays himself as a victim and begins to defend himself by blaming Grace.  Eddie’s response to all of this is to get some counseling to work it out.  Eddie meets Grace for dinner at their house where he proceeds to explain to her that he doesn’t like sleeping with other women but does it because she never touches him anymore.  How typical of a man to try to make himself out to be the victim by blaming his actions on the woman.
             Grace on the other hand goes from very stereotypical to astereotypical.  Grace first starts out by telling her mother that she will not stand by and do nothing about Eddie’s cheating like her mother had done with her father.  This results in her mother kicking her father out and confronting the way she has been expected to act.  Next, Grace tells her father that the other employee will be riding in the Grand Prix against him and that if he wants to win it will have to be fair and square.  She follows that with her resignation.  Grace then tells Eddie that she is not ready to work things out and that she is going back to school to pursue her dreams she had given up when she became pregnant with their child.  She stands her ground with her parents and with Eddie and goes against the expected by simply not giving in.
         Sexuality, in my opinion, did not play a very big part in this film.  I love this movie mainly because in the end the females do not play the stereotypical roles that are expected of them.  Instead they do what is right for them.