KC Hill
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Craig Hill
Oracle of DelphiAmanda Bynes: transgressive teen star
April 18th 2006 14:36
Bynes looking good (as a girl)
Ok - I know that when it comes to artistic credibility Amanda Bynes isn't exactly William Shakespeare, but she might actually be closer than you think. She's the Man, the new Bynes vehicle, is 'inspired' by Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and is just as transgressive when it comes to gender as its medieval progenitor.
Bynes as a girl
Bynes, the likeable teen-star best known for her work on Nickelodeon's The Amanda Show, stars in She's the Man as Viola an aspiring soccer player forced to disguise herslef as a male in order to prove that girls can play sport just as well as the guys.
Gender restored
However, this overarching plot takes a back seat to the numerous romantic subplots that run through the film all of which revolve around Viola's (Amanda Bynes) ambiguous gender identity.
As a biological female impersonating a male Viola beomes 'hot stuff' on campus - becoming the object of the hottest girl in school's affection. Olivia (Laura Ramsey) falls head over heels for Stephen (also Amanda Bynes) raising the possibility that gender and sexual attraction is as much about performing as men/women as it is about biology. Indeed, Byne's hammy emulation of male chauvinist posturing (her exaggerated use of terms such as 'homie' 'dawg' 'bro' etc) underscores this point, illustrating the way in which things that make us men and women are so often little more than contrivances.
Bynes as a boy
In true popular film style, She's the Man profers a conservative finale in which traditional gender roles and codes are re-established: what could be more conservative than a debutante ball? However, despite the lip-service that the film ultimately pays to traditional gender boundaries, the work, as well as Bynes herself, appear to offer themselves as culturally progressive forces.
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