What struck me the most in the film Billy Elliot was how fast Billy’s dad accepted the idea of Billy dancing. After Billy fell in love with the art of dancing his father and brother were his first skeptics,saying that boys should not do ballet. Yet rather quickly, Billy’s father starts supporting him and wants Billy to succeed.
Within the first few minutes of the film, Billy does ballet. Eventually it becomes his passion and he did anything to get better and better. When Billy’s father first saw him dance he was less then thrilled, He was outraged that Billy would even think to do ballet. Later in the film, Billy loses his temper and starts dancing, trying to prove to his dad that he was good at it and deserved to pursue his dream. What amazed me is that right after that, Billy’s dad comes to his senses and lets Billy dance. It seemed rather fast considering he was a coalminer in the time of the strike and Billy’s dad had a tough attitude.
This point connects to my own life because my mom does woodworking. Even to this day, woodworking is thought to mainly be a males-only hobby. Whenever she joins a new workshop, it takes a little while for the men to respect her and realize that she is just as talented as any man. I believe that people shouldn’t be so quick to judge a book by its cover and accept all hobbies without a specific gender attached to them.