Comparative texts - BSU and Billy Elliot

Question 1

Both texts challenge hegemonic masculinity but from different perspectives:

Answer 1

○ Billy Elliot focuses on male struggles within rigid gender roles.
- Boy Swallows Universe critiques masculinity’s harm to both men and women.

○ Billy Elliot offers a narrower critique, primarily addressing the male experience.
- Boy Swallows Universe extends the argument by showing how masculinity damages all individuals.

Question 2

How texts represent binaries (support):

Answer 2

Eli is always supported and loved in some way, whereas Billy experiences a contingent or conditional love from his brother and his father, that depends on him embodying the “kind of man he aught to be”.