Rhetorical Analysis: A League of Their Own

Throughout time leaders have come and gone, many left a very inspiring mark on the world with their dreams that turned into a brighter future. In today’s society there are multiple movies that show what leaders from the past had done to make a difference and how life was before anything was said about the problem. One problem that is still seen in the world today is feminism. Many movies have a certain view/message of how men and woman should act and work. Woman have always been known to be more nurturing therefore should stay at home with the kids and be the main caregiver, while men are portrayed to be the supporter of the family. Within this paper using Kenneth Burke’s theory on dramatism, the film A League of Their Own, a film made about the very first All-American Girls Professional Baseball League will be analyzed from a feminist perspective.

The film A League of Their Own directed by Penny Marshall and released in 1992 was based on the true story of the first All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The film takes place in 1943 and begins with the news showing that many Major League Baseball players being drafted into the war. This caused a scene in America because they the needed to figure out a way to keep the dream of baseball alive while these men were overseas serving the country. On the other hand two competitive sisters, Dottie and Kit who had grown up on a farm, played for a fun baseball league. Several folks from the small town of Oregon enjoyed watching the girls play, the majority praised Dottie for how good and passionate she was at the game. During this time period the roles of men and woman were very straight forward of what they should be doing. While the girls are working around the house a baseball scout comes by and offers only Dottie the opportunity to try out for a professional baseball league while the boys are at war. While Dottie is very unsure about this position the scout states, “You can not only play ball but you’re kind of a dollie and that is what we are looking for” (A League of Their Own, 1992), this immediately turns Dottie off and she continues working on her chores. Kit continues to talk to the scout begging for the opportunity to play professional ball and he only lets her come if she convinces her sister Dottie to join as well.

As the girls decide to make a difference in their lives and move away to become something of themselves, they had run into the typical ignorance they were used to all due to playing a “mans sport”. Throughout the tryouts there were radio stations talking poorly about the team and discussing how this whole idea of a women’s baseball league will create sexual confusion, and had concerns for when husbands came back from the war as to what kind of women they would be coming back to. However, not only Dottie and Kit but all the women at the tryouts had a love for the game and had no desire to back out because of what people thought of them. Dottie and Kit work very hard to prove to the coaches they should play on a team, however they had to prove too many others that a women’s league was a good idea. During this time frame it was very hard to persuade people that change was a good thing, therefore they made the ladies of the team do some things that they did not necessarily enjoy.

One of the very first items of business was to get the team a uniform, the girls were supposed to wear a uniform that looked exactly as a dress, as one of the team players expressed “What do you think we are, ballplayers or ballerinas?” (A League of Their Own, 1992), it was challenging for the women to put that on and play in it but they did so even though they felt as if they were seen to be weak in them. The team was also at the time required to take a charm and beauty class, so they wouldn’t lose what society had thought of them. As time passes and managers feel like they made a huge mistake, the team proves to their audience that women can play baseball just as much as men can.

A League of Their Own is just one of the many films that has been made that has portrayed men and women in very specific roles. However in this specific film since it takes place between the 1940’s and 1950’s this was a crucial time period when feminism was a big problem. The women in this film did a fantastic job portraying strong independent women who wanted to not only see a difference in themselves but a difference in the world. One blogger expresses her opinion on the feminist actions taking place throughout the film, “This film addresses gender in a contradictory manner. They portray these women as athletes with the abilities of men. However, the emphasis placed on physical beauty (for example the recruiter almost turning down an extremely talented player due to his opinion of her lack of beauty) and the ‘skimpy’ uniforms make the gender divide between women and men in baseball apparent” (Gender Studies, 2008).

It is simply amazing that some believe that gender roles are still important and that they should be followed. Even though times are changing and other movies such as The Hunger Games are portraying women to be very strong and perform exactly the same as a man would in a different movie, there are still hundreds more movies portraying women and men doing what they are “supposed to be doing”. Goodkind has some words of wisdom that everyone should live by “You can be anything you want, but you have to believe it” (Goodkind, 2009), this is exactly what the ladies of the All-American League did.

Kenneth Burke a theorist who was known for his incredible knowledge has created a theory based upon the reasoning’s of why people do the things they do. This was called dramatism, this theory had five essential components to it: act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose. These components were put together because as explained, “Burke believed that all of life was drama (in the sense of fiction), and we may discover the motives of actors (people) by looking for their particular type of motivation in action and discourse” (Dramatism, n.d.). With the questions in mind it is easier to figure out what the intentions behind the characters doing.

Each of the five questions Burke developed helps reach to the main idea that a person is trying to make. “Burke’s dramatism allows us to organize and summarize our knowledge by separating an event into five easily recognizable parts. With these parts separated, it allows us to focus our attention on the important variables” (Cohrs, 2002), on the same line as Cohrs, It is essential that each question is answered in detail to develop the reasoning’s. To expand one should ask themselves these questions…what was the action that took place, where was it taking place, how many people were involved and what did each one do, how does one act in the situation taking place, and lastly, why did one act on such problem and what do they want to come about from taking these actions. (Dramatism, n.d.).

Overall, “Dramatism aims to be a logic of inquiry, an instrumental logic which may be used to investigate hypotheses about particular problems” (Overington, 1977). This theory can make connections when looking at the film discussed, A League of Their Own. Due to the problem of feminism that takes place throughout the film it is essential to figure out the logic of why this took place.

There are three different questions from Kenneth Burke’s theory dramatism that can be compared with the film A League of Their Own. The first being the Scene, it is important to get the background information so that one knows what they are dealing with. In this case the background takes place in 1943 during World War II. The men in the Major League Baseball program were drafted to the war therefore it was important to have another option for American’s favorite past time. In 1943 it was very common for men and women to have specific roles and to stick to them. It was looked down upon when a woman would do a “man’s job” Weiller and Higgs discuss that men and women each had a role to play, “Standards of the feminine "ideal" have influenced women's roles in society and in sport in the 20th century. In the traditional view of women in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s essential differences existed in the social functions of men and women, who were viewed as possessing diverse role and status relationships” (Weiller and Higgs, 1994), the authors even go into more detail about how the economy began to see a difference in the work industry. With the background of a very conservative time period where each individual had a certain role to obtain to, it became quite difficult for some of the ladies on the team to say their own opinion because they were getting something that many other women had never been able to do before.

Next shown in Burke’s questions would be the Act, as discussed previously this is the action that is taking place. The act being portrayed in this film was feminism, as feminism is a women’s movement of becoming who they are and who they want to be. There are many examples when the team members of the first All-American Team are being represented in a negative way. A primary example shown in the film is when hardly anyone shows up to the women’s games because they are women, and they shouldn’t be playing baseball. More specifically, it is shown when the film first begins while many women from all over were scouted to go to try-outs and Wrigley the creator of this league was determined to find the “right girls”, “Wrigley believed image was a vital selling factor for the new league and judged the women who tried out as much for their beauty as for their baseball ability” (Wieller and Higgs, 1994). While many others have their own opinions of them saying that they are going to become too masculine and what would their husbands think. With so much focus on the gender roles throughout the film the ladies playing the sport do not give up and are standing up for something that they enjoy doing.

The last section of Burke’s questions that pertains to this film is agency. This is when the acts of the agents are discussed. As far as the agents go this would be the managers and coaches in the film. The managers go through a hard time as well, not as hard of a time as the players, but still enough to question what they are really doing with this league. It is very difficult for them to see the stands be so empty mainly because they are losing money and time working with a team that maybe shouldn’t have been a team in the first place. These men were the mediators throughout the film trying to get people on the same page as them with something new and exciting but also helping the girls live out their dreams they thought would never happen.

Between the scene, act, and agency the film that had a clear message about feminism and how people acted upon and responded to that message. As Kenneth Burke was a man of knowledge and wondered the reasoning behind people’s actions it helped create the five questions to discover the ideals behind the meanings. Within the film several characters were treated in a way that they should not have been treated due to the time period (scene), the way people portrayed life and stuck to gender roles (act), and the middle man who helped accomplish women get into Major League Baseball (agency).

It is important to realize the meanings behind movements, the film A League of Their Own had a main artifact of feminism being portrayed throughout the film. It is obvious to say that times have certainly changed and women are treated more equally, however, many movies still play gender roles. By using Kenneth Burke’s theory on dramatism and discussing Burke’s questions it became easy to discover the meanings behind the film. It wasn’t easy for Dottie and Kit to get where they are, they were in a battle themselves as they fought for what they wanted, and all they wanted was to be treated as an equal.

References

A league of their own [Motion picture on DVD]. (1992). Columbia TriStar Home Video.

Burke's Pentad: Dramatism. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2014, from http://rhetorica.net/burke.htm

Cohrs, B. (2002, January 1). Kenneth Burke’s Dramatism. Retrieved December 7, 2014, from http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~johnca/spch100/5-3-burke.htm

Goodkind, S. (2009). "You can be anything you want, but you have to believe it": Commercialized Feminism in Gender-Specific Programs for Girls. Signs: Journal of Women In Culture & Society, 34(2), 397-422.

Overington, M. A. (1977). KENNETH BURKE AND THE METHOD OF DRAMATISM. Theory & Society, 4(1), 131.

Weiller, K. H., & Higgs, C. T. (1994). The All American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1943-1954: Gender Conflict in Sport. Sociology of Sport Journal, 11(3), 289-297.

Women's and Gender Studies Blog. (2008, April 9). Retrieved December 7, 2014, from http://feminism- gender.blogspot.com/2008/04/league-of-their-own.html