Whale Rider

Whale Rider is a magnificently empowering movie that inspires females to have courage to fight against gender stereotypes and gender role about female. It reveals the fact that many females are being treated differently and they have to fight harder for what they want as compared to their male counterparts. It also shows that how a belief results in the issues of gender inequality in a community. In the movie, the Maori chief Koro believes that the first-born males are the descendants of Paikea (whale rider), who will also become the chief of the tribe inherently. Thus, the birth of Paikea Apirana is unfavorable to Koro because Pai’s twin brother was stillborn during delivery but she did not. 

Patriarchy is strongly embedded in the social system of Maori tribe in which males hold primary power and authority over females. The dominant ideology of patriarchy includes the class system of male domination and female oppression in which females are expected to follow the demands requested by males and are unlikely to possess formal power and representation. The society of Maori is patrilineal wherein the leadership is inherited by the male lineage, so Pai is undoubtedly not eligible to become the chief of the tribe simply because of her gender. Koro is deeply disappointed when he realizes that there will be no male heir to succeed him as chief. 

Such an androcentric (male-centered) tradition has somehow brought about detrimental effect on women’s role and self-understanding. Like Pai in the movie, the androcentric tradition has prevented her from being treated as capable as her male counterparts. Her grandfather refuses to acknowledge her capability and leadership potential, and even claims Pai is useless to him. When Pai tries to sit in front during the meeting with boys who are the candidates of next chief, Koro says to her “Paikea you are a girl, go to the back”. When Koro finds out Pai fixes the broken pull cord on his boat and wins her Taiaha fight against Hemi, he is furious at her attempt to break the tradition. In fact, Koro is being in the state of cognitive dissonance because he loves Pai and see her ability to accomplish tasks expected of males; however, he refuses to acknowledge her potential as a leader because she is a girl. 

As a girl, Pai has to fight so hard to get recognition from Koro. She tries to show Koro her interest in leadership and ability to assume the role of chief that her deceased twin brother was destined to be. Even Koro has warned her not to learn anything that is deserved for males, she decided to challenge gender role expectation by not obeying Koro. She secretly learns chant at the outside of the classroom and practice Taiaha fighting with her uncle. She demonstrates her ability in several scenes, such as she defeats Hemi in Taiaha fighting and take the whale tooth necklace Reiputa back from the bottom of the sea that all the boys in Koro’s class fail in their attempts. She is also not afraid to risk her life to save the whale when she is riding on the top of the whale and trying to coax it back to ocean. 

From this scene, we can interpret the dying whales wash up to shore as the dying patriarchal tradition, and Pai who rides on the back of the whale like her ancestors as the rise of female leader.

Pai’s courage and determination have led her to break the gender stereotype and the gender role expectation in her tribe. She is not afraid to stand up to her own belief and confront her tribe’s belief system that males are superior than females. In a scene when Pai is giving her speech, she says that “…if the knowledge is given to everyone, we can have lots of leaders and soon everyone will be strong, not just the ones that have been chosen.”  

It demonstrates that Pai believes that her gender should not dictate who she is as a person and both males and females should be given equal chance to succeed. Oftentimes the assigned tasks for males and females are unjust and discriminatory. Taking Pai as a great exemplar, she has proved that female is as capable as male or even more capable than male of accomplishing many tasks expected of male. The film Whale Rider has projected the fact that our society tends to favor male to succeed and female to fail. Instead of casting female protagonist in a sexually submissive and stereotypically traditional role, Whale Rider has portrayed females in a counter-stereotypical way in which female is depicted as intelligent and capable leader. The film itself has also serve as an inspiring tool for females in patriarchal society to stand up for what they truly want for and not to look down their ability to accomplish something.