Backbencher

In the Movie Whale Rider there is a girl and her name is Paieka. She lives in a Maori tribe, which is a male dominated society. Koro her grandfather, is the eldest of the tribe. He is getting old and it is time to pick a new leader for the tribe. Traditionally it has always been a male to ride the whales back and perform the tests to become leader. Earlier on Piakea’s twin brother died at birth, and he was going to be the heir to the leader of this tribe. So during the movie Paieke is not very liked by her grandfather. When the training and testing begin Paieke is better than all of the boys, but Koro will have nothing to do with it. Koro is confused asks the gods for help and the next day many whales are beached on the shore. Paieke saves them all by riding the biggest on e out to sea so the other whales will follow. Koro now realizes that she is supposed to be the next leader of the tribe.

This is not a bad movie; it has beautiful shots of New Zealand. It makes me want to live there. Anyways I like how this movie shows someone going against the norm in society. You can relate that to any American movie and realize that the Maori people are not that different from us, if they encounter the same social and gender norms we faced.