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Clip description
Bill (Denis Moore) and Michael (Frank Whitten) are driving to the police station to pick up the teenagers. The police found them in a car that the household earlier reported missing. Out of ear shot of the women for the first time, the two men score points against each other until Bill tells Michael to get out of the car. Therese (Fiona Press) and Diane (Deborra-Lee Furness) are already at the police station. Diane flirts with a police officer (Alan Glover) to persuade him to hand over the children, much to Therese’s disgust.
Curator’s notes
These two sequences juxtapose male and female arguments over gender identity and image, making the point that each sex has traditional and contemporary ways of seeing the world, and each can look ridiculous.
In the car, Bill the doctor and Michael the political science lecturer embody different styles of masculinity. The former is a traditionalist whose disapproval of the way the women take charge makes him look old-fashioned and somewhat bigoted. The latter’s acceptance of his wife as holding power in the relationship represents an emasculated, post-feminist male that is hardly more inspiring as a role model.
At the police station it’s Diane who is the gender traditionalist, flirting shamelessly with a police officer. Therese is disgusted with Diane for exploiting her sexuality, but her overreaction makes her look equally silly.
