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Billy Elliot - Nationalism and Class Structure

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The year is 1984. Eleven-year-old Billy lives in a poor and white-dominated working class society in the northeastern part of England. He lives together with his father Jack, older brother Tony and his senile grandmother. It is miner's strike and the father having major issues supporting the family. Despite that he pays for Billy's boxing class. The local ballet class shares the same facilities as the boxing group and one day Billy becomes curious. The ballet teacher challenge Billy to take part of the class and she discovers his talent. Billy avoid telling his father about the ballet class because it will make him upset. It is a movie about a young person's courage to question the rules of society and the bravery to stand out. Billy is born into a working class family where the men since generations been working in the miners. The work as miners has always been a natural part of their macho identity. This identity threatening when major parts of cole mines all over Britain needs to shut down. The society they live in is a man-dominated and the women's is almost non-existed. The ballet class is allowed to use one corner of the boxing studio, like an parenthesis. Britain's conservative thought shines through the movie characters standpoints and the way of living. Comments like "only gays dance  give examples of how the conservative thinking characterize contemporary Britain. The author of Contemporary Britain describe Britain as a white-dominated society where the citizen lives close to their neighbors cause of the high level of inhabitants. (McCormick, 2007: 48) The movie reflects what McCormick describes well. Views from Billy's hometown are showed in the movie several times. We may behold densely build-up homes where the families live close to each other. Billy Elliot is a fictitious story that partly been inspired by real stories and persons. The scriptwriter Lee Hall has used some of his own experiences and memories from his

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