Malcom. Priestley s The Bully - 787 Words

The show Malcom in the Middle consists of a cast of observable stereotypes such as an overbearing mother, boyishly aggressive children, and cowardly intellectuals. Even though the show projects seemingly un-dynamic characters because of this, in more cases than one the characters snap free of their gender roles and act in inverse mannerisms. In the episode ‘The Bully’ (S1; E10) Reese joins the wrestling team. Almost immediately, he is shown being defeated by an opponent, who was a girl. Due to his humiliation, he no longer holds on to his position as the school bully. He becomes lost, without a sense of purpose. The episode ‘Malcom’s Girlfriend’ (S3; E4) Malcom becomes enthralled with his new found love. A face of jealousy, aggression, and over-emotion emerges and causes him anxiety. He acts irrationally throughout the episode until the girl eventually breaks up with him — leaving him broken-hearted on the pavement. Reese is in every way a stra ight-forward character. He reflects not only a gender role, but an average bully’s persona. In a standard episode Reese can be summarized as boyish, incompetent, and violent. His incompetence guides the way for most some of the show’s incorporated hijinks. However, it is his stereotypical aggressive that is most prominent. His character is well aligned with the idea of male strength and brawniness. This allows him to be powerful and threating to most of the other characters on the show. As an expected result, his sub-par intellectual