Name : Ayu Nuri Fransiska

NIM : 16020154018
Class : Intrinsic Approach

The Lack Points in The Movie “Little Miss Sunshine”

Little Miss Sunshine (Dayton and Farris, 2006) presents an ordinary little girl who
wants to be a beauty queen, having good self-branding in her world. This ideal has been
constructed from the highlight culture of American society. This analysis focuses how this
movie sets up through applying binary opposition on American life from the “ideal” family,
success and gender roles.
On the surface, Little Miss Sunshine appears American dominant ideology is
criticized. For example, when Olive Hoover is introduced, she is watching several videos of
Miss America pageants and copying the contestants’ reactions. It is clear that when olives are
exposed firstly, olive looks like an ordinary little girl who is generally fat, wearing eye
glasses, having pale skin and chubby cheeks. From the way she consumes, watching miss
beauty contest, she naturally seems to be admiring excessively and wanting to be what she is
idolized, a beauty queen.
As a chance being a little contestant comes to her life, Olive has a doubt on herself
and her ability to win, at one point concerning her body image. For instance, Olive
disappointedly refuses her ice cream because her father Richard warns her that ice cream will
make her fat, and Miss America is never fat. The rest of her family then convinces her to
permit and she eats her ice cream with a satisfied smile. In this moment, the dream forces
Olive to get the beauty satisfaction. This commitment is very stressful, because children at
this age should not be restricted from doing things that they like to pursue what they dream
of. It will hamper its growth to be themselves and live in a standard of beauty in people's
perceptions. At the same time, when Olive chooses happiness gaining conventional beauty,
the film creates a gap between individual choices and the choices society expects one to
make.
When Olive`s family is introduced, it appears as an average family by under society
standards. Sheryl is an over-stressed mother who has been divorced at least once already. Her
husband, Richard is a motivational speaker struggling to get his business off the ground.
Much to his family’s dismay, he practices his motivational techniques on them almost
constantly. This point shows Sheryl is drawn like the role of the ideal female, loving and
caring for her family, however she sometimes has a hard time hiding how much they makes
her absolutely stressed (as implied in her many arguments with Richard). The facts of the
matter, she should face annoying people every day in her house: Richard still cannot gain his
financial up, Frank (her brother) is terribly depressed to the point of suicide, Dwayne is silent
until he can reach his dream as a pilot, and Edwin is an alcoholic old man.
Little Miss Sunshine presents an absurd view of modern American life. The beauty
is still measured by the standards of public perception, and the perfect marriage doesn’t exist.
The concept that remains true is that American can create the happiness by ignoring society
judgment. Thus, this movie shows a gap between what is expected by society and what can
be accepted, either by the individual.