Whale Rider

The movie starts by establishing that the protagonist, Paikea, was born into a Maori family with patriarchal tradition that the first born male grandson would be the leader of the tribe. However, because her twin brother passed away during birth, her grandfather, Koro, the tribe chief and elder was developed conflicted and complicated feelings towards Paikea. Koro, loved Paikea but Paikea's interest in learning to be a chief of the tribe infuriates Koro because to he thinks all the bad luck that is happened to the tribe was brought by Paikea.

The movie clearly showed elements that can be explained with Eagly and Wood (2012) 's Social role theory, where roles of the genders, male and female, are socially constructed with Men being the leaders and chief of it's people and women should not be interfering with the business of men. This hit a chord with me, especially born of a Chinese ethnicity male, our culture and  tradition is more patriarchal as you can see families with more conservative thinking would favor the male over the female. This is because the males can carry the family name, as a male marries a female, he brings the female into the family. While a Chinese female with marry away to the male family.  Moreover, normally, the males especially the first born would be the heir of anything that is passed down like businesses or heirlooms. Hence, the first-born are expected to excel and rise to the occasion. In the movie, Porourangi, Paikea's father, felt  the pressure of being expected to be the chief by Koro. Porourangi knew it wasn't his calling but was repeatedly pestered by Koro to do so. 

Despite all that, Paikea fought hard to gain the respect and love of her grandfather. She never stopped learning the ways of her people, even Koro repeatedly scolded her and mistreated her. Eventually, after being saved from drowning as she ride the whales. Koro realized that Paikea is the rightful heir, as she earned it by retrieving the tooth of the whale. Koro gave Paikea the respect and love that she rightfully have and was taught of the ways of her people to be the future tribe chief.