The musicals Billy Elliot and Grease feature conventional and unconventional representations of the genre throughout. Both musicals also seem to obscure the message of underlying gender stereotypes, overshadowing them with elements such as music, dance, and costumes. Men have been stereotyped as dominant, strong, courageous and aggressive. Furthermore there is an image of men being portrayed as harder workers than women and supposedly as the more intelligent gender. “Men are thought to be physically stronger, more aggressive, more rational, better able to handle loveless sex, and more likely to succeed at work by virtue of their greater desire to win.” (Nicholson, 1993, 2 ) Very often, men have less emotional attachment to other people as they are apparently less sensitive than women, which would explain men's stronger ability to handle sex without love. Physically and mentally, men are considered stronger than women , which is why they can be seen as more persevering and determined workers, therefore making them more likely to succeed at work. The character of Tony from Billy Elliot follows all the regular stereotypes that we associate with being masculine. He shows his courage and his aggressiveness through his strong commitment to riots and also through the fact that he shows no sign of respect for people in authority. His dominance is exuded through his firm, stable posture and his particularly demanding manner towards Billy. Tony represents the typical male in Billy Elliot, and sees Billy's interest in dancing as something feminine, therefore not a respectable interest for a young boy, as dancing is often considered a female hobby. On the other hand, women have been stereotyped as being passive,......middle of paper......dtrack (2000) [CD track] 4min. 53 seconds. It could be a star. Original cast recording.4. Denisoff, RS and Romanowski, W.D. (1991) Risky Business: Rock in Cinema. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. Page 241.5. Everett, W.A. and Laird, P.A. (2008) The Cambridge Companion to the musical. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Page 332.6. Koller, V., (2008), 'Not just a colour': pink as an indicator of gender and sexuality in visual communication, Visual Communication, I (4) November p.401.7. Lancioni, J. (2006) Cinderella Dances Swan Lake: Reading Billy Elliot as a Fairy Tale. Journal of Popular Culture, 39, (5), page 718, 723.8. Malone, T. (2010) Utopia, Nostalgia, Grease: How a Film Can Create a Theatrical Legacy. Theatrical Annual, 63, (18p), page 50.9. Nicholson, J. (1993) Men and women: how different are they? 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Page 2.