How do we define identity? Identity is about what it means to be yourself. It is shaped by several aspects. Family, friends, interests, the surrounding environment and culture are all factors that shape a person's identity. As a person ages, they are affected by all of these factors. Family, culture, and surroundings can influence a person's integrity, morals, and sense of responsibility, while friends can influence a person's interests and humor. These factors can equally influence the same elements and are not static. For example, both influence their interactions with others. Depending on the factors at play, they will impact people differently. In the film Billy Elliot, we see how an eleven-year-old boy deals with his identity in terms of masculinity, class and culture. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Billy Elliot addresses the topic of masculinity through the art of ballet. By looking at the way we commonly think about dance, we may find that the first thing we think of is not male dancers. This is the big struggle in the story and it is what moves the story forward. The society we encounter in this film usually does not welcome a boy's decision to start ballet when his family is boxers. The fact that they are creates pressure on him to become more masculine in people's eyes. So when his father Jackie Elliot finds out that Billy skipped boxing lessons and went dancing instead, he's furious. According to him ballet is for "poofs" and that boys should do other things like "football and wrestling" (Daldry, 2000). Here we see a great contrast between Billy and his family. Unlike his father and older brother, Billy sees ballet as empowering, liberating and boundary-breaking and is his way of showing his masculinity and expressing his emotions. Billy Elliot also deals with the theme of class and status. We see this throughout the film in his family and his environment. His family is traditionally miners. His father and his elders demonstrate this through their work and hatred towards the "scabs". The miners, who continue to work despite the ongoing strike. Therefore, when Billy decides to perform a ballet. He creates his own identity and breaks his family's expectations and breaks the family tradition of being a miner. Typically, we view mining as something manly and something related to the lower classes. Because of this, his decision challenges his class by attempting to do something else. It breaks some cultural norms and strengthens Billy's identity. Instead of doing what is expected of someone of his class, he does what he wants to do himself and behaves regardless of his status and class. Furthermore, Billy Elliot addresses the theme of culture. It does this through many of the same approaches used with status and class. The culture seen in this film does not typically see people associating strongly between people of other classes. The film shows us this in the scene where Billy's father, Jackie Elliot, meets his ballet teacher, Mrs. Wilkinson (Daldry, 2000). In this scene, Jackie becomes aggressive when talking to Mrs. Wilkinson. This is because she has a higher status than him. It shows us that different classes coming together might have aggressive feelings towards each other. It also shows us that the culture here is divided. This affects Billy's identity by making him stretch between two separate cultures. On the one hand he has his family, on the other his ballet and the people around him. Here