Strictly Ballroom

Strictly Ballroom is a movie that portrays the main character, Scott Hastings as a talented but stubborn young dancer. Scott is bored with the "strictly ballroom" dance moves and wants to dance his own steps to win the Pan Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championship. However, he was not agreed by everyone else except for his partner later - Fran, a beginner dancer. The conflict between him with his partners, him with his mother and coach, formed the storyline and eventually brought out the central message - to live life in your own way. Social influence is a psychological phenomenon that is easily seen in daily life. It is clearly portrayed in the movie by the characters' behavior.

Conformity
Strictly ballroom, as its name, dancers can only dance ballroom steps but not any other steps. In the movie, it can be seen in all of the dancing scenes that all of the pairs only follow the formulated dance. I could not even differentiate who was the main character until Scott started to dance differently. No one tried to be different because everyone was doing the same. Scott's first dancing partner was infuriated when Scott behaved differently during the competition, which caused them losing the competition. She did not want to be different, she wanted to fit in because being different would be rejected - which was portrayed as losing competition in the movie.

Obedience
At the same time, all of the dancing studios only teach dancers the formulated dance because they were afraid that their membership/license would be taken away by Australian Dance Federation which would take away their source of income.

Compliance
Scott decided to give up on his own style of dancing even after insisting for so long and going through so many disagreements with his own mother (who used to be a dancer too) and his coach, because he was requested to not disappoint his parents and fulfill his dad's dream of getting champion on Pan Pacific. He gave in and decided to dance with his previous dancing partner - Liz.

A life lived with fear is the life half-lived, said Fran on the way Scott sent her home.
This statement had left a deep impression in me. As a very ordinary human, fear has always been haunting me for not taking steps to achieve what I want. Fearful of punishment (physical or psychological - regrets, discrimination, ), is why I have been careful with my behavior and words. It limits me when I want to voice an opinion about something, talk about myself or even do something for myself.

One of the examples would be, I used to be very active in class when I was in secondary school. I ask questions and I would raise my hand to answer questions. However, when I first came to university, I was not dare to ever raise my voice in class. I thought I was intimidated because the other people in the class seem to be more outstanding. Then I slowly realised it was the social influence from the people I mixed with. Although they are quite smart, they never want to speak in class because they did not want to be the center of attention. While me being afraid to be judged or excluded from the bunch, I chose to keep quiet. Slowly, I could not even pay attention anymore as there isn't interaction with the lecturer. It was lucky that I quickly adjusted afterwards which it did not affect my study but I was not happy with my change. It pushed me to pick up the elective subject - Psychology of Pop Culture, offered by Dr. Anasuya. It was a subject that required people to talk in class and participation mark was so high that it could result in you passing or failing the subject. I tried my best to speak up in class and have discussion. It was a semester of struggles, I received doubts from others and myself, I did not score well in it. I used to be regret at the very beginning when the semester ended but I changed my mind after a talk with Dr and some thinking. Now, I am proud of myself that I challenged and put myself in that uncomfortable situation. Even though I might not have scored well, I know I have tried and I have gained a lot that could benefit me in the future.

On the other hand, I also found that there was time I was brave enough to stand up for myself. Back at my hometown in Sandakan, Sabah, psychology is a very rare, or close to nowhere-to-be-heard-term. It is a beautiful land with wonderful people but they were lack of the knowledge about psychology. They thought it was all about crazy people. All of the knowledge they knew about psychology was based on stereotypes and/or drama. Even my parents who are educators in primary school, they could not understand my desire and purpose of studying psychology. My dad was the one who had opposed to my proposal of studying psychology. He wanted me to take up a course that could guarantee a well-earned job. I took years to persuade and prove to him that I could be fine with the option I chose, I would make him proud even if it is not the pathway he wants me to walk. In the end, he gave in and let me decide on what I want. All these while in the past 3 years, he has been supportive and understanding to me. 

From my experience and thought after watching the film, what I want to deliver is that it is fine to be different as long as you are not committing crimes or doing anything that is bad. Your efforts will prove to you and the people around you that most of the time, winning or losing is not what is important, but doing what you want and what is right is fine because it is always more important that there is no regret. Tried and failed (not necessary) is always better than not trying at all as throughout the journey, there will always be something that you would gain.

It is also good to try listening and understand first when you see someone acting differently. The out-of-the-box-thinking should be appreciated as sometimes it is the way to discovery of new era.