Adam’s Rib (1949): Cukor’s Gender-Contesting Comedy, Starring Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn and Judy Holliday

The film reconciles the tension between certain “male” qualities–stability and stoicism–and certain “female” qualities–volatility and intuition. But, under the right circumstances, each gender can exchange these qualities; Adam demonstrates that he can fake tears. That each can do almost everything the other can do is established pointedly during the courtroom session, when the faces of Dorris and Warren are transposed, each becoming the other.