Melanie's Gender Deviance

From the moment The Birds begins, Melanie Daniels is immediately coded as deviant from the rest of the women on the screen.  Full of self-confidence, Melanie is an independent woman able to move around freely in the world she lives in.  She knows what she wants and she isn’t afraid to manipulate a few men to get it.  Men desire and objectify her and women despise the power she holds.  Caught in an awkward position between masculinity and femininity, Melanie is a social deviant fully accepted by neither the opposite sex nor her female compatriots.