Gouda (Symbol)
At the end of the film, after it has been revealed that Viola is a girl, Duke feels disappointed and betrayed. He withdraws from Viola and she returns to her former life, unsure of the status of their relationship. As a peace offering, Viola sends Duke a big wheel of gouda—the cheese that they talked about in the roleplay earlier, before Duke knew she was a girl. The gouda represents the fact that Viola feels close to Duke and wants to continue to have a relationship, even if she knows she hurt him.
Viola's dream (Allegory)
At one point, we see one of Viola's nightmares. She plays soccer in a large gown, stumbling over the dress and into the mud at a definitive moment in the game. This moment serves to represent Viola's gender troubles, the fact that she feels that her obligation to perform femininity (by participating in the debutante ball) is hindering her from expressing herself as an athlete. It also represents her anxiety about being found out as being in drag as her brother. The dream shows that Viola is afraid that everyone will learn her secret and she will not be able to play on the boys' team.
Malvolio the Spider (Symbol)
In the film, the fastidious Malcolm, who is intent on revealing "Sebastian"'s true identity, has a pet spider named Malvolio. Malvolio is a character from Twelfth Night, the Shakespeare play on which She's the Man is based, and Malcolm is the teen comedy's answer to the character of Malvolio, a steward to Olivia in the Bard's original. His spider represents the scheming and plotting of the character, the fact that he's just a little creepy and unsavory, showing up in places he doesn't belong.
The Debutante Ball (Motif)
Throughout, Viola must attend various events leading up to a debutante ball that her mother is making her participate in. Viola does not like doing overtly feminine things and resists having to conform to the Junior League's standards. Even after she has begun dressing as Sebastian and attending Illyria, she must participate in debutante events, so the Junior League and its events become a kind of motif in the movie, representing supposedly respectable femininity.
The Final Goal (Symbol)
The reason Viola wants to join the boys' soccer team at Illyria is to prove to her former coach and to her ex-boyfriend that girls can be just as good at soccer as boys. On the Illyria team, she gets to play a definitive game against her old classmates, and the game comes down to a penalty kick in which Viola must score a goal on her dismissive ex-boyfriend. She manages to kick it into the goal with Duke's help, and the moment of victory symbolizes the fact that Viola is proving that girls are just as good as boys.
