Alexandra Smith
I’ve
seen Dirty Dancing a dozen times, but
last night I watched it with the Bechdel test in mind. The result, you beg to
know? *drum roll please* It passed! There are actually quite a few female
characters and they did talk to each other about things besides men. Among the
female roles is the lead, 17-year-old Frances Houseman, who mainly goes by
“Baby” majority of the movie. The main supporting characters are Baby’s sister,
Lisa, their mother, Marjorie, and the female head dance instructor, Penny
Johnson.
In terms of dress, the movie is set in the
summer of 1963 at a plush resort, Kellerman’s, so the dress in general is much
more modest and conservative. Baby, in the beginning, is very modest with
sleeveless, knee-length dresses with high necklines paired with over-sized
cardigans, natural hair, and no makeup. But when she becomes the new dance
partner of heart-throb Patrick Swayze’s character, Johnny Castle, she gradually
wears more revealing, sexier clothes and makeup. Granted, it is summertime and
they are rehearsing for numerous, consecutive hours in non-air-conditioned
cabins. Plus, dancers are typically made up for performing. I have reconciled
Baby’s transformation of dress in my own head (Patrick Swayze is so hot, how
can you not be tempted to dress a bit sexier around him?) and feel that this
was a necessary demonstration of her coming-of-age/transformation. The mother
dresses very classy, feminine, and always put together, as does Lisa, but she
is a bit more sexualized in some scenes to be captured as superficial, vain,
with a pretty face, and big rack (watch the last scene for the Kellerman’s
talent show, in which she is wearing basically a supportive swim suit top).
Penny is definitely the most “sexy” out of these four women, but she’s
typically only over-exposing one part of her body at a time, such as her featured
backless dress or leotard. I think the most she exposed was her shoulders and legs in an off-shoulder
peasant top paired with high-waisted short-shorts.
Now
what did these ladies talk about? Honestly, the dialogue between Baby and her
mother is limited to a few quick lines and she has probably two real
conversations with her sister. Baby interacts the most with Penny, starting
with Baby admitting her admiration and envy for her and following with the
scene that reveals that Penny is knocked up by Robbie, a college-aged
waiter at Kellerman’s that Lisa is currently seeing. At this point, Penny sees
Baby as well, a baby, and tells her she doesn’t know jack about her problems
and to just go back to her playpen. Eventually, Penny becomes a mentor figure
to Baby and the two become friends while Baby learns Penny’s routine for her
scheduled performance at the Sheldrake with Johnny.
Are
they “normal” women? I’d say each woman is unique her own way, but believable
in their characters to be real women. Marjorie is a mother and wife, a bit
superficial in some aspects, and not as involved in her daughters’ lives as she
should be, in my opinion. But certainly her spunky personality is shown in the
last scene when she tells her husband to sit down in order for Baby to be free
to go on stage with Johnny. Plus, it was cute when she turned and whispered to
her husband while Baby was dancing on stage, “I think she gets it from me.”
Lisa is very vain, superficial, and spends most of the movie discussing things
like clothes, where her “base iridescent lipstick” went, honeymoon locations,
and her plans to “go all the way” with Robbie. Lisa is competitive with Baby
for their father’s attention and is certainly envious of her. She softened
towards her sister when the family finds out Baby had slept with Johnny and her
father forbids her from seeing him again. It really was a sweet scene where
Lisa just sensed Baby’s emotions, sat on the bed beside her, and held her. She
even offered to do her makeup and hair for the show, but then admitted that
Baby was beautiful in her own way. Baby’s mother and sister become characters
with some depth by the end of the movie. Penny Johnson was not necessarily a
“normal” woman, as much as a “real” woman from the very beginning. Part of her
appeal as a dance instructor is that she used to be a rockette, but when Baby
admits how she envies her, Penny lets her know that she was kicked out of the
house at sixteen by her mother and has never gone back since, shattering the glamorous,
surreal image Baby saw prior. Now for the main character, Baby (especially
since I am at almost 800 words now, sorry about that. I clearly got carried
away with this blog due to my undying love for this movie). Baby is seventeen
and not the typical young woman for the time due to her aspirations to attend
university and major in something other than English. She plans to attend Mount
Holyoke in the fall and major in the economics of underdeveloped countries then
enter the Peace Core. Her innocence, privileged, and sheltered life is still
obvious at the beginning of the movie, despite her compassion for the poor and
suffering. But she is a “normal” woman due to the very relatable transformation
she goes through from not only the obvious reason of falling in love for the
first time or losing her virginity, but also through tapping into her
free-spirit through dance. I don’t think the character Johnny necessarily was
the key to her transformation, as much as following her curiosity, desire, and
heart to try new experiences that summer outside the norm and her parents’
expectations.