Option #1: Bechdel Test for Dirty Dancing

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.