By Daphne and Dorothy
My Mum has had a pretty interesting
life, she started out as a 'light jockey', then went to Art College, her
Mum then told her to get a 'proper job', so she joined the Police, she then
became a body builder, but I put a stop to that when I was born, now she's
a solicitor. Her mum is the most intriguing and simultaneously terrifying woman I have ever met. But as I've grown older I've come to respect some of her
views that before I thought were stunting my life. One of these such
opinion is on the classic film that is 'Grease'.
When I first came home from a sleepover, ranting about how GREAT Grease was, and singing the songs, my Mum told me that she 'did not approve' and thought it 'conveyed the wrong messages'. She explained to me what these messages were:
1. You have to change yourself in order
for a boy to like you and not be embarrassed by you. Sandy doesn't
simply have a makeover in order to fit into Danny's leather clad lifestyle, she
has a complete change of character becoming a completely different personality. Some could argue that what my mum was deterring me from
doing was dressing provocatively, but I don't that was the issue, she
didn't want me to feel that my personality was unwanted, or unworthy. You could
interpret the ending saying that she gives up the
innocent poodle skirt, all prim and proper, and replaces it with
clothing that reveals and celebrates an adult
body and curves. And that this is not a descent into decadence for Sandy; but
throwing open of the doors of her moral prison. After describing Sandy’s new
overtly sexual look – the tight pants, leather jacket, earrings, wild new hair –
the script says, "Yet she actually looks prettier and more alive than she
ever has." Yeah but Sandy's provocative outfit is relatively tame in a modern context, the pants are a fair comment but EAR RINGS, come on. Your mum was definitely referring to ice-cream-loving, milkshake-drinking Sandy trading in her roller-blades for taking rides in the back-seat, (good girls shouldn't 'park', Back to The Future taught me that ). And that is what makes me feel uncomfortable, the fact
that she changes the way she ACTS, Sandy's a completely different person, a
person that previously she would be very uncomfortable being. In this regard, Sandy
loses her sincerity and personality.
2. Grease glamorizes smoking. My
grandmother died of a smoking related condition, so my Mum has always been really
against it. I once got grounded for pretending a lolly pop was a
cigarette. This is more to do with time period surely, it was the norm back then. They weren't even aware it was bad for them. Understandable for young, impressionable girls but I am not sure this should be on the list any more. But, we're not in that time period now, so to disagree with it seems valid, we can disagree with views because their out dated
3. She thought the song 'Greased Lighting'
was crude, which it is: "You
know that ain’t no shit; I’ll be gettin’ lots of tit in Greased Lightning. . .
You know that I ain’t braggin’; she’s a real pussy wagon…" But
it's still pretty hilarious. Crude as it may be every single pop song of our youth has highly sexual undertones that we never ever 'got' so I like to air on the side of hilarity here, rather that they were over stereotyping and through this satirising the young males of that particular generation.
I did find
some other interesting views on the internet (where else?) that suggested
Grease has feminist ideas also: "Freddy My Love" is the
show’s female doo-wop number... They’re living in the 1950s, but these are
women of the 60's. The idea of the other girls becoming back up singers for
Marty shows us how much they love the girl doo-wop groups, an entirely new
phenomenon at that moment that would become huge in the 60's. The Ronettes were
the first "slutty" girl group to make it big singing rock and roll.
They were what the girls wanted to be (to get the guys) and what the guys
dreamed about getting. '"Freddy, My Love" is a song about early
feminism, about women being sexual and aggressive. But it’s also about the
materialism of the 1950's, a mindset in which money is better than sex, and
gifts are the only true expression of love. Betty Rizzo must also be
celebrated'-Scott Miller http://www.newlinetheatre.com/greasechapter.html Can I just point out that this song is never sung by the actresses in the film, however, and I think that a lot of the female empowerment overtones that you get in the stage play are distinctly lacking in the film. The moment that really gets me thinking 'yes you don't need to be ashamed' is when Rizzo sings "There are worse things (I could do)", she is permitting her female sexuality.
Sandy is never more directly at odds with Rizzo than when she recounts her chaste summer romance with Danny. When she admits they didn't do the dirty, Rizzo is unimpressed. “True love and he didn't lay a hand on you? Sounds like a creep to me”. Rizzo has active desire, unlike Sandy's, she does not wait around for someone to enlighten her, like with Sandy and the makeover, telling her friends “you goody-goodies are too much for me. I’m gonna get my kicks while I’m still young enough to get ‘em”.
Yet, Rizzo is made to suffer for her raucous sexual appetite, she promptly falls pregnant, so perhaps the film is less supportive of independent female characters than suggested, In 1950's America, an unwanted teen pregnancy was convent worthy, Rizzo responds characteristic fashion, turning up dressed in red, scarlet woman-esque, by owning her problems she has stopped anyone from using them against her, (think 'Pitch Perfect's' 'Fat Amy') and the pregnancy then turns out to be a false alarm (maybe promoting a safe-sex message seeing as they do 'ditch the rubber' in the car, ahem). When dancers are warned that vulgar movements will be disqualified, she quips “That leaves us out!”. Sassy. Rizzo’s performance of “There are worse things I could do”, begins as a teasingly, insisting she could do much worse than “go with a boy or two”. But she turns out to have something unexpected in mind. “I can feel and I can cry”, she admits, “a fact I bet you never knew”, before reaching her ultimate conclusion - “to cry in front of you - that’s the worst thing I could do”. We see that the 'cool girl' is afraid of being vulnerable. NO SHE ISN'T AFRAID OF BEING VULNERABLE, she just doesn't need the men to know that she is because being strong is more important, she stands apart from the other women because she is strong. She would have had that baby and raised it anyway if she had been pregnant because she is independent, strong and free-thinking.
Then the high
school principle wishes the group well in the future, she tells the pupils that
“among you there may be a future Eleanor Roosevelt” and the camera pans to an
inspired-looking Rizzo, suggesting she is the cast for future
independent women; Ms Roosevelt transcended her role as presidential wife
to become a powerful UN advocate and feminist hero in her own right. But Rizzo
is not a very supportive friend, nor is she a 'nice' person, Rizzo attacks Sandy
for supposedly being a tease (leading Danny on but not delivering), being
self-pitying, and being judgemental (in the scene leading up to the song). This
is a bit hypocritical. Rizzo judges other women in a way that upholds the social character she has attributed herself, leader of the gang, being nice to Sandy all the time would just destroy this image that helps her be strong - and she has had her own problems to deal with that are actually a lot heavier than 'ooh Danny doesn't like me, now he does, now he doesn't ' so I think I'd be inclined to tell Sandy to piss off.
Whatever way you look
at it, the film end with Sandy shaking her leather clad ass in Danny's face,
and he's all for her now she's changed. I totally agree that this is an awful message to give, but Danny does try and change himself too, joining teams, running track and the letterman cardi (give me leather any day) but that just doesn't stick, perhaps Grease is more about celebrating the wild side that is in all of us? They just overdo it a tad.
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