preview

Dirty Dancing: Not Just a Love Story Essay

Decent Essays

In the movie Dirty Dancing, the main characters are seventeen-year-old Frances Houseman, also known as ‘Baby,’ and Johnny Castle, who is a supposedly twenty-five-year-old dance instructor (Sylwester, 2008) This movie takes place in the summer of 1963 at Kellerman’s, a vacation resort (Ardolino & Gottileb, 1987). Throughout the beginning of the movie, the budding romance between Baby and Johnny becomes apparent; by the end of the movie, they have confirmed a relationship, but Johnny has been fired and must vacate the resort. Due to the setting of this movie, the gender construction and messages are a little more outward than they may be in a more recent movie. To start, Gender is constructed by society and therefore, it is constantly …show more content…

She wants to be a doctor like her dad, and help people. Another example of gender construction in Dirty Dancing would be when Baby offers to help carry watermelons for Billy. He tells her that he has it and insists on carrying these watermelons because women should not have to carry heavy things (Ardolino & Gottileb, 1987). There are other aspects of this movie that comply with the gender construction of that time period. For example, pre-marital sex was looked down upon and in this particular movie, the woman is blamed for it. Furthermore, Gender construction is an observable aspect of this movie, especially the message that it shows about gender. Throughout the movie, Baby is constantly fighting for something, whether it be a relationship with Johnny or a friend that she just made, or even with her own father. This movie depicts what it may have been like for a young woman in the 1960s. In the early 1960s, the woman’s movement began to become more evident than previous years. There were sit-ins and “the Pill” became an actual contraceptive. The movie is reflective of the Feminine Mystique, which was one of the more prominent pieces of the women’s movement was published (Sawhney, n.d.). The gender message for females in this movie is apparent, which is to fight for what you want. Baby wanted a relationship with Johnny, she wanted her

Get Access