preview

Primary Source Analysis Of The Movie Grease

Decent Essays

Primary Source Analysis
The primary source that I have chosen to analyze is a scene from the movie Grease. This movie was released in June of 1978 and is about a so-called good girl named Sandy falling in love with bad boy greaser Danny over the summer. Once it’s time for class to be back in session, they find out they attend the same high school and challenges face them as to how they can rekindle their prior romance with the eyes of their friends focused on them. Sandy is the typical good girl who obeys the rules and does what she is told. She falls in love with Danny who is a polar opposite to her. So instead of the typical movie ending where the bad boy turns into a good guy for the girl he is in love with, the writers threw in a plot twist and it ends up being Sandy who changes the most. She alters from a goody two shoes into a “hot and sexy bad girl” as co-creator Jim Jacobs states in an interview about the meaning to the ending of the film. I think that this movie is a prime example of the way gender roles have been visualized among society for a very long time. Additionally, it also doubles as an example as to how gender roles have changed as well throughout the decades that have passed by.
The specific scene that I have decided to go over that greatly underlines the gender stereotypes we see in the media everyday, and before the eighties, is a scene where Sandy, Danny, and the crew are singing the song We Go Together. Sandy sings about her, Frenchie and Rizzo needing a man and even the girl who they believe to be the ugly one, Jan, needing one as well. Here, plain and simple, Grease is suggesting that a woman absolutely needs a man in order to function and be a whole human being. This specific scene completely reinforces that the main theme of the entire film is the guys’ race to find a woman of their own. In this scene though, the movie is leaving an impression on young men that in order to be cool and liked, they need to have a picture perfect girl on their arm that they can only show affection to when they’re not around their friends. It is telling them that in order to be someone, you need a woman that is accepted by society. The same exact message is displayed for young women who watch the movie

Get Access