Personal Synthesis + Feminist Analysis

  After doing all this research and critical thinking about dirty dancing, three different ideas stand out to me when thinking about Dirty Dancing in a feminist perspective.  The three ideas are gender roles, class system, and male dominance. 

            Gender roles are a very strong idea in Dirty Dancing.  The women have a role and the men have a role.  As shown in the movie. The women’s roles are to listen to their husbands or fathers.  The men do all the decision making for their women and are in charge.  Like when Baby over hears the owner’s speech to his workers to entertain the daughters.  Another example is when Dr. Houseman wants to leave Kellerman’s. He makes the decision and tells the owner.  He didn’t ask for his wife’s or daughter’ input about what they wanted.  Although the girls were upset, they knew that their dad was the ultimate decision maker.  One last example I noticed from the movie is when the announcer was stated the names of Johnny and Baby when they were about to perform their dance.  The announcer said “Johnny Castle and partner.”  The woman didn’t even get their name stated and they are just as important as the man in the dance. 

            The class system is very obvious in Dirty Dancing.  The way people dress is a clear indication of the class you are in.  On the main floor all the women are in elegant colors, nudes, whites, pinks.  When Baby manages to get her way up to the staff headquarters, you can see the colors of the scene change dramatically.  They change to darker colors and also the style of clothing changes.  It changes from covering the women’s whole body to being very revealing.  Class is also shown in the way people are treated.  Again, using the situation where the boss is telling his workers their duties, he tells his “higher class workers” to entertain the daughters, even their dogs.  When Johnny, the “lower class worker” comes in, he is told to keep his hands off the girls, and no funny business.  

            Finally male dominance is what is running the whole system of society essentially.  The idea of male dominance is very intertwined with gender roles in Dirty Dancing.  The examples I used from talking about gender roles, can also be used when discussing male dominance.  The idea that the men are in control of what happens is seen.  The women are taken care of by the dominant men. Their values and ideas are what is seen as important to the women. For example, baby has the same views of her father.  But when she finally breaks free and realizes those aren’t her own values, there is tension between her and her father.