“You don't want to hear the horny details!”
“Alright, I'll tell you!”
Grease is loved for its song and dance numbers.
But this classic is also has a lot of insights into another kind of performance:
how we present our gender and sexuality to the world.
Grease shows that learning this gender performance is
a big part of our teen years.
“I don’t know about these chicks.”
“Yeah they’re only good for one thing.”
“Then what are you supposed to do with them
for the other 23 hours and fourty-five minutes of the day?”
But performance isn’t inherently negative or positive.
It can mean hiding behind an inauthentic, false persona,
or it can mean expressing your true self to the world.
“And to look your best for the big contest, just look your best and have a ball!
That’s what it’s all about, after all!”
40 years later, Grease still has something to show us
about finding a healthy approach to gender and sexuality
that’s true to who we are.
“She looks too pure to be pink.”
Grease is set in the 50s, but it came out in 1978,
so the movie is actually telling us more about the 70s.
# "We made out, under the dock" #
This was a time of sexual revolution, defined by the women’s liberation movement,
the accessibility of the pill, the rise of porn,
and increasing visibility for LGBTQ people.
Grease may be nostalgic for 50s pop-culture, style and the decade's idealistic, feel-good
tone,
but the film is trying to imagine a more honest, edgy depiction of what the era was really
like
to show the parts that might have been left out
by movies, or shows actually made in the 50s.
[EXCITED MURMURS] “Papa!
Did you have a nice day today?”
“I feel like a defective typewriter.”
“Huh?”
“I skipped a period.”
“You think you’re PG??”
In Grease, the sexual revolution is reflected especially in two ways:
one, in the affirmation of overt sexuality,
and two, in complex gender representations.
Grease reinterprets the 50s through a sex-positive lens,
affirming the idea that sex can be a means for self-expression.
# "And I'm losing control 'cos the power #
# You're supplyin' It's electrifyin'" #
The movie brutally mocks the virginal Sandra Dee type.
"Miss Goody Two-Shoes makes me wanna barf."
Flavorwire has argued that, quote,
“in a slut-shaming world, it’s a rare and interesting example of prude-shaming.”
“What’s wrong?
We don’t got cooties.”
And ultimately the movie’s happy ending is
that Sandy transforms into a confident woman with sexual agency.
# "Meditate in my direction, feel your way" #
"Wow!"
Meanwhile, the other way Grease is updating the 50s is
by giving us more complex representations of gender
through the Pink Ladies and the T-Birds.
“Lady?
I don’t see a lady.”
The name “The Pink Ladies” tells us
that these girls are firmly grounded in their femininity.
“One of my diamonds just fell in the macaroni!”
They’re interested in beautifying and boys.
“Men are rats.
Listen to me!
Th-They’re fleas on rats!
Worse than that!
They’re amoebas on fleas on rats!”
But at the same time, they don’t fit other female stereotypes:
they’re not interested in things like homemaking or kids;
they’re not trying to be demure;
and Rizzo in particular is sexually liberated and assertive.
“Oh bite the weenie Riz.”
“With relish.”
Meanwhile, the T-Birds are superficially masculine
in that they’re obsessed with cars and getting laid.
# “Tell me more, tell me more Did you get very far?”
#
But they also don’t fit the macho profile in some ways:
they’re not into sports,
and they spend a lot of time doing their hair.
The title ‘Grease’ is referring to the hair grease the guys use.
# "Grease is the word."
#
And the film shows them touching up their hair an absurd number of times –
these young men are vainer than the girls.
Danny and Kenickie put up a tough front,
“You know if you fix up this car, it could be make out city,
you know that right?”
“Right, a chick's gonna have to put out before she even gets in.”
but they’re actually sensitive guys underneath.
“Hey Danny, uh, we been friends a long time, right?”
“Yeah, so?”
“Well, I thought that you could maybe be my second at thunder road.”
And they’re more naive and vulnerable than they act.
# “Sandy, my darling, you hurt me real bad.
You know it’s true…” #
the movie implies Kenickie was a virgin when Rizzo and Kenickie first get together,
since he’s been carrying a condom around for years.
“It broke.”
“How could it break?”
“I bought it when I was in seventh grade.”
So both the Pink Ladies and the T-Birds embody
a mix of traditionally masculine and feminine qualities.
These characters’ styles also have cultural and historical significance.
Director Randal Kleiser confirmed that Danny’s persona takes after Elvis.
“Kind of the 50s James Dean or Elvis Presley look.
More Elvis Presley, I think he was channeling Elvis Presley in this movie.
Cause the hair as you can see is very much an Elvis thing, Elvis sideburns”.
Elvis embodied a far more expressive sexuality than the sex symbols before him.
# “Elvis, Elvis, let me be Keep that pelvis far from me” #
Stars like Elvis, James Dean, and Paul Newman represented a new kind of masculinity –
one that embraced a youthful, rebellious spirit.
“Oh he’s real abstract, he’s, um, different.”
“That’s right, that’s right.
I’m cute too.”
Compared to earlier masculine icons who were more about debonair grace or ruggedness.
Meanwhile Sandy’s reference points are, very explicitly, Sandra Dee
# “Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee Lousy with virginity.” #
and Doris Day.
“Heeeey, I’m Doris Day.
I was not brought up that way.”
You might say that these women represented a past, fading version of womanhood,
“That brings us back to the subject of boys— what do you think about kissing any?”
whereas Elvis represented something new and groundbreaking, of the future.
Elvis singing, “A whole lot o’ loving to do
come on baby, to make it fun it takes two”
So through Danny and Sandy, Grease is dramatizing this clash
between new and old approaches to sexuality –
“You’re gonna spoil it.”
“I’m not spoiling it Sandy, it’s only making it better.”
and in the end, it’s the new that wins out.
Sandy sings, “I need a man who can keep my satisfied.”
Adolescence is when we begin to perform gender in an adult way.
Teens emerge from puberty with adult bodies,
and they can start to experiment with expressing themselves sexually.
“A hickey from Kenickie is like a Hallmark card,
they don’t care enough to send the very best.”
This is especially overt in the movie,
which cast actors in their twenties and thirties to play the high-schoolers.
“Grow up, he’s the living end.”
“Yeah.
if you’re into older guys…”
It’s fitting that performance is at the heart of this teen movie –
adolescents tend to feel like they’re onstage and everyone’s watching.
“Jan, that is so adolescent.”
“We are adolescent”
Much of the movie illustrates the pressure teens feel
to perform false personas to fit in –
like when Danny plays it cool upon seeing Sandy again at school
after their summer together.
“What’s the matter with me baby?
What’s the matter with you?”
“You’re a fake and a phony and I wish I’d never laid eyes on you.”
Especially as teens,
we fixate on ideas of what we think others want from us
Rizzo sings, “But to cry in front of you /
That's the worst thing I could do.”
When Danny’s trying to win Sandy back he gets into sports to impress her,
but she doesn’t seem to really care whether he’s a jock or not.
Likewise he doesn’t really mind that she’s a good girl –
after all, that’s who she was when he fell for her –
but he very much cares what his friends think of her.
“Ey Danny, whatsup?”
“You still thinking about that chick?”
“What?
Are you nuts?”
Once he stops worrying about his friends,
“I can’t believe it.
Danny Zucko, turned jock?”
he’s finally able to get the happiness with Sandy he wants.
So Grease is underlining that classic teen-movie message
that we shouldn’t trouble ourselves with what other people think.
In the very beginning of the film,
we see Sandy and Danny frolicking on the beach together ---
and they’re completely happy just being themselves with each other.
In spite of the instinct to protect yourself with a persona,
the greatest happiness comes from being seen for who you really are
“Could you call me by my real name?”
Guy murmurs, unable to remember.
“Betty.”
But, at the same time, Grease isn’t saying performing an identity is inherently bad.
Frenchy is a positive example of how you can explore
and find yourself through performance –
she has a lot of fun playing with her appearance,
“Oh yeah, I had a little trouble in tinting class…”
and that’s not for anyone else’s benefit.
“Blondes do have more fun!”
So, performance can be authentic self-expression
or it can be a fake way to seek approval, depending on where it’s coming from.
The teens in Grease are learning how to perform being adult men or women.
And sometimes they overreach by trying to pretend they’re more adult than they
truly feel.
“Oh I can take care of myself… and anyone else who comes along”
But in the end of the film,
Sandy and Danny both learn to perform their genders
in a positive way that expresses emotional maturity.
Sandy’s makeover from good girl to sexy bombshell
can get criticized these days –
“Sandy?”
“Tell me about it, stud.”
Some see this as a woman changing herself to please a guy.
But Sandy’s change is really about her –
she’s developing her adult sexuality and daring to show that side of herself to
the world.
Before this point, Sandy was repressed and afraid of the womanly, sexual part of
herself.
“You think I’m going to stay with you in this—this sandwagon!”
So finding the nerve to let this out is an important coming of age rite of passage
“One of the things that we came up with was the idea that she would be smoking
and drop the cigarette and put it out and she was being told by Dinah Manoff to
do that.
And that was something we came up with on the day
to show that these girls are helping her become a Pink Lady and be sexy.”
Sandy’s more experienced friends are teaching her
how to act like an adult woman in the world –
“Let me teach ya how to French inhale.
It’s really cool.
Here, watch!”
So here the movie reminds us that this behavior is learned from our community, and shared.
Thus Sandy’s transformation is showing the kind of gender performance
that can be an affirmative ritual.
And it’s also important to remember what comes soon before this.
Before her change, Danny comes into his manhood in a positive
way.
Danny takes Kenickie’s place in the car race and wins –
So unlike earlier, when he was trying to impress Sandy,
and ended up embarrassing himself,
here she gets to see him succeed and prove his masculinity.
Seeing this, Sandy feels the desire to perform her femininity in the same way.
She has a strong desire to shed her girlish “Sandra Dee” self.
Sandy sings, “‘Goodbye to Sandra Dee’”
So by the end of Grease, Danny and Sandy have both grown up
and grown into gendered roles that they desire to perform.
Danny’s finally stopped caring what his friends think
and is willing to put Sandy first.
“Come on, you know you guys mean a lot to me, but Sandy does, too.
I'm gonna do anything I can to get her” –
So, he shows a deeper understanding of what it means to be a mature man,
as opposed to a cool-looking but very self-conscious boy.
Sandy outgrows her identity as the rigid girl afraid of experience,
Sandy sings, “Oh so scared and unsure”.
and starts opening up to a more adult relationship with Danny.
The two characters meet each other halfway –
not by pretending to be people they’re not,
but by leaning into a different side, or performance, of their identities.
For both, this is expressed in a physical transformation –
Sandy wears a black leather outfit,
while Danny wears a letterman sweater,
as if each has become a little more the other.
Overall, Grease offers a surprisingly complex look
at how adolescents learn key lessons about performing gender:
like how to distinguish between false and authentic performance,
how to tell when you’re changing yourself for other people
versus, when your outer self is evolving due to inner growth.
The movie’s ultimate takeaway is that
learning to perform yourself in a way that rings true
is essential to growing up.
“Well uh, the first thing you have to do is change.”
“Yeah that’s why I’m here.
To change.”
“No, I mean your clothes.”
“Oh...”
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