So, what better way to commemorate the life of Patrick Swayze than to watch Dirty Dancing, the movie, which more than ever, immortalized him in the minds of so many women.
For most of us around my age, that movie iconicized everything about falling in love, both good and bad. The right way to "do it" for the first time, as well as the wrong way, the typical fakey-fake Hollywood clean 50's crap that was so popular in the 80s, and the rest of the romantic ideal about summer romance, and how true love and standing up for what you believe in makes everything come out alright in the end.
The fact that there's sexy dancing only makes it better.
Every girl imagined herself as Jennifer Gray, and that was the point...
except, as I realized, watching it today, I didn't.
As a fat girl, I KNEW I wasn't ever going to have a boyfriend (I didn't yet know that I was queer, but that's a subject for a whole different post) who would be able to lift me over his head no matter how I balanced my weight. Given that at the time the movie came out my pants were often half again as big as those of the boys I was dating, it was completely impossible, but I dreamed it, and it added a whole other layer to the blossoming self-hatred that was growing inside me.
Fat girls didn't even exist in those days in popular media.
Lately we've been watching Glee, and it's an interesting change. I have to admit that it's nice to see a junior fatshionista on there. It would be nice to see her be something other than the representative fat and black character in the cast of geeky/gay, disabled, nerdy, religious, jock stereotypes, but at least she's there.
In the teen representations of my adolescence she didn't even exist, unless it was for the purpose of poking fun.
I wonder how different it is growing up today. On one hand there's this enormous culture of "fighting childhood obesity, and yet, there's an enormous effort being made to represent fat teenagers as normal, to avoid encouraging eating disorders, and to encourage healthy self esteem and positive body image. Also, since the zero tolerance on bullying initiatives have started taking off, and have been getting some enforcement, maybe things are getting better.
It's interesting.
I need some links in here. That's a project for next post.
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