Film Analysis : Grease By F. Scott Fitzgerald

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.

There is a huge debate going on today about gender. Society believes you’re a boy if you like blue, and like to play sports and go hunting; and you’re a girl if you like pink and have long hair and pig tails and play with Barbie dolls. Society has forced us to choose between the two. I believe that both women and men can both have it all. As Dorment says, ‘competing work life balance and home as much as women’. (Dorment 697) I believe in this article Richard Dorment, has argued his opinion very well, I think both men and woman equally need to be involved in housework as well as taking care of the children. In today’s world were judging who were going to be even before were born. Throughout this article Dorment effectively convinces his audience that men and women should be equal by using statistics and emotional stories, Dorment uses personal stories and extensive research to make readers believe in his credibility, and lastly Dorment employs the rhetorical appeals of pathos and ethos effectively.

The film’s treatment of gender and sexuality connects to the time in which the film was based in and also made in. Grease connects to the 1950’s because of its relevance with the release of Playboy in 1953 (Playboy History). Playboy conveys the idea that sexually mischievous women are better than women who are not with their explicit media. Grease also connects to the 1970’s because of the feminist movement in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The Civil Rights Act was also passed in 1964, which was intended to prevent employment discrimination of race, religion, and sex (The 1960s-70s American Feminist Movement: Breaking Down Barriers for Women). In the film, women seem to have a bit more power than they are thought to have. For example, bad Sandy is able to assert sexual power over Danny at the end of the film. The producers of the film were able to connect elements from the 1950’s to the 1970’s.

A house is not a home if no one lives there. During the nineteenth century, the same could be said about a woman concerning her role within both society and marriage. The ideology of the Cult of Domesticity, especially prevalent during the late 1800’s, emphasized the notion that a woman’s role falls within the domestic sphere and that females must act in submission to males. One of the expected jobs of a woman included bearing children, despite the fact that new mothers frequently experienced post-partum depression. If a woman were sterile, her purposefulness diminished. While the Cult of Domesticity intended to create obliging and competent wives, women frequently reported feeling trapped or imprisoned within the home and within societal

Whether it is the past or the present, there have always been gender roles in society. In most homes, it is the woman’s responsibility to take care of the house. This includes cleaning, meal preparations, raising and taking care of the children as well as the husband. Compared to the men who take care of the more physical activities, such as yard work. It was known throughout many years that it was a woman’s responsibility to stay in the house while the man would go out and look for work to provide money for his family. Although the intensity of gender roles has changed, it still exists.

Watch the classical film Grease and one can understand how relationships function in Western Society. The film tells a story of a boy (Danny) and a girl (Sandy) who falls in love. Through a series of misunderstandings they break up, but still somehow care for each other. Through ballads such as Summer Night’s that are still popular today, the film shows how differently males and females view relationships. Films like Grease are like a mirror, reflecting societal values and how it socializes its members. It makes it clear that in relationships, males are socialized to view relationships as mostly a physical, sexual endeavor, while females view it as a perpetual bond –a deeper connection between the two individuals within a relationship.

Publication of books and periodical revealed to the public the problems that women endured within their homes, education, labor, and health. In a male dominant society, men premeditated what roles women should play at home. Women were perceived as weaker than men, unable to think for themselves and their opinions were view as useless. Male dominating view of a woman’s role was to have no other aspirations but to take care of her husband, family and home.

In this satirical article, Brady expresses the difference between the roles of women and men in the 1970’s by stating men’s point of view on women and women’s roles in society. Throughout her article, Brady emphasizes the roles of women. For example, women could now “work and...takes care of the children when they are sick”. Comparing the 1880’s to the 1970’s, there has been a big improvement. Many women had jobs outside their home, but still were responsible for most housework and childcare while their husband’s only responsibility in a marriage was to go to work and earn money to support the family. Society’s expectations allowed women to work outside the home to support college education for husbands; however,women had to know how to balance their time between their children and their jobs, making sure that their husbands “cannot miss classes at school.” During the 1970’s, women were still oppressed in many ways and had to follow society's expectations in order to live up to the men’s view of women’s roles in society. Even though society’s expectations of women had improved since The Awakening, most of women’s roles had stayed the same. In the article, Brady specifies how once a husband is “through with school and has a job, [he expects the] wife to quit working and remain at home so that [she] can more fully and completely take

Throughout history, women have been portrayed as the homemakers of most every society. Their primary role is to submit to men, care for children, and maintain a healthy and clean home.

Nowadays, women are judged for not embodying the vision of the ideal woman- housewife and housemother. As a result of this, women yearned for more purpose in life, rather than restricted to the societal norms which defined women worthiness, or the capability of women. Women are beginning to become more independent, breadwinners, and in general, taking the roles of standard male figures. As a result, society is beginning to discourage women for their hard work, instead of encouraging women as a whole to continue to strive for better. Going back before culture was established. “In the

Mohanty also stated how, in India, women’s “definition as housewives make possible the definition of men as 'breadwinners'” (13). We see that in Nasarpur, India the woman’s role in society is somewhat restricted. Her restricted role of being a housewife increased the man’s status in that society as the sole provider and the hardest worker. Although this concept of men’s and women’s roles in society is not totally true in America, I still think it occurs in our society. I feel that most men accept women working outside the home in America because it has become a norm over the years, but I do not think all men are comfortable with the idea of women working outside the home. The fact that women are no longer just simply housewives makes some men feel as if they are being robbed of part of their masculinity, which is tied to being a sole provider for a family. Women have proven during the past few decades that they can be housewives and manage to handle an outside job as well. I think this proves that women are strong dependable laborers. A good worker is one who can handle multiple tasks such as managing a household and having an outside job.

Society for a long time has made the women in its second best. In the past, maybe even today, women were told that they should marry successful men, have children, and be good housewives. Women are told to be “seen and not heard,” as if they were just an ornament to be on display. Sometimes in marriages, women are no more than property, they are expected to assume the identity of being just a wife. For some women, this destiny is known and understood, therefore these women use their womanhood to progress themselves into better suited situations, but for many others this way of life can be a challenge when there is a long for a different type of life outside of their constraints of marriage. Some women want to be free to

One of the issues that women have had to overcome is the stereotype of the “Happy Homemaker”. For centuries women, have faced persecution because of what they have meant to society. Long thought of as the helper of the male part of the species women have wanted to break out of that cycle. This thought is summed up in a quote by Anna Quidlen that says: “Gone are the days in which we pretended that caring for the children and cooking the meals were always a rewarding enterprise” (Quidlen). Theories as to why this may be, having been addressed earlier in the paper, and as stated then, are not a subject that can be settled here. Perception is key to any first impression of a potential candidate, whether male or female. It is often the cornerstone in which all future relations are based off. For once it has begun, it is very hard to change that perception, unless something very drastic is changed.

Betty Friedan the author of the documentary article The Problem That Has No Name (1963), is a female author that discusses the way women feel trapped as housewives. Betty did many interviews about women and the problems they faced. Betty would interview many doctors and psychiatrists to support her evidence about the female role in society. Fifteen years after World War II, in the1950’s and 1960’s, women were taught by society and ads that they needed to be at home tending to the family and house. The age of women marrying got younger toward the end of the 1950’s, and even teens were starting to marry. Women would go to college to find their husbands, not wanting too much education, women would find side jobs to help fund putting their husbands through college. Planned Parenthood helped women to not have as many children as past generations. Women stayed at home cooking, cleaning, and taking the children to their activities. Being a suburban housewife was what young girls would dream about, but it wasn’t all fabulous and glam. Women would ask themselves is this all my life is? Not having satisfaction from the same day to day task got women thinking and wondering if they were to do more, be more, and were they able to have self-satisfaction. Women would visit psychologist thinking something was wrong with them when they were depressed and bored with the same task day in and day out. Women needed to listen to their inner voices and have fulfillment within themselves. (Friedan,

Wives have been professionals outside of the home for many years, which changes the dynamics of a marriage from a codependent situation to a true partnership. As a bona fide team effort, the parent’s union becomes stronger while they share the responsibilities of their household. Insofar as refusing traditional roles and positions in a relationship, it is true that more women today want independence from household work and child rearing duties. Nonetheless, I do not think this is a major reason for the countless marriages that end in divorce, for other classic problems between married people are far more likely candidates such as money, sex, drugs and societal pressures to conform. Instead, women’s freedom of house duties is liable to be a reason that couples do not marry in the first place.