She’s Too Pure to be Pink

When Grease came out in theaters in 1978 it soon had a cult following. The iconic movie follows star-crossed loves, Danny, played by John Travolta and Sandy, played by Olivia Newton-John (IMDB.com). Set in 1959, Danny is the epitome of a greaser, belonging to a gang, known as the T-Birds, while Sandy is the quintessential girl next door who gets thrown for a loop when she finds the boy she fell in love with one summer at the beach is now the top bad-boy at her new school. Now Sandy has a choice to make, does she change herself in order to fit in to Danny’s real life, becoming a Pink Lady (the female counterpart to the T-Birds)? Or does she stick to guns and force Danny to make the decision to change to win her heart back? For many viewers this movie is about the strength of love and friendship, however there is a darker reality lurking behind the lively music and poodle-skirts. The male gaze is a huge part of this movie; a large portion of the movie is devoted to the over-sexualization of women, and therefore showing that this is not a story about love but rather a story of forced conformation.

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The idea of the gaze is an important concept, as Bell Hooks once said, “There is power in looking.” This concept still rings true. When a piece of media is created there is a sense of who the product is being sold to and why. In this case although women mainly consume musicals, men are still a part of the audience and in this case I would argue a huge part of the gazing audience. And in this particular case I believe Grease is created around the male viewer and their own fantasy. At the very beginning of the movie, there is a huge focus on the over-sexualiztaion of women, as Danny is talking to his friends as lunch, they begin talking about “the new chick at registration”, who according to Kenickie, Danny’s best friend”, “She sure beats the foam domes around here.” If who hadn’t already guessed they are talking about her breasts and foam domes are padded bras. So this girl who the viewer can infer can only be Sandy seeing as she is a new student is already being sized up and sexually categorized by men. Women are only visible to the men in certain circumstances, which throughout this story seems to be only when they deem the particular woman to be sexually attractive. In one of the very first songs of the movie, “Summer Nights”, a duet between Sandy and Danny there is a dichotomy between the characteristics of their love story. For Sandy it is all romance but for Danny he plays up the sexual aspect of their time together in order to impress his friends. For example, Sandy sings, “He got friendly, holding my hand,” and Danny answers singing, “She got friendly down in the sand.” Sandy the romantic, recalling when Danny was tender, but Danny only retells the times of them making love. 

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Throughout the movie there is more time devoted to sex than there is to their romance as a whole. Sandy is seen as a doe-eyed girl who got frisky with a bad boy. It would certainly be shameful to Sandy is she ever found out that Danny was telling his friends about such intimate moments. But Sandy could also be shamed for doing what she did with Danny. “The problem with focusing on the choices of individual women is that they aren’t playing to the male gaze in a vacuum. It’s only in the context of a society that caters to the male gaze, socializes women to tie their self-worth to their sex appeal, and shames women who are openly sexual” (Uwujaren). This can also be seen with Rizzo, the head Pink Lady, who after a pregnancy scare is a pariah at the school. 

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She is no longer desired by men because she is as Danny so eloquently “sloppy seconds ain’t my style”. Women are no longer worthy when they are too loose. But they are also not desired if they are not having sex, because then they are considered to be prudes. The girls in this movie just cannot win.

This entire story is canted to the male point of view. Women are seen as objects that are to be owned by their male counterparts, and women are shown desire to the owned by them. The same is true for the girl gang, The Pink Ladies. They are what I like to describe them as, Greaser Fan Girls, and therefore are the only appropriate mate for them to have. Therefore in order for Sandy to win over Danny’s heart she must conform to the male fantasy, to Danny’s fantasy and become a Pink Lady. Sandy transforms herself from the good girl to a tough pink lady to attract the attention of a man.

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At the end of the movie we see that Sandy has finally taken the plunge and become a full-fledged Pink Lady. According to the Journal of International Women’s Studies these kinds of actions are common, “The invisibility of women has been accompanied in an extraordinary inversely proportionate manner by the visual display of her physical appearance, of her body as a material object, to be observed judged, valued, appreciated, rejected, modified, and easily commodified, for socially-constructed purposes” (Ponterrotta 134). Her tight fitting outfit, harlot red lipstick, and smirk all play to that specific male fantasy. In order for a girl to be worthy she must be a part of a group, whether it be cheerleaders or the pink ladies, but no woman is enough just on her own.

            Although many years have passed since Grease made it’s premiere it is still a very relevant movie in our society today. The unfortunate truth is that women are still looked at through the guise of the male gaze in media. In the top films between 2005-2012, women were shown in sexually revealing clothes 28.8% of the time and partially naked 26.2% (UCLA discussion). Obviously we still have a long way to go. Women do not get equal recognition for their work as their male counterparts do. Grease although it is remembered as a light-hearted musical with poodle skirts and leather-jackets, it has a deeper darker side that is reality. This movie over-sexualizes and conforms women in ways that make them the ideal male fantasy.

Works Cited

Grease. Dir. Randal Kleiser. Paramount Pictures, 1978.

"Grease." IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

Ponterotto, Diane. "Resisting the male gaze: feminist responses to the 'normatization' of the         female body in Western culture." Journal of International Women's Studies 17.1 (2016): 133+. Academic OneFile. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

"Oversexualization of Women in Film (Group Discussion Leadership)." "The Fembot, Women,    and Construction of Difference in Film" UCLA, 2015. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

Uwujaren, Jarune. "How Women Are Pressured into Being Sexy, But Punished for Being                          Sexual." Everyday Feminism. 12 Jan. 2015. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.