The movie Grease was on TV last night. At risk to the world's view of my masculinity, I actually kinda like Grease. And even a few other musicals. I don't however, care for Barbra Streisand all that much, which puts me well over the line into heterosexuality. Babs is in the DNA of gay men for some reason. If you could examine the genetic code of a gay male from one end to the other, somewhere in the middle you'd find:
G C C A C G U A U U C A C G U C C C A C G U F U N N Y G I R L C U A A C G U C A A C
That's pretty solid proof that being gay is genetic, and not a choice, if you ask me.
But back to Grease, the thing I notice that is so interesting is that Grease was written in the '70s, and it was a musical about the '50s, and it's fascinating to see how different things were in another, even recent, era. Most surprising is that people attended high school well into their forties back then. I mean, a couple of the Pink Ladies would be considered Cougars if the T-bird guys they were chasing weren't already using PolyGrip.
I used to see High Schoolers as adults until I became one. Then I was like, "Really? We're high school seniors now? Why aren't we like the ones I remember from my childhood. As we move on, high schoolers look more and more like Junior High Schoolers - Middle Schoolers for you more hip, modern people - they don't look anything like they're nearing adulthood yet. Seniors look to be about 13 these days. If our 13-year-olds are seniors today, and I was a senior at age 17, then it stands to reason that in the 1950s, people went to high school until they were near middle age. For proof, just look at the kids in Grease.
(c) 2010 Scott Teel. All rights reserved.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
i saw Grease 7 times in the movie theater. i was 7 years old, but i looked like i was going on 18.
ReplyDeleteAnd interestingly, there's a song in Grease called "I Am Seven Going on Eighteen." I think Frenchie sings it to a Hitler Youth but he turns her in anyway (which she shoulda seen coming considering he's a Nazi and her name's "Frenchie," hello, little history study, girl) and she has to flee over the Alps with Nathan Detroit, only to end up in the orphanage with a Hard Knock Life in Oklahoma only to end up in New York where she runs into the very same Nazi...who is the playwrite of the worst play ever written: "Springtime For Hitler!"
ReplyDeleteI'm more than a decade and a half out of high school, and I still don't look as old as any of the Pink Ladies.
ReplyDeleteSays me at least. Who knows what the rest of the world thinks.
Also, I love that movie too. I showed it to my really old aunt and uncle once about ten years ago, and they said they didn't like it. When I asked why, they said it was because they portrayed students who didn't do their homework, and they felt that they should have shown the "kids" doing homework at least once or twice.
That kills me.
Ha! That's funny. I don't think they show them doing any SCHOOLwork either. I may be wrong, but I don't think a single scene takes place in the classroom or school at all, except in the gym, and that's a dance contest. The only school that gets any play at all is beauty school.
ReplyDeleteIt's not really about kids in school, it's about kids who are school-aged (supposedly) and the stuff that goes on after and around school. Probably they weren't of that era, and would have liked it more if the activities had been fixin' up a Model T named "Swell Gams" and the winning dance was the Lindy Hop...
Ha that DNA strand was hilarious. High school kids seem like babies to me now. Looking back, I can't understand how I had crushes on any of those little muppets.
ReplyDelete