May 22, 2017 • 37 mins
Nobody puts Caitlin and Jamie in a corner! Guest Emily Ruskowski joins us for a special bonus episode about Dirty Dancing!
(This episode contains spoilers)
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the Bell Cast. The questions asked if movies have
women in um, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands?
What do they have? Individualism, the patriarchy ze and best
start changing it with the Betel Cast. Hi, and welcome
to the Bechdel Cast. My name is Caitlin and we
(00:21):
are recording an intro for an episode that we did live.
We did a live episode for the Women in Comedy
Festival in Boston, Massachusetts at Improv Boston. It was so
much fun. This happened in late April. We had a
great time. It was our first live episode, which brings
(00:43):
us to why we're recording the intro in Los Angeles. Well,
the audio quality turned out to be not super great,
So which are bad? We didn't check stuff and we
you know, we're learning. I would like to blame the
patriarchy we're learning, I would. Yeah. I'm triggered. Yeah, as
always I'm triggered, never not triggered, right acast great? Sure, Yeah,
(01:10):
So recording this little intro, We're gonna do some stuff
at the top, like reintroduce our guests and things like that.
But yeah, we apologize for the audio quality being not
super great. Fortunately, the best audio quality that came out
of it, which shout out to Caitlin for sifting through
all the audio of us yelling, but our guests audio
came out pretty well, and so most of her sage
(01:32):
points remain intact. Indeed, also shout out to our producer
Aristotle for always giving us great audio quality. We didn't
know how good we had it until he was gone,
So true, that's how it always is. But thank you
to the Women in Comedy Festival for letting us do it.
Thank you to Improv Boston for having us, and thank
(01:53):
you to our guest Emily Riskowski, who is a good
friend of both of ours. She is a comic Boston.
She's so funny. She's spent on two dub Queens. She
does shows all around the city. She's originally out of DC.
She's just she's a goddess. She's the best. We're so
happy we had. She brought us the movie Dirty Dancing.
And also we and I know we always say we're
(02:15):
gonna put it in the description, but we have a
great picture of the three of us for this one.
She brought us Dirty Dancing, and she dressed as Patrick Swayze.
She dressed in all black CAUs played as Johnny Castle.
It was unbelievable, and she came out to the stage.
We called her up in the stage. We had no
idea this was happening. Came out to the stage carrying
a watermelon, which is a reference a movie. Yeah, she
(02:38):
was doing Baby and Johnny Castle at the same time.
She's that good. She's that good. We have to do
a little bit more of the I have to start
with the recap. The live episode picks up when I'm
like in the middle of the famous Okay cap. It's
so funny, Like we sound like garbage in the recording,
(03:01):
like pretty universally because we're always like and our guests
were very cool, very composed. Mostly I think I'm like
talked about Jerry Orbach in this episode. So you didn't
miss anything, you can confirm. Yeah. So Dirty Dancing is
a story about a character named Baby played by Jennifer Gray.
She and her rich family go to a rich people camp.
(03:24):
Jerry Orbach is her father. They go to this summer
camp to learn about how to dance and how to
wear wigs and other things. Yeah, wigs outside, that's offensive,
wigs outside, wigs but like outside, Yeah, I love it.
Sold she's like, oh, I wanna. I want to hang
out with these cool people. They seem to be dancing.
(03:46):
So there's a six sex Yes, the sexy poor. This
is a new this is it doesn't exist in the
real world, but it's prevalent in this camp. Fuckable poor.
I'm glad you brought it up because it's it's an
important thing that we do address. So she's like, who
are these people who are dancing? All cool and they're
(04:06):
hot and they're poor because they're like the work staff.
They're the teachers who teach the dance class and the
white stuff, all this stuff. She's like, I want to
get in with this group. And the main one, the
coolest one, is the king of the hot pores. His
name is Johnny Castle Baby, and he has a friend
named Penny. And Penny finds herself in a situation where
(04:30):
she is pregnant and she does not want to be
because she got pregnant by this character named Robbie who
was a piece of ship, not sexy or poor. Hey hey,
So Baby's like, I want to help. I'm gonna help
with this. She's like, here, I'm gonna get some money
for you. The thing is, though, there's a oh, the
(04:50):
traveling abortion is he's like a carnival guy. He comes around,
he tours nuns up, He's like Bruce Springsteen. He comes
to your town every so often and it gives you
an abortion. Is he good at abortions? No? But he
(05:11):
is the amazing Traveling Abortionists. But there's also some very
interesting context for that that we'll get into, which made
me feel bad for, you know, saying what I just did,
which is the traveling Abortionists in a fun way, and
then an audience, remember, gave us some incredible context and
now we can share it. But I also got to
do the thing. Yes, So so the thing is Johnny
(05:34):
and his like dancing partner Penny have this gig that
they have to do on a Thursday. But oh no,
that's the only day that the Traveling Abortionists comes to town.
Crazy plot hole. So Penny goes off and gets her
traveling abortion. Meanwhile, Baby, they're like, well, someone suggests as
a joke, like what if you dance in her place?
(05:55):
What if you learn these dances? Baby? And she's like
a counsels like, no freaking way, I'm king poor, I
don't know dance with baby rich. But then it ends
up happening anyway because she's like, I'm going to prove myself.
And then they start training. There's a bunch of training
montages and then this is pretty much where yes, that's
(06:19):
the longest training montage every all butts, so many butts,
equal opportunity to male female. We're looking at a lot
of butts. Love it, love it. Very horny movie too,
but no depth, no horny. Depth is now unfortunately horny.
Not a lot of depth, pretty surface horny. So that's
where we kind of pick up on the live episodes,
so we will transition into that. Please enjoy, Emily Riskowski,
(06:43):
you kind of dodged a bullet with all the your
Box Talk which is my new podcast, check it out
or rock Talk. Yeah, enjoy, enjoy. Then what happens surprised?
The traveling abortion is not too good? No, not too good.
He he he messes it up. We're not told exactly how,
and that's probably for the bass, but it's like real bad.
(07:04):
So how they get to do the abortion is because
baby went to her dad and asked for the money.
He lied to Jerry O. She lied to Jerry or
box one. Let's just take a moment. What do you
ever seen one or get You don't why the Jerry
or Back can get away in it? Well? Yeah, so
so yeah, she lies to her dad about because he
asked if it's illegal, and he is daddy. She gets
(07:27):
his to She calls him daddy the whole movie, So
there's that, but she al says Terry Orbank, so it's
like he's everyone's Daddy's every America's daddy. He's your daddy.
So Jerry or Back winds up paying for this abortion
and then he goes and finds out what his money
was for, and he freaks out and he, like everyone else,
assumes that Johnny's the one who got Penny pregnant. I
(07:49):
see why Jerry Orback was upset. No one communicates with him,
no one gives it to him straight. And if you've
seen him in line where he needs you to give
it to him straight, he's like, I couldn't know when
I'm wrong. Yeah, he band's baby from like hanging out
with him. So what does she do. She starts having
sex with Johnny Castle like immediately like that. The Carmine
(08:12):
is also weird in this movie because it's like we're
here at the beginning of the summer. They're training the waiters.
The dance stuff just got here. But also Penny's already
pregnant by Robbie, So like when did that happen? A
whole summer passes. I would like to pay check a
little bit to the scene with the watermelon where Baby
meets Billy, who I love. Billy is Johnny Castle's cousin.
(08:35):
We assume his names Billy Castle, but we don't know
for sure. But Billy needs a sweetheart and doesn't find love. Uh,
he doesn't deserve it because he's shorter than Johnny according
to God to nineteen sixties lodgeing, since he's either he
is unsuckable. Uh, but you know, he's also attended like
the rest of hell. He's a working class babe. Like that.
(08:57):
There's a whole camp. It's like like weird looking which
people and very hot port people, which is which is great.
That's how I would like the whole world to be.
But so Billy says like, hey, I got these watermelons.
It's more articulate. I want to bring him into the
(09:18):
basement with me where everyone's fuck dancing, And then she
sees Johnny Castle and Penny dancing together, very sexually. They're
the best at fuck dancing and everyone knows it. And
then there's this moment where Baby asks Billy Castle or
aren't they together? And he's like, no, they were together
(09:39):
when they were kids, but not anymore. Immediately cut to
a shot of what looks like Patrick Swayzy, like going
down on Penny while holding her six ft in the air,
and Lan is and and Baby isn't like, are you sure?
Sus like there might be something there? How old is
(10:04):
Patrick Spazy in this movie? Oh? We telled all very
mus he's sucking a teenager? Or is it cute? Maybe
he's supposed to be like eighteen? Rights, probably he's actually thirty.
He looks much older than her. Yeah, I couldn't get
hold he was supposed to be, which again, because I
want to be on Jerry or box side at every
(10:24):
point in this movie. Again, I'm just like, you know what,
if a man of indeterminable age who I had already
known was a JIGGERO was pursuing my daughter, I too
would be like, hey, maybe not, you know so what
also we're so it all kind of culminates right there,
fucking everything's great, And then while it's start getting stolen
(10:47):
and they suspect that it is Johnny Castle. Baby comes rod,
she's like, we were together. He gets fired again. Is
it better to have stolen a wallet or had sex
a teenager? You know? Again? We eat that angel to
my mother like there's no winning friend. And then at
(11:11):
the end, Johnny comes back and he's like, I have
a speech to give and he gives it. It gives
that speech, and then before that he grabs Baby and
he says the famous line from the movie Nobody puts
Baby in a corner, and then he yanks her out
of the corner, which can exactly is it like literally,
because she's like sitting in a corner. She's literally in
(11:32):
a corner. And he's like that's not okay, And no
one's like why we just They're like, you're right and right,
there's a figurative corner. Is a literal corner? What does
he mean? I never understood this quote. She seemed to
be moved by it. I was openly crying. I love
the scene where Baby basically says, Okay, I've been sucking
(11:55):
the beefcake and Jerry roback and she's like, but you
suck too, and then Jerry about cries and you're just like, oh,
he's so raw. Uh that or the aftermath is that
kind of bothered me because then, uh, first of all,
Johnny has given like the big climactic speech at the end.
(12:17):
Baby isn't even though she's the main character. You think
she would have this like cathartic moment to be like,
I'm tired of well when I'm putting me in the
corner figuratively right as you will. She has a speech
she could give, we just never hear it, or she's
gonna say dad, not like to everybody in a big way, right,
(12:39):
And there was I mean, and again, it's like, I
never wanted to sound like we're cutting a movie slack
when they're not doing the right thing and they're not
doing right by their female characters. But this movie does
take place in nineteen sixty three, which sort of shifts
the context a little bit. The more I thought about
certain scenes where in ninete, I mean to me, it
(13:00):
was kind of impressive that parents were so on board
with both of their daughters going to college and like
really making careers for themselves, and and and and But
then on on the other hand, that they are actually
trying to Harry them off. But but I don't know,
and I I mean, we weren't. We weren't around O
carry I'm four years old, but I I don't know.
(13:25):
Putting it in context of the time it was supposed
to take place, even though it takes place in the sixties,
it feels a very seven movie. Like all the hair,
any outfits are that they're like besie and carry me
not dead yet, So you're like, Okay, you know, I'm
telling you President Kennedy is not dead yet, so you
(13:46):
can be like, I mean, I can enjoy this now.
It was a simple time. It's important actually, So I
think the female characters in this movie are great, Like
I think they're really I think Yanny is awesome. I
think they like the main character is named after Francis Perkins,
first woman in the Cabinet FDRs Labor secretary, Like that's
our main character. But then again they call her baby
(14:09):
like so the parts that you're like, I like that.
A lot of times Hollywood films, we'll be like, oh,
character is pregnant, Well, she's only got one option and
that's to have the baby. And the way the abortion
is approached in this movie is and it's not made
out to be the issue that a movie in nineteen
(14:31):
sixty three or eighty seven could have made it out
to be as this big like is it ethical to
do it? Like baby is immediately like, oh, we've gotta
get you money to get this abortion. And then when
Penny finds out, you know, like there's a moment of
back and forth, But the only reason there's a back
and forth or whether they she'll do it or not
is because her whole year's salary runs on one dance
(14:52):
gig has nothing to do with the ethics of abortion.
And I was, I mean, I hadn't seen this movie
in like ten years, and I will surprised that it
will dealt with that maturely of like that didn't become
a focal point of it. Well, even when her dad
is criticizing what happened, it's not like there's no big
(15:14):
abortion is wrong, but you just like you're hanging around
with unsavory people, primarily the guys. Because he doesn't seem
to be judgmental whatsoever towards Penny, and that he helps her.
He comes to check on her the next day. He
cares for her in a very kind way, but he
thinks these guys, like he's like, these are unsavory people,
and that's what she has the conversation when she says
you let me down to that's sort of what she's
(15:36):
talking about is you taught me to help people into
care and you judged them without knowing them. So that's
where and I like that too. Again, there wasn't this
big like moral issue around the abortion. It was this
is something. This is their reality that Robbie has completely
removed himself from and that Penny now has to deal with.
Baby is gonna come and help her and Baby sense
(15:58):
his judgment on behalf of her add who helped very
much in Safe Paint. But she's angry with him that
he's looking down on people, and she's like, you taught
me not to be that person. You can't be that
person either. And Jerry knows when he's wrong. He does,
he admits it. He said he's wrong, he says he's wrong,
but he doesn't apologize to Baby then, and only does
he Uh. The only time he like changes his mind
(16:20):
about the whole thing is when was the name Robbie
is like, oh, thanks for helping out with the Penny thing. Uh,
I was the one who it's only at that point
whenever Jerry's like, oh, well, if this rich boy is
telling me that what really happened, that's and I believe it. Well,
that's another tricky thing too, because it's like it is
his teenage daughter who he seems to trust throughout the
(16:43):
movie until he finds out that she has lied to him,
And it's like, I don't know. I mean, if you're
a parent and you find out your kid has lied
to you about one big thing, it's hard to be like, well,
but probably everything else is the truth because I don't
I mean, teenagers are big, dry liars, so I don't know,
(17:04):
Like I could see that both ways. Even when he
said who's responsible for this girl? Like Penny's grown woman?
But I think he in the context of when it
was supposed to take place, he saw this woman who
was left because he said, you got her in trouble,
Like you left this woman to deal with this by herself,
You sent her to this butcher. He's at the same
(17:25):
time get that nineteen sixty three mentality of like, you
take care of women and women can't really take care
of themselves. But he also encourages his daughters to be
more than that because Robbie tells him accidentally, he believes
rob because Robbie tells Robbie didn't mean to tell him,
because Robbie was like, I thought you knew, because he's like, hey,
thanks for dealing with it, and he I think, in
that moment, had that realization. Robbie thinks he and Dr
(17:48):
Housman are the same. Robbie thinks they're in this like
old boys club, like, hey, thanks for taking care of that.
And Dr Housman is kind of yanked out of that,
and it's like, this guy is the piece of ship,
not the guy I thought, but everybody assumed. As far
as I think that his character is doing pretty well
given the era he is we're to believe he's living in,
(18:09):
and it's like, it's definitely not perfect, and there is.
I mean, I wouldn't say that he considers men and
women to be completely equal. It's pretty clearly that that
is not the case for him. But but as far
as nineteen sixty three, dealing with a teenage daughter who's
clearly intelligent and you know, fucking up as any teenager would,
(18:31):
but I never stake as a teenager have been having
sex with Patrick Swayze and seeking like there's so there's
a conflict between Swayzey and Albak, which, first of all unhooked.
(18:52):
The whole reason that that problem arises is because when
Jerry Oba comes to see what's going on after Penny's
traveling abortionist thing doesn't goal well. But when he he
goes to try to patch that situation up, he asked, yeah, like,
who's responsible for this girl, which is a vague question,
and Patrick Sprayzy says me because he's her best friend
(19:14):
and sort of views himself as the one who looks
out for her, and had Patrick saysy at any point
just said that was what I meant when I said
that we could have saved an hour of conflict between
the two of them. I think one of the themes
of the movie is integrity and who hasn't who doesn't
And he sees robbed like you very clearly the villain
(19:36):
is the guy with no integrity who reads yeah, exactly right,
the guy with no integrity. And then the working class
people that everyone's looking down are the ones that have
the integrity, like and part of the reason they didn't
tell everybody that it's Robbie is because it's Penny's private information,
and she didn't want anybody to know, so they didn't
tell anybody, even though it would have been so much easier.
(19:57):
That's why when Baby is encouraging he said to stay
away from Robbie and not have sex with him, she
doesn't say he knocked somebody up, because it's Penny's business.
And if Penny doesn't want anybody to know, nobody has
a right to tell anybody, even if it would make
everything so much easier. And that's why, like there's this
big sense of like right and wrong, they never wrap
(20:18):
abortion into that and be like abortion is wrong. So
I thought that was a great It's a movie that
deals with right and wrong and morality that doesn't put
that judgment on abortion, to which I thought was really interested.
Were in such an easy choice to make. And another
thing about the very sexy poor that we have in
this movie is that they, unlike the you know, looking rich,
(20:41):
with the exception of Jerry Roback, is that the very
sexy poor all have a lot of respect for each
other and and treat each other way more fairly than
the upper echelon people do, where Patrick Swayzy and Penny,
and even even though I'm like, what is I get? Like,
there's a lot of positive male female friendships, but he
(21:03):
is almost evening her pill see like seven different times
in this movie, and it's like both friends. I was like, Okay,
I like that they did that. I agree with that,
but I like that they did that, that her character
exists not as anyone's romantic interest, Like there's a female
character who's not the main character who exists in these
like she forms this bond with Baby where they're clearly
(21:24):
women who have nothing in common at the beginning, and
Baby when Baby comes up to her and says, I
envy you. And Penny had just watched Robbie hitting on Lisa.
She's pregnant, she got kicked out of her house at sixteen,
and she like her life is a ship show. And
this doctor's daughter, rich girl who's at a summer resort
is saying, I envy you. Like that's where they start,
(21:46):
and I think they come so far as to this
place of like mutual respect for one another. And I
also like that when Johnny gives his speech at the end,
I don't think anybody mentions Baby's appearance in the movie
like at all, Like Johnny never says, you look like
He's like, this is why I love her. He doesn't,
You're so beautiful. He like, she has integrity, and she's smart,
(22:07):
and she's brave, and she helps people and she inspires
me to be a better person because she's such a
good person. Oh, I wanted to talk about the scene.
One of those scenes that does pass the BECTO test
is between Baby and Penny on the Thursday, which is
the only day to traveling abortionists can come. Uh and
(22:27):
and it's also when when Baby is about to do
the one show that everyone's income depends on. They have
this scene together that's that I thought was really nice
to a certain point where Penny is helping Baby get
ready and they're talking about dancing and Baby is nervous,
and then Penny the scene andy Penny saying I'm scared
(22:49):
to get an abortion, which apparently she should be this
traveling abortion this is not very good. But before that
she says a Penny like, I just want you to
know I don't really ape around, And I thought that
Robbie really loved me. And that doesn't seem like super
necessary to bring into it, because like it doesn't super matter,
(23:11):
which is kind of nit picky, But then again that
might also just speak to the relationship between these characters
where Penny probably feels like Richard people judge her and
assume that she would be like the type to sleep
around or however that's PERCEI what kind of goes back
to like the slat shaminess that exists in this movie
where it's like, I don't want you to think I'm
(23:32):
split opposite for me, I go and then saying, hey,
one I didn't say anymore. I don't like to be fair.
That's same we like the sexy porter. Do you have
a fear of being start shammed across the board? Because
then there is that weird seen in Swazies Cabin, which
(23:55):
is a book I would like to write. There's a
scene in Slazy's cabin after he and uh he and
Baby have had sex I hope with pretention who knows,
but Baby is like, you know, teasing him, and it's like,
how many women have you been with because and honestly,
I'm like, I want to know. We don't know how
(24:17):
old you are, and like maybe a ballpark figure will
be helpful, But Slayzy starts talking about something we are
you know, which is that he's low ki at Jiggio,
but then totally disclaims that. But basically he has this
weird speech where he's like, but you understand. You come
here and suddenly there's all these women and they're just
(24:40):
they're throwing themselves that you will. They're putting their key
cards in your pockets and you show up and you
think they love you. It's like, spazy, no, you don't.
We don't think someone slips their key card in your
back pocket a known married person, and it's like, slazy,
come over because I love you like and and so
(25:03):
you know it's implied. Yeah, so you know sees he's
had sex with however many people we've done know how
old he is. But he implies that every time he's
had sex is because he thought he was in love
and then he got stiffed. In his defense and defense
is that's not in his defense because there's a moment
(25:26):
when also in that conversation he's like, oh, they're shoving
diamonds in your pocket and I was around from Titanic.
You show you love someone like giving them a diamond. Right,
that's true because caled In Hockley protagonist, he's also super poor, right,
so all the kids that they're super poor, when he's
(25:48):
like he's candy to stay a lot and he's like
to stay alive, and then he goes there and women
are just giving him all this. I think anybody in
that situation, like he's super overwhelmed by like like, during
the year, I'm flat broke, can barely survive, and then
all summer it's sex and money all over the place.
(26:08):
I think it's a weird. And I also think I
think that the scene in the locker room with Penny
and Baby, I liked that they did that the Penny
because before that a lot of her interactions you don't
know shit about me, and like she very quickly dismisses Baby,
and then you see her vulnerability when she's like she's
ashamed of herself because people have always treated her like that.
(26:31):
And I think that's where you see who Baby really is,
because Penny's expecting to be sleut shamed and that's why
she says it, because she's expecting Baby to judge her,
and at no point is she met with judgment by
Baby at all. And I think it shows you this
bond is developed between these women, and Baby isn't who
she thought she was, and she baby was never gonna
(26:52):
it wouldn't have occurred to baby to judge her. But
Penny's so used to everybody treating her like that her
whole life that she feels like she has to pre
empt it by addressing it. And that's like the sort
of speech that she gives the baby gives her dad
towards the end, when she's like, there's some things about
me that you may not like, and you don't know
about me, but if you love me, you have to
(27:13):
love all of me, basically saying I have sex now, daddy,
and you have to be okay with it. Sorry, daddy.
Daddy cries. Can we talk about how much emphasis is
post on the lift and how I want to develop
(27:34):
an app called the Lift similar to lift. Instead of
picking someone up in a car, you just pick them
up and lift them over your head, like say I
want that person to come pick me up and then
you get picked up. I will absolutely give you. Yes,
(27:56):
I liked the Lift. I mean, there are so many
montages in this but when they are like, well, I'm
trying you to the lift, this is where I first
started questioning, Wait a second, how old is he? When
he takes those seventeen year olds into the water and
it's like, okay, we're about to see some nips. How
old is this man again? Lifting this high school SENI
(28:16):
here that said very horny scene. Liked it because anyone else.
So many final thoughts about the movie. In the portrayal
of women, we establish it, Yes, the movie does pass
the back to textile. Maybe has conversations with her mother,
with her sister Lisa, and with Penny, all about things
(28:36):
that aren't men, say with the old gulf ter uh.
And then we wrote the movie on a scale of
zero to five nipples based on its portrayal of women.
Four okay, yeah, because I mean you can't give five
because it was three, so you're never gonna in there.
(28:58):
And he ordered are occasional Jerry moments where it's like, oh,
maybe just believe baby instead of corroborating it with three
different childs. But you know, eventually he does believe baby.
Baby is an exception of person throughout, even when she
is helping man. She is you know, she she makes
every decision for herself, and I mean, she's the main
(29:20):
reason this movie is awesome. And Penny to Penny is
like an awesome character, which that they had done more
slash literally anything with her mom. I feel like they're
coming ja march March marches sidelined hard so and and
the sister's kind of a dummy, but we get to
see the you know, she comes around as well and yeah,
(29:41):
I'll skew up on your roof for okay. Yeah, I
don't know. It bugged me that, like the baby doesn't
get her like big speech at the end, like they
give that to Johnny, which maybe I don't know, he
kind of has more at stake. You could argue, I
don't know, like whole family's true, but I don't know.
I just I wish that she had more of like
(30:02):
a climactic moment. She does get the lift, but who
cares about the fucking lift? Oh, by the way, all
four of my nipples? Uh. Summer Jerry Irack young Hot
summer Jerry Alback old still hot. Cool. What I love
is she doesn't give Penny the money to impress Johnny,
Like she doesn't do what to like get it, like
(30:24):
to get this guy to like her. She does it
because it's what's right, and she doesn't hesitate at all.
I'm gonna give it four and a half because I
love again. I think the female characters. I wish they
had more time to do stuff together, but I think
Penny and Baby are phenomenal characters, and I love that
we got to sort of see that arc between them
and that Baby is consistent throughout and like who she is,
(30:46):
and she winds up teaching even the wisest man alive.
Jerry Arback, I Daddy, Jerry Arback loans a thing or
two about a thing or two. Daddy knows our news round.
Thank you so much for being here. So that was
(31:07):
our live episode. Thanks to everyone who came. It was
so much fun. We like did kind of a poll
at the beginning. They're like, who's listened to the podcast before?
And a bunch of people clapp and they're like, who hasn't?
And then several people clapp there like great, thank you
for just blindly going into this. And then we're like,
who has not seen Dirty Dancing before? And then several
(31:28):
people clapped. Some people didn't know what the podcast was
or the movie, and it's like, you know, your average
podcast host would be like, thank you so much for
taking your risk. Me what are you doing? Like? What
is one? Go get lunch. You had to pay money
to be here? Yeah, I do fist. I mean, I
would like to me they were very nice. They were
(31:50):
a great audience. I would like to assume that our podcast,
they probably just read the description and like this sounds
so great. I want to come to this no matter what.
I don't care if I haven't seen the movie. I
just to see these women talk. God, I want of
these women talk. I don't know if you guys are listening,
tell us why. Well, we had one audience member who
when we announced what movie we were doing, she audibly gasped,
(32:12):
and she ended up being this incredible source of information
which we can address now. So so in the live episode,
were you probably heard part of it? Um, A lot
of to Do is made about the traveling Abortionists. Abortion
is a key plot point in this movie and is
treated very responsibly, particularly for when the movie came out
in eighties, and and we pointed that out a number
(32:35):
of times, where Penny is having an abortion, but the
issue was never the abortion. It's the timing of the
abortion because of the whole traveling abortionist thing. And then, uh,
this same lovely woman who gasped when we said dirty
dancing approached after the show and let us know, and
then we researched it and found out more that that
(32:56):
was actually done very intentionally by the creators of the movie,
because in this I mean, this came out like Reagan era,
which is a very back and forth time for reproductive rights,
and so it was written very intentionally that way as
making abortion normalized and not a big deal that needs
to be harped on exactly. Yeah. Um. She mentioned that
(33:18):
this movie was sort of written and made a response
to a series of anti abortion protests that were happening
in the eighties, because the movie takes place in nineteen
sixty three, which is a few years before Roe v. Wade,
before abortion was made legal and more accessible, and you
didn't have to have these back alley abortions from these
traveling abortion is who really just mostly butchered women. Yeah.
(33:40):
She provided a lot of context information, So, um, I
wish we had gotten her name, but shout out if
you're listening, and I hope you're still listening, because you
were so great. Thank you for thank you for I mean,
and and to all of our listeners who reached out
to us and provide us with additional context. Helps us
helps you guys. It's great. We appreciated everything works out.
It reminds me, though, of a part that I had
(34:02):
to cut out of the live episode because the audio
was just I was, I think, screaming, so it was
very distorted. But there's a part in the movie where
Newman God I forget the actor's real name, but Newman
from Seinfeld he's and he is promoting this class that
you can take at this camp called the Psychology of
(34:23):
the Insult Comedian. It's like glossed over in the movie,
but like I honed in on this details, like, oh
my god, I want to take this class. I also
want to see a spinoff movie, a spinoff of Dirty
Dancing called something like Dirty Comedy or something better than that,
but it would be starting Jeff Ross. I just wanted
(34:44):
to see a movie about like a young woman who
goes to a camp and she she's like, oh, what's
this class psychology? But then there's a man who's like,
I'm the teacher of this class, like a four year
old road comic. This young woman who's like, don't let
young women anywhere near broad comics. They're dirty, stay away
(35:07):
from them. They're like, hey, won't open from me. I'll
give you. I'm not gonna get a car with you.
Oh there's a part that I had to cut out
where I literally just screamed. I was like, why is
the lift so important? The big lift Johnny Castle has
to lift baby up? Why is this so much emphasis
placed on it? And I scream, fuck the left, And
I just want everyone to know how angry I am
(35:27):
about you were mad about the lift and I wasn't
mad about the lift. Emily wasn't mad. Emily didn't yell once.
It's almost like she's got a control on herself that
we don't, and honestly, good for her. Good for her.
She's a smart lady. Yeah. Yeah, and she's a social
worker too, that's probably why she didn't. Yeah, she's she's cool,
calm and collected. She's got a degree in having her
(35:49):
ship together. Hey do you know what I have a
degree in? I don't care, but there's a master's screen
in screenwriting from Boston University. Yeah. So, yeah, this was
our episode about dirty dancing. We had so much fun.
To hope we do more live episodes in the future.
(36:11):
We'll let you know if that's the case, and we
will sound check next time. Yes, we sure will. You
can follow us on social media at back toel Cast,
on Instagram, ever expanding on Twitter, we have a Facebook.
You can like us there. We post articles and post things.
It's great. You can rate and listen and subscribe and
(36:34):
review us and all of those fun things on iTunes
and and you can follow me at Caitlin Garante. I
haven't plugged myself in a while. Hey, plug it, babyug
plugs out? What plugs out? Hogs out? You can take
your hog out and then type into your brother turn
(36:57):
dot com slash hammergra phone, I'll be there, are your
huggill be there? Uh? And then who knows, We'll just
let nature tickets course, all right, I think that will
do it. Okay, bye bye
On the Bell Cast. The questions asked if movies have
women in um, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands?
What do they have? Individualism, the patriarchy ze and best
start changing it with the Betel Cast. Hi, and welcome
to the Bechdel Cast. My name is Caitlin and we
(00:21):
are recording an intro for an episode that we did live.
We did a live episode for the Women in Comedy
Festival in Boston, Massachusetts at Improv Boston. It was so
much fun. This happened in late April. We had a
great time. It was our first live episode, which brings
(00:43):
us to why we're recording the intro in Los Angeles. Well,
the audio quality turned out to be not super great,
So which are bad? We didn't check stuff and we
you know, we're learning. I would like to blame the
patriarchy we're learning, I would. Yeah. I'm triggered. Yeah, as
always I'm triggered, never not triggered, right acast great? Sure, Yeah,
(01:10):
So recording this little intro, We're gonna do some stuff
at the top, like reintroduce our guests and things like that.
But yeah, we apologize for the audio quality being not
super great. Fortunately, the best audio quality that came out
of it, which shout out to Caitlin for sifting through
all the audio of us yelling, but our guests audio
came out pretty well, and so most of her sage
(01:32):
points remain intact. Indeed, also shout out to our producer
Aristotle for always giving us great audio quality. We didn't
know how good we had it until he was gone,
So true, that's how it always is. But thank you
to the Women in Comedy Festival for letting us do it.
Thank you to Improv Boston for having us, and thank
(01:53):
you to our guest Emily Riskowski, who is a good
friend of both of ours. She is a comic Boston.
She's so funny. She's spent on two dub Queens. She
does shows all around the city. She's originally out of DC.
She's just she's a goddess. She's the best. We're so
happy we had. She brought us the movie Dirty Dancing.
And also we and I know we always say we're
(02:15):
gonna put it in the description, but we have a
great picture of the three of us for this one.
She brought us Dirty Dancing, and she dressed as Patrick Swayze.
She dressed in all black CAUs played as Johnny Castle.
It was unbelievable, and she came out to the stage.
We called her up in the stage. We had no
idea this was happening. Came out to the stage carrying
a watermelon, which is a reference a movie. Yeah, she
(02:38):
was doing Baby and Johnny Castle at the same time.
She's that good. She's that good. We have to do
a little bit more of the I have to start
with the recap. The live episode picks up when I'm
like in the middle of the famous Okay cap. It's
so funny, Like we sound like garbage in the recording,
(03:01):
like pretty universally because we're always like and our guests
were very cool, very composed. Mostly I think I'm like
talked about Jerry Orbach in this episode. So you didn't
miss anything, you can confirm. Yeah. So Dirty Dancing is
a story about a character named Baby played by Jennifer Gray.
She and her rich family go to a rich people camp.
(03:24):
Jerry Orbach is her father. They go to this summer
camp to learn about how to dance and how to
wear wigs and other things. Yeah, wigs outside, that's offensive,
wigs outside, wigs but like outside, Yeah, I love it.
Sold she's like, oh, I wanna. I want to hang
out with these cool people. They seem to be dancing.
(03:46):
So there's a six sex Yes, the sexy poor. This
is a new this is it doesn't exist in the
real world, but it's prevalent in this camp. Fuckable poor.
I'm glad you brought it up because it's it's an
important thing that we do address. So she's like, who
are these people who are dancing? All cool and they're
(04:06):
hot and they're poor because they're like the work staff.
They're the teachers who teach the dance class and the
white stuff, all this stuff. She's like, I want to
get in with this group. And the main one, the
coolest one, is the king of the hot pores. His
name is Johnny Castle Baby, and he has a friend
named Penny. And Penny finds herself in a situation where
(04:30):
she is pregnant and she does not want to be
because she got pregnant by this character named Robbie who
was a piece of ship, not sexy or poor. Hey hey,
So Baby's like, I want to help. I'm gonna help
with this. She's like, here, I'm gonna get some money
for you. The thing is, though, there's a oh, the
(04:50):
traveling abortion is he's like a carnival guy. He comes around,
he tours nuns up, He's like Bruce Springsteen. He comes
to your town every so often and it gives you
an abortion. Is he good at abortions? No? But he
(05:11):
is the amazing Traveling Abortionists. But there's also some very
interesting context for that that we'll get into, which made
me feel bad for, you know, saying what I just did,
which is the traveling Abortionists in a fun way, and
then an audience, remember, gave us some incredible context and
now we can share it. But I also got to
do the thing. Yes, So so the thing is Johnny
(05:34):
and his like dancing partner Penny have this gig that
they have to do on a Thursday. But oh no,
that's the only day that the Traveling Abortionists comes to town.
Crazy plot hole. So Penny goes off and gets her
traveling abortion. Meanwhile, Baby, they're like, well, someone suggests as
a joke, like what if you dance in her place?
(05:55):
What if you learn these dances? Baby? And she's like
a counsels like, no freaking way, I'm king poor, I
don't know dance with baby rich. But then it ends
up happening anyway because she's like, I'm going to prove myself.
And then they start training. There's a bunch of training
montages and then this is pretty much where yes, that's
(06:19):
the longest training montage every all butts, so many butts,
equal opportunity to male female. We're looking at a lot
of butts. Love it, love it. Very horny movie too,
but no depth, no horny. Depth is now unfortunately horny.
Not a lot of depth, pretty surface horny. So that's
where we kind of pick up on the live episodes,
so we will transition into that. Please enjoy, Emily Riskowski,
(06:43):
you kind of dodged a bullet with all the your
Box Talk which is my new podcast, check it out
or rock Talk. Yeah, enjoy, enjoy. Then what happens surprised?
The traveling abortion is not too good? No, not too good.
He he he messes it up. We're not told exactly how,
and that's probably for the bass, but it's like real bad.
(07:04):
So how they get to do the abortion is because
baby went to her dad and asked for the money.
He lied to Jerry O. She lied to Jerry or
box one. Let's just take a moment. What do you
ever seen one or get You don't why the Jerry
or Back can get away in it? Well? Yeah, so
so yeah, she lies to her dad about because he
asked if it's illegal, and he is daddy. She gets
(07:27):
his to She calls him daddy the whole movie, So
there's that, but she al says Terry Orbank, so it's
like he's everyone's Daddy's every America's daddy. He's your daddy.
So Jerry or Back winds up paying for this abortion
and then he goes and finds out what his money
was for, and he freaks out and he, like everyone else,
assumes that Johnny's the one who got Penny pregnant. I
(07:49):
see why Jerry Orback was upset. No one communicates with him,
no one gives it to him straight. And if you've
seen him in line where he needs you to give
it to him straight, he's like, I couldn't know when
I'm wrong. Yeah, he band's baby from like hanging out
with him. So what does she do. She starts having
sex with Johnny Castle like immediately like that. The Carmine
(08:12):
is also weird in this movie because it's like we're
here at the beginning of the summer. They're training the waiters.
The dance stuff just got here. But also Penny's already
pregnant by Robbie, So like when did that happen? A
whole summer passes. I would like to pay check a
little bit to the scene with the watermelon where Baby
meets Billy, who I love. Billy is Johnny Castle's cousin.
(08:35):
We assume his names Billy Castle, but we don't know
for sure. But Billy needs a sweetheart and doesn't find love. Uh,
he doesn't deserve it because he's shorter than Johnny according
to God to nineteen sixties lodgeing, since he's either he
is unsuckable. Uh, but you know, he's also attended like
the rest of hell. He's a working class babe. Like that.
(08:57):
There's a whole camp. It's like like weird looking which
people and very hot port people, which is which is great.
That's how I would like the whole world to be.
But so Billy says like, hey, I got these watermelons.
It's more articulate. I want to bring him into the
(09:18):
basement with me where everyone's fuck dancing, And then she
sees Johnny Castle and Penny dancing together, very sexually. They're
the best at fuck dancing and everyone knows it. And
then there's this moment where Baby asks Billy Castle or
aren't they together? And he's like, no, they were together
(09:39):
when they were kids, but not anymore. Immediately cut to
a shot of what looks like Patrick Swayzy, like going
down on Penny while holding her six ft in the air,
and Lan is and and Baby isn't like, are you sure?
Sus like there might be something there? How old is
(10:04):
Patrick Spazy in this movie? Oh? We telled all very
mus he's sucking a teenager? Or is it cute? Maybe
he's supposed to be like eighteen? Rights, probably he's actually thirty.
He looks much older than her. Yeah, I couldn't get
hold he was supposed to be, which again, because I
want to be on Jerry or box side at every
(10:24):
point in this movie. Again, I'm just like, you know what,
if a man of indeterminable age who I had already
known was a JIGGERO was pursuing my daughter, I too
would be like, hey, maybe not, you know so what
also we're so it all kind of culminates right there,
fucking everything's great, And then while it's start getting stolen
(10:47):
and they suspect that it is Johnny Castle. Baby comes rod,
she's like, we were together. He gets fired again. Is
it better to have stolen a wallet or had sex
a teenager? You know? Again? We eat that angel to
my mother like there's no winning friend. And then at
(11:11):
the end, Johnny comes back and he's like, I have
a speech to give and he gives it. It gives
that speech, and then before that he grabs Baby and
he says the famous line from the movie Nobody puts
Baby in a corner, and then he yanks her out
of the corner, which can exactly is it like literally,
because she's like sitting in a corner. She's literally in
(11:32):
a corner. And he's like that's not okay, And no
one's like why we just They're like, you're right and right,
there's a figurative corner. Is a literal corner? What does
he mean? I never understood this quote. She seemed to
be moved by it. I was openly crying. I love
the scene where Baby basically says, Okay, I've been sucking
(11:55):
the beefcake and Jerry roback and she's like, but you
suck too, and then Jerry about cries and you're just like, oh,
he's so raw. Uh that or the aftermath is that
kind of bothered me because then, uh, first of all,
Johnny has given like the big climactic speech at the end.
(12:17):
Baby isn't even though she's the main character. You think
she would have this like cathartic moment to be like,
I'm tired of well when I'm putting me in the
corner figuratively right as you will. She has a speech
she could give, we just never hear it, or she's
gonna say dad, not like to everybody in a big way, right,
(12:39):
And there was I mean, and again, it's like, I
never wanted to sound like we're cutting a movie slack
when they're not doing the right thing and they're not
doing right by their female characters. But this movie does
take place in nineteen sixty three, which sort of shifts
the context a little bit. The more I thought about
certain scenes where in ninete, I mean to me, it
(13:00):
was kind of impressive that parents were so on board
with both of their daughters going to college and like
really making careers for themselves, and and and and But
then on on the other hand, that they are actually
trying to Harry them off. But but I don't know,
and I I mean, we weren't. We weren't around O
carry I'm four years old, but I I don't know.
(13:25):
Putting it in context of the time it was supposed
to take place, even though it takes place in the sixties,
it feels a very seven movie. Like all the hair,
any outfits are that they're like besie and carry me
not dead yet, So you're like, Okay, you know, I'm
telling you President Kennedy is not dead yet, so you
(13:46):
can be like, I mean, I can enjoy this now.
It was a simple time. It's important actually, So I
think the female characters in this movie are great, Like
I think they're really I think Yanny is awesome. I
think they like the main character is named after Francis Perkins,
first woman in the Cabinet FDRs Labor secretary, Like that's
our main character. But then again they call her baby
(14:09):
like so the parts that you're like, I like that.
A lot of times Hollywood films, we'll be like, oh,
character is pregnant, Well, she's only got one option and
that's to have the baby. And the way the abortion
is approached in this movie is and it's not made
out to be the issue that a movie in nineteen
(14:31):
sixty three or eighty seven could have made it out
to be as this big like is it ethical to
do it? Like baby is immediately like, oh, we've gotta
get you money to get this abortion. And then when
Penny finds out, you know, like there's a moment of
back and forth, But the only reason there's a back
and forth or whether they she'll do it or not
is because her whole year's salary runs on one dance
(14:52):
gig has nothing to do with the ethics of abortion.
And I was, I mean, I hadn't seen this movie
in like ten years, and I will surprised that it
will dealt with that maturely of like that didn't become
a focal point of it. Well, even when her dad
is criticizing what happened, it's not like there's no big
(15:14):
abortion is wrong, but you just like you're hanging around
with unsavory people, primarily the guys. Because he doesn't seem
to be judgmental whatsoever towards Penny, and that he helps her.
He comes to check on her the next day. He
cares for her in a very kind way, but he
thinks these guys, like he's like, these are unsavory people,
and that's what she has the conversation when she says
you let me down to that's sort of what she's
(15:36):
talking about is you taught me to help people into
care and you judged them without knowing them. So that's
where and I like that too. Again, there wasn't this
big like moral issue around the abortion. It was this
is something. This is their reality that Robbie has completely
removed himself from and that Penny now has to deal with.
Baby is gonna come and help her and Baby sense
(15:58):
his judgment on behalf of her add who helped very
much in Safe Paint. But she's angry with him that
he's looking down on people, and she's like, you taught
me not to be that person. You can't be that
person either. And Jerry knows when he's wrong. He does,
he admits it. He said he's wrong, he says he's wrong,
but he doesn't apologize to Baby then, and only does
he Uh. The only time he like changes his mind
(16:20):
about the whole thing is when was the name Robbie
is like, oh, thanks for helping out with the Penny thing. Uh,
I was the one who it's only at that point
whenever Jerry's like, oh, well, if this rich boy is
telling me that what really happened, that's and I believe it. Well,
that's another tricky thing too, because it's like it is
his teenage daughter who he seems to trust throughout the
(16:43):
movie until he finds out that she has lied to him,
And it's like, I don't know. I mean, if you're
a parent and you find out your kid has lied
to you about one big thing, it's hard to be like, well,
but probably everything else is the truth because I don't
I mean, teenagers are big, dry liars, so I don't know,
(17:04):
Like I could see that both ways. Even when he
said who's responsible for this girl? Like Penny's grown woman?
But I think he in the context of when it
was supposed to take place, he saw this woman who
was left because he said, you got her in trouble,
Like you left this woman to deal with this by herself,
You sent her to this butcher. He's at the same
(17:25):
time get that nineteen sixty three mentality of like, you
take care of women and women can't really take care
of themselves. But he also encourages his daughters to be
more than that because Robbie tells him accidentally, he believes
rob because Robbie tells Robbie didn't mean to tell him,
because Robbie was like, I thought you knew, because he's like, hey,
thanks for dealing with it, and he I think, in
that moment, had that realization. Robbie thinks he and Dr
(17:48):
Housman are the same. Robbie thinks they're in this like
old boys club, like, hey, thanks for taking care of that.
And Dr Housman is kind of yanked out of that,
and it's like, this guy is the piece of ship,
not the guy I thought, but everybody assumed. As far
as I think that his character is doing pretty well
given the era he is we're to believe he's living in,
(18:09):
and it's like, it's definitely not perfect, and there is.
I mean, I wouldn't say that he considers men and
women to be completely equal. It's pretty clearly that that
is not the case for him. But but as far
as nineteen sixty three, dealing with a teenage daughter who's
clearly intelligent and you know, fucking up as any teenager would,
(18:31):
but I never stake as a teenager have been having
sex with Patrick Swayze and seeking like there's so there's
a conflict between Swayzey and Albak, which, first of all unhooked.
(18:52):
The whole reason that that problem arises is because when
Jerry Oba comes to see what's going on after Penny's
traveling abortionist thing doesn't goal well. But when he he
goes to try to patch that situation up, he asked, yeah, like,
who's responsible for this girl, which is a vague question,
and Patrick Sprayzy says me because he's her best friend
(19:14):
and sort of views himself as the one who looks
out for her, and had Patrick saysy at any point
just said that was what I meant when I said
that we could have saved an hour of conflict between
the two of them. I think one of the themes
of the movie is integrity and who hasn't who doesn't
And he sees robbed like you very clearly the villain
(19:36):
is the guy with no integrity who reads yeah, exactly right,
the guy with no integrity. And then the working class
people that everyone's looking down are the ones that have
the integrity, like and part of the reason they didn't
tell everybody that it's Robbie is because it's Penny's private information,
and she didn't want anybody to know, so they didn't
tell anybody, even though it would have been so much easier.
(19:57):
That's why when Baby is encouraging he said to stay
away from Robbie and not have sex with him, she
doesn't say he knocked somebody up, because it's Penny's business.
And if Penny doesn't want anybody to know, nobody has
a right to tell anybody, even if it would make
everything so much easier. And that's why, like there's this
big sense of like right and wrong, they never wrap
(20:18):
abortion into that and be like abortion is wrong. So
I thought that was a great It's a movie that
deals with right and wrong and morality that doesn't put
that judgment on abortion, to which I thought was really interested.
Were in such an easy choice to make. And another
thing about the very sexy poor that we have in
this movie is that they, unlike the you know, looking rich,
(20:41):
with the exception of Jerry Roback, is that the very
sexy poor all have a lot of respect for each
other and and treat each other way more fairly than
the upper echelon people do, where Patrick Swayzy and Penny,
and even even though I'm like, what is I get? Like,
there's a lot of positive male female friendships, but he
(21:03):
is almost evening her pill see like seven different times
in this movie, and it's like both friends. I was like, Okay,
I like that they did that. I agree with that,
but I like that they did that, that her character
exists not as anyone's romantic interest, Like there's a female
character who's not the main character who exists in these
like she forms this bond with Baby where they're clearly
(21:24):
women who have nothing in common at the beginning, and
Baby when Baby comes up to her and says, I
envy you. And Penny had just watched Robbie hitting on Lisa.
She's pregnant, she got kicked out of her house at sixteen,
and she like her life is a ship show. And
this doctor's daughter, rich girl who's at a summer resort
is saying, I envy you. Like that's where they start,
(21:46):
and I think they come so far as to this
place of like mutual respect for one another. And I
also like that when Johnny gives his speech at the end,
I don't think anybody mentions Baby's appearance in the movie
like at all, Like Johnny never says, you look like
He's like, this is why I love her. He doesn't,
You're so beautiful. He like, she has integrity, and she's smart,
(22:07):
and she's brave, and she helps people and she inspires
me to be a better person because she's such a
good person. Oh, I wanted to talk about the scene.
One of those scenes that does pass the BECTO test
is between Baby and Penny on the Thursday, which is
the only day to traveling abortionists can come. Uh and
(22:27):
and it's also when when Baby is about to do
the one show that everyone's income depends on. They have
this scene together that's that I thought was really nice
to a certain point where Penny is helping Baby get
ready and they're talking about dancing and Baby is nervous,
and then Penny the scene andy Penny saying I'm scared
(22:49):
to get an abortion, which apparently she should be this
traveling abortion this is not very good. But before that
she says a Penny like, I just want you to
know I don't really ape around, And I thought that
Robbie really loved me. And that doesn't seem like super
necessary to bring into it, because like it doesn't super matter,
(23:11):
which is kind of nit picky, But then again that
might also just speak to the relationship between these characters
where Penny probably feels like Richard people judge her and
assume that she would be like the type to sleep
around or however that's PERCEI what kind of goes back
to like the slat shaminess that exists in this movie
where it's like, I don't want you to think I'm
(23:32):
split opposite for me, I go and then saying, hey,
one I didn't say anymore. I don't like to be fair.
That's same we like the sexy porter. Do you have
a fear of being start shammed across the board? Because
then there is that weird seen in Swazies Cabin, which
(23:55):
is a book I would like to write. There's a
scene in Slazy's cabin after he and uh he and
Baby have had sex I hope with pretention who knows,
but Baby is like, you know, teasing him, and it's like,
how many women have you been with because and honestly,
I'm like, I want to know. We don't know how
(24:17):
old you are, and like maybe a ballpark figure will
be helpful, But Slayzy starts talking about something we are
you know, which is that he's low ki at Jiggio,
but then totally disclaims that. But basically he has this
weird speech where he's like, but you understand. You come
here and suddenly there's all these women and they're just
(24:40):
they're throwing themselves that you will. They're putting their key
cards in your pockets and you show up and you
think they love you. It's like, spazy, no, you don't.
We don't think someone slips their key card in your
back pocket a known married person, and it's like, slazy,
come over because I love you like and and so
(25:03):
you know it's implied. Yeah, so you know sees he's
had sex with however many people we've done know how
old he is. But he implies that every time he's
had sex is because he thought he was in love
and then he got stiffed. In his defense and defense
is that's not in his defense because there's a moment
(25:26):
when also in that conversation he's like, oh, they're shoving
diamonds in your pocket and I was around from Titanic.
You show you love someone like giving them a diamond. Right,
that's true because caled In Hockley protagonist, he's also super poor, right,
so all the kids that they're super poor, when he's
(25:48):
like he's candy to stay a lot and he's like
to stay alive, and then he goes there and women
are just giving him all this. I think anybody in
that situation, like he's super overwhelmed by like like, during
the year, I'm flat broke, can barely survive, and then
all summer it's sex and money all over the place.
(26:08):
I think it's a weird. And I also think I
think that the scene in the locker room with Penny
and Baby, I liked that they did that the Penny
because before that a lot of her interactions you don't
know shit about me, and like she very quickly dismisses Baby,
and then you see her vulnerability when she's like she's
ashamed of herself because people have always treated her like that.
(26:31):
And I think that's where you see who Baby really is,
because Penny's expecting to be sleut shamed and that's why
she says it, because she's expecting Baby to judge her,
and at no point is she met with judgment by
Baby at all. And I think it shows you this
bond is developed between these women, and Baby isn't who
she thought she was, and she baby was never gonna
(26:52):
it wouldn't have occurred to baby to judge her. But
Penny's so used to everybody treating her like that her
whole life that she feels like she has to pre
empt it by addressing it. And that's like the sort
of speech that she gives the baby gives her dad
towards the end, when she's like, there's some things about
me that you may not like, and you don't know
about me, but if you love me, you have to
(27:13):
love all of me, basically saying I have sex now, daddy,
and you have to be okay with it. Sorry, daddy.
Daddy cries. Can we talk about how much emphasis is
post on the lift and how I want to develop
(27:34):
an app called the Lift similar to lift. Instead of
picking someone up in a car, you just pick them
up and lift them over your head, like say I
want that person to come pick me up and then
you get picked up. I will absolutely give you. Yes,
(27:56):
I liked the Lift. I mean, there are so many
montages in this but when they are like, well, I'm
trying you to the lift, this is where I first
started questioning, Wait a second, how old is he? When
he takes those seventeen year olds into the water and
it's like, okay, we're about to see some nips. How
old is this man again? Lifting this high school SENI
(28:16):
here that said very horny scene. Liked it because anyone else.
So many final thoughts about the movie. In the portrayal
of women, we establish it, Yes, the movie does pass
the back to textile. Maybe has conversations with her mother,
with her sister Lisa, and with Penny, all about things
(28:36):
that aren't men, say with the old gulf ter uh.
And then we wrote the movie on a scale of
zero to five nipples based on its portrayal of women.
Four okay, yeah, because I mean you can't give five
because it was three, so you're never gonna in there.
(28:58):
And he ordered are occasional Jerry moments where it's like, oh,
maybe just believe baby instead of corroborating it with three
different childs. But you know, eventually he does believe baby.
Baby is an exception of person throughout, even when she
is helping man. She is you know, she she makes
every decision for herself, and I mean, she's the main
(29:20):
reason this movie is awesome. And Penny to Penny is
like an awesome character, which that they had done more
slash literally anything with her mom. I feel like they're
coming ja march March marches sidelined hard so and and
the sister's kind of a dummy, but we get to
see the you know, she comes around as well and yeah,
(29:41):
I'll skew up on your roof for okay. Yeah, I
don't know. It bugged me that, like the baby doesn't
get her like big speech at the end, like they
give that to Johnny, which maybe I don't know, he
kind of has more at stake. You could argue, I
don't know, like whole family's true, but I don't know.
I just I wish that she had more of like
(30:02):
a climactic moment. She does get the lift, but who
cares about the fucking lift? Oh, by the way, all
four of my nipples? Uh. Summer Jerry Irack young Hot
summer Jerry Alback old still hot. Cool. What I love
is she doesn't give Penny the money to impress Johnny,
Like she doesn't do what to like get it, like
(30:24):
to get this guy to like her. She does it
because it's what's right, and she doesn't hesitate at all.
I'm gonna give it four and a half because I
love again. I think the female characters. I wish they
had more time to do stuff together, but I think
Penny and Baby are phenomenal characters, and I love that
we got to sort of see that arc between them
and that Baby is consistent throughout and like who she is,
(30:46):
and she winds up teaching even the wisest man alive.
Jerry Arback, I Daddy, Jerry Arback loans a thing or
two about a thing or two. Daddy knows our news round.
Thank you so much for being here. So that was
(31:07):
our live episode. Thanks to everyone who came. It was
so much fun. We like did kind of a poll
at the beginning. They're like, who's listened to the podcast before?
And a bunch of people clapp and they're like, who hasn't?
And then several people clapp there like great, thank you
for just blindly going into this. And then we're like,
who has not seen Dirty Dancing before? And then several
(31:28):
people clapped. Some people didn't know what the podcast was
or the movie, and it's like, you know, your average
podcast host would be like, thank you so much for
taking your risk. Me what are you doing? Like? What
is one? Go get lunch. You had to pay money
to be here? Yeah, I do fist. I mean, I
would like to me they were very nice. They were
(31:50):
a great audience. I would like to assume that our podcast,
they probably just read the description and like this sounds
so great. I want to come to this no matter what.
I don't care if I haven't seen the movie. I
just to see these women talk. God, I want of
these women talk. I don't know if you guys are listening,
tell us why. Well, we had one audience member who
when we announced what movie we were doing, she audibly gasped,
(32:12):
and she ended up being this incredible source of information
which we can address now. So so in the live episode,
were you probably heard part of it? Um, A lot
of to Do is made about the traveling Abortionists. Abortion
is a key plot point in this movie and is
treated very responsibly, particularly for when the movie came out
in eighties, and and we pointed that out a number
(32:35):
of times, where Penny is having an abortion, but the
issue was never the abortion. It's the timing of the
abortion because of the whole traveling abortionist thing. And then, uh,
this same lovely woman who gasped when we said dirty
dancing approached after the show and let us know, and
then we researched it and found out more that that
(32:56):
was actually done very intentionally by the creators of the movie,
because in this I mean, this came out like Reagan era,
which is a very back and forth time for reproductive rights,
and so it was written very intentionally that way as
making abortion normalized and not a big deal that needs
to be harped on exactly. Yeah. Um. She mentioned that
(33:18):
this movie was sort of written and made a response
to a series of anti abortion protests that were happening
in the eighties, because the movie takes place in nineteen
sixty three, which is a few years before Roe v. Wade,
before abortion was made legal and more accessible, and you
didn't have to have these back alley abortions from these
traveling abortion is who really just mostly butchered women. Yeah.
(33:40):
She provided a lot of context information, So, um, I
wish we had gotten her name, but shout out if
you're listening, and I hope you're still listening, because you
were so great. Thank you for thank you for I mean,
and and to all of our listeners who reached out
to us and provide us with additional context. Helps us
helps you guys. It's great. We appreciated everything works out.
It reminds me, though, of a part that I had
(34:02):
to cut out of the live episode because the audio
was just I was, I think, screaming, so it was
very distorted. But there's a part in the movie where
Newman God I forget the actor's real name, but Newman
from Seinfeld he's and he is promoting this class that
you can take at this camp called the Psychology of
(34:23):
the Insult Comedian. It's like glossed over in the movie,
but like I honed in on this details, like, oh
my god, I want to take this class. I also
want to see a spinoff movie, a spinoff of Dirty
Dancing called something like Dirty Comedy or something better than that,
but it would be starting Jeff Ross. I just wanted
(34:44):
to see a movie about like a young woman who
goes to a camp and she she's like, oh, what's
this class psychology? But then there's a man who's like,
I'm the teacher of this class, like a four year
old road comic. This young woman who's like, don't let
young women anywhere near broad comics. They're dirty, stay away
(35:07):
from them. They're like, hey, won't open from me. I'll
give you. I'm not gonna get a car with you.
Oh there's a part that I had to cut out
where I literally just screamed. I was like, why is
the lift so important? The big lift Johnny Castle has
to lift baby up? Why is this so much emphasis
placed on it? And I scream, fuck the left, And
I just want everyone to know how angry I am
(35:27):
about you were mad about the lift and I wasn't
mad about the lift. Emily wasn't mad. Emily didn't yell once.
It's almost like she's got a control on herself that
we don't, and honestly, good for her. Good for her.
She's a smart lady. Yeah. Yeah, and she's a social
worker too, that's probably why she didn't. Yeah, she's she's cool,
calm and collected. She's got a degree in having her
(35:49):
ship together. Hey do you know what I have a
degree in? I don't care, but there's a master's screen
in screenwriting from Boston University. Yeah. So, yeah, this was
our episode about dirty dancing. We had so much fun.
To hope we do more live episodes in the future.
(36:11):
We'll let you know if that's the case, and we
will sound check next time. Yes, we sure will. You
can follow us on social media at back toel Cast,
on Instagram, ever expanding on Twitter, we have a Facebook.
You can like us there. We post articles and post things.
It's great. You can rate and listen and subscribe and
(36:34):
review us and all of those fun things on iTunes
and and you can follow me at Caitlin Garante. I
haven't plugged myself in a while. Hey, plug it, babyug
plugs out? What plugs out? Hogs out? You can take
your hog out and then type into your brother turn
(36:57):
dot com slash hammergra phone, I'll be there, are your
huggill be there? Uh? And then who knows, We'll just
let nature tickets course, all right, I think that will
do it. Okay, bye bye
The Bechdel Cast News
Hosts And Creators
Caitlin Durante
Jamie Loftus
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