Double Standards
We just opened "Grease," which even those outside of musical theatre are familiar with I'm sure, and the theatre was shocked by a series of events that followed opening night.
First there was the series of phone calls the next morning complaining because the actress playing Rizzo... get this now... touched her crotch during the show. In a rock and roll musical, full of hip thrusting boys who grab their genitals, and sing lyrics about getting head in their car, one girl touches herself once, in a mockery of a move the boys just performed and we get complaints. The director was asked to adjust the blocking so that it was bit less... raunchy.
Then we got reviewed.
The reviewers came to opening night so they saw the same vagina touching performance that the complaining old biddies saw, and so it was MENTIONED in the review, specifically siting Rizzo and saying that the actress playing her pushed the show into an 'R' rating.
This is a show in which 16 to 18 year olds have sex, drink, smoke, use drugs, commit crimes, have gang fights, display a general distaste for authority, and openly discuss the possibility that one of them might be pregnant. IN THE 50's!! Granted none of this seems shocking these days, but the characters in this show are the definitions of juvenile delinquency for their time. They should NOT be nice kids, singing and dancing. There should be an edge to this show. At least in my opinion. Rizzo specifically should be edgy and dark, she has a whole song about being the town slut essentially. Heaven forbid that she touch her crotch.
Whether it is the movie, or a general cultural blind spot regarding the 50's I don't know, but I find it all a little silly, and incredibly offensive that it was the girl that drew the complaints from every corner.
First there was the series of phone calls the next morning complaining because the actress playing Rizzo... get this now... touched her crotch during the show. In a rock and roll musical, full of hip thrusting boys who grab their genitals, and sing lyrics about getting head in their car, one girl touches herself once, in a mockery of a move the boys just performed and we get complaints. The director was asked to adjust the blocking so that it was bit less... raunchy.
Then we got reviewed.
The reviewers came to opening night so they saw the same vagina touching performance that the complaining old biddies saw, and so it was MENTIONED in the review, specifically siting Rizzo and saying that the actress playing her pushed the show into an 'R' rating.
This is a show in which 16 to 18 year olds have sex, drink, smoke, use drugs, commit crimes, have gang fights, display a general distaste for authority, and openly discuss the possibility that one of them might be pregnant. IN THE 50's!! Granted none of this seems shocking these days, but the characters in this show are the definitions of juvenile delinquency for their time. They should NOT be nice kids, singing and dancing. There should be an edge to this show. At least in my opinion. Rizzo specifically should be edgy and dark, she has a whole song about being the town slut essentially. Heaven forbid that she touch her crotch.
Whether it is the movie, or a general cultural blind spot regarding the 50's I don't know, but I find it all a little silly, and incredibly offensive that it was the girl that drew the complaints from every corner.
Judgmental people will always condemn what they fear, and sexual women are at the top of that list. I just finished reading Kite Runner, in which an Afghan woman can be executed if she speaks to a man who is not a family member. (It happens there now, in real life.)
Double-standards are alive and well, everywhere.