Disappointing Dad and Dirty Dancing
You Are Good
Alex Steed
4.8 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2020
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s about dancing, sure, but Sarah and Alex unpack Dirty Dancing’s dad themes and there is plenty to sort through.
What happens when you disappoint your father by putting his own ethical code into action? A young woman gets radicalized and dance becomes a metaphor for sex and revolution. Dirty Dancing is, of course, the 1987 Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze oft-maligned “chick flick” that is about dancing, yes, but also lefty politics, reproductive rights, and—if you’re Sarah—imagining Jerry Orbach’s nipples.
We are lucky to be joined in this conversation by our friend the wonderful Candace Opper.
Original music by Carolyn Kendrick, who also produced the episode. Additional beats provided by Funky Fresh Lesh.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You told me everyone was alike and deserved a fair break, but you meant everyone who was like you. |
| 0:08.0 | You're invading my dance space. This is my dance space. That's yours. Let's chat. |
| 0:14.0 | I never know anybody like you. You look at the world and you think you can make it better. |
| 0:18.0 | It's not the way it is. It doesn't have to be that way. |
| 0:21.0 | Please trust me, Dad. |
| 0:24.0 | Sorry, baby, I can. |
| 0:27.0 | Dance with me. |
| 0:28.0 | We're here? |
| 0:32.0 | Here. I'm here. |
| 0:40.0 | Hello, I'm Sarah Marshall. This is why our dads. Welcome back everybody. Thank you for your response to the first episode. It was wonderful to have you all aboard the orca. |
| 0:46.0 | We fit a lot of people on a very small boat to swim the choppy seas of masculinity and we are excited now to take you to |
| 0:54.4 | Kalarman's, the site of Dirty Dancing. Today I'll be joined by my co-host Alex |
| 0:59.6 | Steed and our guest is Candice Opera. Candice Opera is a writer, she's a visual artist, she has work in narratively, |
| 1:07.8 | Gerneka, a ton of other places. |
| 1:10.1 | She has her first book coming out next year and it's called Certain and Impossible events. |
| 1:15.2 | And Candice is going to be talking about Dirty Dancing with us because she's one of my favorite dad |
| 1:19.6 | scholars. Dirty Dancing is a story about going to a summer resort with your family and |
| 1:25.6 | falling in love, but it's also about coming of age politically figuring out that |
| 1:32.0 | your ideals are going to take you to a place where your parents can always follow you and |
| 1:36.9 | Figuring out who you are if you're not the person who your daddy raised you to be. In Dirty Dancing we have baby played by Jennifer Gray |
| 1:45.5 | who comes to Kellerman's a summer resort with her family including her dad |
| 1:50.3 | Jake Houseman played by the beautiful and irreplaceable Jerry Orrbach, |
... |
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