Okay, everyone, let’s all calm down here.
Every time a beloved movie gets put under a critical lens, both sides of any given issue tend to explode into passion. Some people argue that it’s time to BAN movies that contain sexism, racism, or any sort of bigotry, and others argue that cancel culture is DESTROYING what little is left of our culture, and in my opinion, both sides need to take a breather, here!
RELATED STORIES
Grease is the latest movie at the center of this discussion, but I think everyone is kind of missing the point.
*Grease* is one of the most fun movies to watch, like, ever.
The songs! The outfits! The cars! The struggle of actors in their 30’s trying desperately to look like teenagers! There’s nothing not to love!
Unless, of course, you think that Sandy changing everything about herself for Danny’s approval at the end teaches a lesson that might be a little bit sexist.
People have been talking about Sandy’s transformation in *Grease* critically for years.
While some find it sexist , others, like, you know, only Sandy herself Olivia Newton-John, think that people are reading too much into it and shouldn’t take things so seriously — after all, this is a movie about the ’50s!
I think they’re missing a very important part of the movie, though.
As a *Grease* scholar (as in I’ve watched the movie at least once a year since high school), I feel qualified to say that Sandy DOES change for Danny.
But Danny also changes for Sandy — he becomes sweeter, kinder, he wears a cardigan for her, and even becomes a jock because she likes athletes! It seems like they both compromised for each other. Sandy became a little bit more carefree, and Danny became a little bit more thoughtful.
They met in the middle!
It seems to me like compromising is the whole point of the movie!
Maybe we should all take a hint from Danny and Sandy and try to understand each other a little bit more! Maybe some of us should call for less cancellation of classic films, and others should maybe admit that some parts of those classics won’t always age well.
See? Was that so hard?
No matter what, I think we can all agree on something: the flying car at the end was super weird, right?
