Dirty Dancing (Patrick Swayze + Jennifer Grey, circa 1987)Trust me. I was a big fan but I still wouldn’t call this movie a classic… and no way does it have cult status… and yet, twice this last week I heard the line “Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner” on two highly-rated, prime-time, network episodes: Grey’s Anatomy and the new sitcom Kath & Kim.
I also recently read a YA novel which used used this line. YA? Please! Dirty Dancing was made in 1987… two years before my 19 year old son was born. I wonder how many 21 year olds have seen Dirty Dancing. But more than that, the ‘nobody puts Baby in the corner’ line wasn’t the seminal line from the movie. And it shouldn’t be allowed out… alone… by itself… without Swayze and Grey.
I watched Dirty Dancing again this weekend, over my husband’s prostrations that it’s the worst kind of chick flick. But actually if you analyize the constrution of the film, it’s a simple ‘underdog’ story. It has everything… including Patrick Swayze. But that doesn’t mean that writers should continue to immortalize the ‘no one puts Baby in the corner’ line. It’s time for a new mantra against marginalization. Let’s come up with something.
