9/15/09
10 Things Dirty Dancing Taught Us About Love and Sex

dirty_dancing_water_liftphoto by heine(ken)

R.I.P. Patrick Swayze, star of Dirty Dancing. Thank you for giving us the gift of dance and romance that only teenagers with a very high tolerance for cheese and a low level of taste can appreciate (and quote from endlessly). We’ll never forget you. And we’ll never be put in a corner.

  1. You don’t need a perfect face to land a cute guy.
  2. Reproductive rights are really important.
  3. Being called “Baby” is not necessarily derogative.
  4. If you’re trying to impress someone, do not talk about heavy lifting or fruit.
  5. Men can be used for sex, too.
  6. God wouldn’t have given us maracas if He didn’t want us to shake ’em.
  7. Stay away from douches who subscribe to Ayn Rand’s philosophy.
  8. It’s important to defend the boundaries of your personal space.
  9. Don’t say cheesy things like “And most of all I’m scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I’m with you” if you can’t do it with convincing conviction.
  10. When it comes to relationships, do the lift.


8 Comments

  1. hahhahahaahahhhahhahaa

    Dno Why i just wrote it….ma best m8 is ere nd so is ma boyfriend!!!!!!

    eyyee Loveeeeeee Rob!! (L)

  2. Funny I found this as I just watched the movie last night – my mum requested it for her birthday 🙂

    It was a good thing to watch with them as my parents aren’t really sure about my current boyfriend, though they know I’m old enough to make fairly good choices. So it was nice that the movie gets you on the side of the young lovers rather than the disapproving family. And my boyfriend is a fair bit more worthwhile – and parent-friendly – than some pretty dance instructor!

    But I must take issue with your no. 1 point. I think Jennifer Grey is absolutely stunning in that movie. And I don’t mean in an ‘interesting’ way. Just a flat-out perfect face. But hey, nearly all movies use unbelievably beautiful people in their cast. …. Thank goodness love makes the rest of us beautiful to someone too!

    p.s. your site is really great

  3. Dirty dance is a classic in my heart. It leads me the romantic world between a man and a woman, although, the life of reality is tough.

  4. Actually, #5 was kind of big for me. There are so few movies out there that show men being objectified and used for sex, and that kind of broke the paradigm in a huge way.

  5. Dirty Dancing, of course, is on the cheesy side and a bit over the edge. But the “lessons learned” are lifelong, like those you listed :). Despite the corny movies, Swayze had an amazing and very accomplished life. It is hard to say that there isn’t anything that he didn’t accomplish. But the sad part is the cancer, as with any death caused by it. My great aunt just died of Pancreatic cancer, and her sister died of it several years ago. It is such a painful thing to watch, knowing that they are suffering and even with the care of a nurse, it is just knowing that their days are numbered that makes it so hard. Prayers go out to his family.

  6. I have been joking for years that Dirty Dancing ruined my life. But seriously, that movie and others like that gave a whole generation of girls unrealstic expectations about men and romance. It’s just not like that in the real world – no real life dude measures up to Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing. Those movie romances just don’t exist.

  7. Thank you Patrick Swayze and Dirty Dancing for reminding women how fantastic, and perhaps even essential, it is to have a man who can dance. That little hip thrust Swayze did as he grooved down the aisle in the last dance sequence of the movie? Near pornographic. A man who can move his hips on the dance floor is usually killer in the boudoir!

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