How Grease Negatively Influences VAWG Culture

Grease (1978) is an iconic film. There’s no disputing it.

We all love it.

We all belt out Summer Nights and Greased Lightning at the tops of our voices when they’re played at weddings, school discos and the work Christmas party.

This film is a classic, right? And Grease itself is an amazing film, of course it is.

But, and here’s the big but…

But does it feed into the narrative of rape culture and the wider issue of violence against women and girls?

In my opinion, yes. And being the mother of two daughters, I’m divided on how I feel about them watching this film when they’re older. 

Why does Grease contribute to rape culture?

There’s a strong chance that you read the introduction to this post and thought, ‘Nah, this isn’t for me. She’s got it all wrong.’

But I’m guessing that you started reading this post because of the title and so are still here to dive deeper into the argument of how such an iconic film adds to the problem that is violence against women and girls.

So why and how does Grease contribute to rape culture and violence against women and girls?

For me, this is an easy answer. It’s because, at its core, the takeaway message of the film is that a girl needs to change herself and sexualise herself to get the guy that she wants.

It promotes coerced teen sex, raises a lot of questions about consent (the line ‘Did she put up a fight?’ for example!?), and also promotes shunning women who may have got pregnant out of wedlock. I mean, forget Kenickie’s responsibility, Rizzo was somehow the irresponsible one who bought it all on herself when she had a pregnancy scare.

What does that teach young people watching this film? That women take all the responsibility whilst men have a good time with us?

‘Did she put up a fight?’

The song Summer Nights asks the question, ‘Did she put up a fight?’ The boys are asking Danny if he fucked his summer crush and did he successfully subdue her into submission.

This question is hugely problematic, both when the song was first written in the 1970’s, but also now in the 2020’s.

I mean, doesn’t this line just scream sexual violence?

In my opinion, it feels as though the film is saying that it’s ok for a male to continue his advances on a female even if she’s uncomfortable with his actions.

And this isn’t an isolated incident within the film.

Stranded at the drive-in

And let’s not go there with the drive-in scene where Danny tries to grope and kiss Sandy.

Actually, let’s.

In this scene, Danny clearly wants the situation of sitting next to a girl to go a whole lot further. But when she protests to his advances, his line is, ‘Don’t worry, nobody’s watching!’

In the stage version of the show, this is met with laughter (at least, it was when I saw the musical on stage). And don’t get me wrong, when I saw the stage production of Grease, I also laughed at this line. It was ironic to have someone on stage saying ‘nobody’s watching’ to a room of a few hundred people.

But let’s break this down for a minute. This is a 17-year-old girl who is actively rejecting a guy’s advances.

She’s probably terrified. And yet this is supposed to be a comical moment.

What sort of damage does this do to women and girls? How can one minute we all be laughing at Sandy for not wanting to be sexually assaulted by Danny, yet it’s suddenly not funny when it’s happening in real life?

And what message does this send to males? That regardless of what a woman says, she’s probably joking and wants his advances anyway? Or that her wishes aren’t valid and he can ignore her protests to stop?

What confusing and contradictory messages are we sending to our children, society, the judicial system, health and social care professionals, the education system, etc, about consent and the realities of sexual violence.

Why is it ok that in our personal lives, we’re laughing at Sandy’s misfortune because Danny explains it away with a witty line? Yet if this were to happen in real-life, society would likely be on a witch-hunt for this male, demanding to have him exposed in the name of safety for others?

I understand that times have changed and legislation has updated. However, this message was not ok to send to either females or males in the 1970’s, just the same as it’s not an ok message to send out to viewers today.

So, should we cancel the film?

I do love the film Grease, but I do think there’s a wider conversation to be had as to how this much celebrated and loved film tells women that getting pregnant and being sexually harassed are issues that are either their fault and/or to be expected just because you are a woman.

However, I don’t think that Grease should be ‘cancelled.’ Among it’s dated flaws, I do think that Grease has plenty of good points.

I feel that films such as this, though, need to be talked about more so that people understand their problematic messaging and raise awareness that this is a film and should not represent real life.

Perhaps, if Disney can display messages in front of films stating that that piece of media represented views of the time that are no longer appropriate or acceptable (albeit this messaging is about racism rather than VAWG), films such as Grease could have a similar message at the beginning.