# Grease: Isn't It Degrading to Women? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 5, 2003, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grease-isnt-it-degrading-to-women/159269 "2003-03-05T16:41:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grease-isnt-it-degrading-to-women/159269/1 "2003-03-05T16:41:15Z")
I don’t understand why women aren’t upset about the message the play (or movie) “Grease” sends to girls? Initially, Sandy wanted to make her man into a gentleman. But, instead of sticking by her morals, she far too quickly sacrifices all her proper upbringing and high-standing morals just to be assimulated into becoming a hood. And yet, this play and movie is held in such high regard. Why? Let’s see…maybe we can rename this play “How to Have Low Self-Esteem in 10 Days”… We can pitch it as a chick flick to capture the right audience. What is your humble opinion about “Grease” and Sandy’s actions? - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grease-isnt-it-degrading-to-women/159269/2 "2003-03-05T16:42:04Z")
I always hated that movie, and you have named one of the main reasons why. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grease-isnt-it-degrading-to-women/159269/3 "2003-03-05T16:50:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jinx \* > Initially, Sandy wanted to make her man into a gentleman. But, instead of sticking by her morals, she far too quickly sacrifices all her proper upbringing and high-standing morals just to be assimulated into becoming a hood. So let me get this straight, changing _yourself_ in order to get what you want is bad, but _forcing someone else to change_ before you will be with them is good? In case you didn’t notice, both Danny and Sandy changed themselves to be more attractive to the person they wanted to be with. Sandy’s change came more suddenly and is, obviously, the focus of the climax of the film, but Danny lettered in track and in doing so risked the ridicule and loss of _his only friends_. Maybe the message of the film is that if you’re willing to step outside what you consider to be your “self,” you will find more happiness than if you didn’t. It is, after all, a growing-up story, and there’s a reason it’s set in a high school at graduation time. ---
**Author:** ![MissBungle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@MissBungle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissBungle)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grease-isnt-it-degrading-to-women/159269/4 "2003-03-05T17:11:03Z")
I thought they both compromised. He got lettered in some sport… and she put on hot pants. They liked one another at the beach… in the summer before school started. They just let their images get in the way at school. Then they both went to extremes to show one another how much they wanted to be together. ---
**Author:** ![metroshane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@metroshane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/metroshane)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grease-isnt-it-degrading-to-women/159269/5 "2003-03-05T17:24:12Z")
Boy, that’s a stretch. Zucko sums it up at the end when his friends are razzing him…“you can’t follow the leader forever”…or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grease-isnt-it-degrading-to-women/159269/6 "2003-03-05T18:22:27Z")
In the musical, Danny QUITS the track team late on. Only after that does Sandy change. I always thought “Grease” was the worst musical ever. I had to change my mind after watching “Evita,” but “Grease” is still an offense to music. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grease-isnt-it-degrading-to-women/159269/7 "2003-03-05T18:40:12Z")
I never liked the movie. I haven’t seen the stage musical, and I’d be curious to see the original play it was based on, which was set in '50s Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![Gorgon\_Heap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f475e1/32.png) [@Gorgon\_Heap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgon_Heap)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grease-isnt-it-degrading-to-women/159269/8 "2003-03-05T18:41:18Z")
**RickJay** , ever seen _Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat_? **That** is pain set to music. Otherwise, I’m in complete agreement with **KneadToKnow**. Is _Grease_, where the high school girls can make the guys sit up and beg before they give an inch, somehow worse than, say, any TV sitcom of the 30s-50s where women only cooked and cleaned? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grease-isnt-it-degrading-to-women/159269/9 "2003-03-05T18:45:22Z")
There were TV sitcoms in the '30s? I’ve never been overly fond of the movie. I thought it was a parody of the ‘Beach’ movies. And I am also weird in that I thought ‘nice’ Sandy was way hotter then ‘bad’ Sandy. ---
**Author:** ![Gorgon\_Heap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f475e1/32.png) [@Gorgon\_Heap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgon_Heap)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grease-isnt-it-degrading-to-women/159269/10 "2003-03-05T19:07:34Z")
**Zebra** - my bad. My youthful mind was thinking black & white = _really_ old. Right. The 50s. ---
**Author:** ![Gulo\_gulo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@Gulo\_gulo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gulo_gulo)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grease-isnt-it-degrading-to-women/159269/11 "2003-03-05T19:24:08Z")
I never really thought much of Sandy’s transformation other then that she looked like a hooker. I bet you once she got home looking like that, her parents sent to a private girl’s school and the romance ended then and there. (Or I guess she could change everyday when she left home, like Stephanie from _Degrassi High_!) ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grease-isnt-it-degrading-to-women/159269/12 "2003-03-05T19:28:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RickJay \* > \*\*In the musical, Danny QUITS the track team late on. Only after that does Sandy change. > > I always thought “Grease” was the worst musical ever. I had to change my mind after watching “Evita,” but “Grease” is still an offense to music. \*\* What is so bad about Evita? Are you complaining about technical aspects of the movie or the music? Or is this just another round of Madonna bashing? ---
**Author:** ![ECJones29](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c77e96/32.png) [@ECJones29](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ECJones29)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grease-isnt-it-degrading-to-women/159269/13 "2003-03-05T20:15:43Z")
Never seen the play, but the movie **Grease** is degrading to everyone, not just Sandy, and not just the women, IMHO. All of the lead and secondary characters are stereotyped, the boys and the girls. I’m at a loss to explain its enduring popularity, although when it first came out, I saw **Grease** about 6 times myself, I guess because I was graduating from high school at the time and everybody else was doing it. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grease-isnt-it-degrading-to-women/159269/14 "2003-03-06T05:20:38Z")
I still remember reading the _MAD Magazine_ satire on the movie _Grease_ that summed up the moral of the story as “in order to get the guy you love, you have to be a slut.” ---
**Author:** ![SnugTheJoiner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@SnugTheJoiner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnugTheJoiner)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grease-isnt-it-degrading-to-women/159269/15 "2003-03-06T06:21:37Z")
ECJones29 is correct–the film (and, by the way, the stage play) degrades both males and females. But I’m not so sure that that’s a bad thing, because GREASE is, after all, a satire.