Thoughts of an Alumna of Mount Holyoke College

Joanna Arcieri, a graduate of Mount Holyoke College (the college where Baby Houseman was enrolled), writes a "film and media blog" called Cine-Fille. There she has published several articles about the movie Dirty Dancing.

Joanna Arcieri

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Arcieri's 2008 article titled The Time of Your Life includes the following passages.

Not only is Dirty Dancing one my all-time favorite movies, but it is also the quintessential Mount Holyoke film. Now that I’ve been a student at MHC for almost two years, Dirty Dancing takes on a whole different meaning.

Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman, class of 1967, is one of our most celebrated (fictional) alumnae. Dirty Dancing is ranked in the top 10 favorite movies for Mount Holyoke students on Facebook (the go-to guide for all statistical evidence about a college). There is even an on-campus push to have t-shirts made that say, “Nobody puts a Mount Holyoke woman in a corner”.

When watching Dirty Dancing with a group of MoHos you are bound to encounter several eerily familiar moments. They include but are not limited to:

1) The fear that you will end up with that chauvinist who goes to Cornell or Yale because he is the only guy who ever heard about Mount Holyoke and therefore will be able to appreciate your intelligence.

2) The coming into your sexuality. For Baby it involved learning how to dance and changing her clothes. For a Mount Holyoke student, it requires chopping off your hair, wearing flannel and joining the Rugby/Crew/Ice Hockey teams. .... [The list comprises 5 items.]

When my friends and I were watching Dirty Dancing for the umpteenth time, we started discussing whether or not Johnny Castle actually deflowered Baby. I’m not kidding. In true Moho fashion, we analyzed the scene where Baby goes to Johnny’s tent/cabin and they dance, leading to their first time together. We paused and rewound the DVD like true investigators.

Some argued, “Of course he was her first! They were first loves”; other argued, “Look at how she is acting. Girl, clearly knew what she was doing.” We never decided anything.

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Arcieri's 2009 article titled Dirty Dancing: Cementing Mount Holyoke’s place in pop culture includes the following passages:

.... Dirty Dancing, in particular, generates a special reaction because of its unique place in Mount Holyoke culture. ....

Baby is a woman of the 1960s who aspires to change the world. But despite her intelligence and ambition, she is awkward and shy; her first dance with Johnny is horribly uncomfortable to watch as Baby unsuccessfully imitates more skilled dancers. It takes her relationship with Johnny to help her come into her own and vice versa. The final sequence becomes a testament to how these characters have grown from knowing each other. ...

For the most part, we represent a generation that grew up with Dirty Dancing, whether it was shown repeatedly on television (it frequently appears on 24- hour Labor Day marathons) or just from hearing its infamous lines, such as “I carried a watermelon,” constantly recited.

It is not surprising then that the first place I read about [Patrick] Swayze’s death was on a friend’s Twitter page. This was followed by countless friends paying tribute to Swayze via their Facebook status and these tributes overwhelmingly came from my Mount Holyoke friends. For many Mount Holyoke students, Dirty Dancing is a vital part of the Mount Holyoke experience.

While we will never know if Baby actually got her B.A. in Economics and joined the Peace Corps, the mere fact that Dirty Dancing mentions Mount Holyoke gives this college a unique place in American pop culture. Patrick Swayze’s role in that has added a new phrase in the Mount Holyoke lexicon: “Nobody puts a Mount Holyoke woman in a corner.”

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Arcieri's 2012 article titled What I Learned From Dirty Dancing includes the following passages.

.... I have seen this movie so many times, it has probably become detrimental to my well-being. For example, I honestly believe it takes exactly three weeks to fall in love and learn to mambo. In real life, this is impossible because no matter what you will end up with spaghetti arms. As I was watching Dirty Dancing this past weekend for the one millionth time, I made some of the same old observations as well as some new discoveries. Here they are.

1. Never get involved with the entertainment staff.

If you hang out with the entertainment staff, you will find yourself mixed up with a bad crowd. You will disobey your parents, help a complete stranger get an illegal abortion, learn the mambo (going “ugh” is optional) and fraternize with people of different socioeconomic status. You will also have the time of your life. The entertainment staff is clearly terrible at their jobs.

Arcieli lists 11 more "old observations and new discoveries". Without Arcieli's elaborations (which you can read in her article), they are:

2. Watermelons are awful conversation starters.

3. The Catskills in 1963 were a progressive wonderland.

4. Rick and Sam retired to the Catskills

5. Trying on wigs for fun is something only rich people do.

6. Guys who attend the Cornell School of Management are the worst.

7. Older women, snobby waiters, and elderly Jewish couples are also terrible.

8. You should want a sister like Lisa.

9. Jake Houseman is the ideal father.

10. Everybody dances and America wins.

11. All smart, somewhat shy, and sometimes painfully awkward young women should be more like Baby.

12. And the most important lesson of all -- Nobody puts Baby in a corner.

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I have published a blog article titled Mount Holyoke College.