Have You Had Many Women?

Baby Houseman and Johnny Castle became sexual with each other during the night between Thursday and Friday. On Friday morning, Jake Houseman said that the family would leave the resort a day early, on Saturday, but then changed his mind because Lisa wanted to participate in the talent show on Sunday.

On Friday afternoon, it's raining, and so the Houseman family is sitting together in their cabin. Then Baby lies that she is going to the main building in order to play charades. In fact, she goes to Johnny's cabin and gets into bed with him.

Baby Houseman
Have you had many women?

Johnny Castle
What?

Baby Houseman
Have you had many women?

Johnny Castle
Baby, come on.

Baby Houseman
Tell me. I want to know.

Johnny Castle
No, no. Look, you gotta understand what it's like.

Before, you come from the streets, and suddenly you're up here, and then women are throwing themselves at you and they smell so good. They really take care of themselves. I never knew women could be like that. 

They're so goddamn rich, you think they must know about everything. They're slipping their room keys in my hand two and three times a day -- different women -- so, here I think I'm scoring big, right?

You think, "They wouldn't be doing this if they didn't care about me, right?"

Baby Houseman
That's all right. I understand. You were just using them, that's all.

Johnny Castle
No, no, that's not it. That's the thing, Baby. You see, it wasn't like that. They were using me.

What's your real name, Baby?

Baby Houseman
Frances, for the first woman in the Cabinet.

Johnny Castle
Frances. That's a real grown-up name.

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Baby asks in terms of Johnny's having women. When Johnny becomes sexual with a woman, he possesses and controls her. From the woman's perspective, she is possessed and controlled by Johnny.

In particular, Baby feels possessed and controlled. A short time earlier, she lied to her family and left her family in order to go to Johnny's cabin in order to please him sexually. She enjoys pleasing him, giving him orgasms, even though she herself does not orgasm.  He has her as his sexual servant.

As a young feminist in her first sexual relationship, Baby finds herself going along with the conventional understanding that she is being had -- being possessed and controlled -- by the man. The woman satisfies herself by sexually pleasing the man.

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Baby knows that she is merely one of many women who has been "had" by Johnny in such a relationship. Baby is trying to understand her new insight into this common sexual reality.

She does not ask him to specify the number of women. Rather, she asks him only whether his "had" women should be quantified as "many".

Of course, she already knows the answer, which is "very many". Her real reason for asking her question is to prompt him to talk to her about this sexual reality that she is trying to understand -- that many women are had by one man. Johnny does not answer her "many" question, but he does answer her real question by beginning to explain his own sexual reality of having many women.

Johnny begins by talking about women who are significantly older than Baby. These older women throw themselves at Johnny. They come to him and pester him to be sexual with them.

Although Baby is much younger, she essentially is behaving just like those older women -- but Johnny does not say that to Baby. Rather, Johnny suggests to her that she should stop thinking of herself as being a "baby". She is a grown-up woman with a grown-up name, and she behaves herself essentially just like all the very many, mostly older, women whom he has had.

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