To Mambo With a Predator

Andy Kryza wrote an article titled To Mambo With a Predator -- The Disturbing Subtext of Dirty Dancing, which has been published on the Thrillist website. There, Kryza is described as follows:

Andy Kryza

Thrillist senior editor Andy Kryza is a longtime writer and graduate of Michigan State's School of Journalism. In pursuit of stories, he's embarrassed his mother by being Tasered, teargassed, and shot with various projectiles, resulting in weird scars and broken limbs. He's subsisted on pizza cleanses, dog treats, and baby food, traveled the globe drinking whatever was offered, and has seen every movie in the Step Up and Chipmunks series. He currently resides in Portland, OR. Approach with caution, or keep your distance by following him

Kryza argues that Johnny Castle is a serial sexual predator. The article includes the following passages.

.... When you look closer, there seems to be something more sinister at play, and it all centers on the suave and seductive charms of Patrick Swayze’s Johnny Castle. Once you start chiseling at the character’s veneer, you might start to suspect something much darker: Dirty Dancing may or may not be the story of a serial sexual predator operating with impunity summer after summer, preying on young girls’ lusts. ...

When 17-year-old Baby ... arrives at the Kellerman’s Resort of rich New Yorkers, she immediately becomes infatuated with Johnny Castle, crushing on him hard. And she’s proactive. She actively wedges herself into his world. ...

Before we know it, the age-unknown Johnny and teenage Baby are official residents of Pound Town, with Baby sneaking in and out of his trashy cabin to do the horizontal tango.

So, yeah, it appears Baby is the one who makes the moves. She’s ALL over him. She’s like the wind. But when you look at the whole thing from Johnny’s perspective, it becomes increasingly obvious that Johnny’s got this whole thing planned. Because he’s done it before. This isn’t Johnny’s first dance.

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When we first meet Johnny, he walks into Kellerman’s as his manager is giving a slightly creepy pep talk to his summer employees.

“Show the goddamned daughters a good time. All the daughters. Even the dogs. Romance ‘em any way you want,” he says.

When Johnny walks in, however, the conversation turns. He addresses Johnny directly. Just Johnny: “Teach ‘em the mambo, the cha cha... that’s it. That’s where it ends. No funny business, no conversations, and keep your hands off.” ...

Johnny seems to get the message, despite obviously carrying on with humping the older women at the resort at will. He takes to the dance floor and dances with the ladies, hyper-aware of everything going on, including the fact that Baby’s drooling over him.

When Baby later shows up to the after-hours party in the staff cabin, Johnny immediately beelines to her, asking what she’s doing there and walking away coldly. These days, we call that negging. And it works. She’s transfixed. His trap is set. He’s already displayed publicly that he is not interested in this young flower.

And then, wham! On the dance floor, Johnny comes lunging at Baby, pelvis first, undulating at her as if somebody’s grabbed him by the dong and started tugging him toward her against his will. Within 20 seconds, they’re grinding crotches together. Hard. .... He then walks away, leaving her loins to froth.

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After that, it’s a standard high school-style game of Johnny being negative, then being a saint. During their training montages, he berates and then slyly lays on the suave. It’s not said, but there’s a damned good reason they go from dancing fully clothed to dancing in states of undress. It’s because the teacher, Johnny, demands it.

It all culminates in Baby’s so-called seduction of Johnny. She asks him to dance. She kisses him gently on the neck, then WHAM! That pelvis goes undulating and Johnny goes from first base to a walk-off grand slam in a matter of seconds.

It works like a charm. And my suspicion is that it has for many summers.

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Maybe Johnny’s just a product of his time. Sure, he thrives on a steady diet of MILF, but he’s also a man raised in the ‘50s, when rock idols constantly sang of hooking up with 16-year-olds and Jerry Lee Lewis made a big show of marrying his teenage cousin. He saw the raw power of rock and roll and its ability to unleash long-dormant sexual impulses in the masses ... and he harnessed it into that sweet, sweet Swayze pelvis. ....

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After his mighty leap from the stage following the big dance routine, he hits the ground, turns to the crowd, and hump-dances in their general direction. The fellow staffers, hypnotized, immediately spring into a highly choreographed dance, as if Michael Jackson threw the dance magic of Moonwalker at them. The old folks all get up and begin bumping and grinding. ....

But the real kicker? Baby’s dad approaches Johnny and apologizes to him. He stares at him, dazed, and says he’s sorry for thinking that Johnny was the one who knocked Penny up. He makes no mention of the fact that this dude has been banging his daughter on the reg for days, despite Baby telling him. That, friends, is the power of the pelvic sorcery. He has hypnotized every single guest at the resort. Baby never stood a chance. ...

But there are even more mind games at play. When Baby asks how many people he’s slept with, he goes into wounded boy-hooker mode, taking a page out of the David Lee Roth book of Just a Gigolo. ...

He totally gives himself away at the end, when he announces to the crowd that he always does the last dance of the season .... He doesn’t strike me as a man who makes up a tradition after one summer. He’s worked here for a while. And given that the staff feels compelled to give him stern warnings not to hump the guests’ daughters, there’s substantial evidence to at least suspect he’s done this before. ...

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Johnny might not have knocked Penny up, but it’s his cousin who immediately knows where to get that illegal abortion, and Johnny looks on approvingly. Dude’s probably got a punch card with the good doc. ...

He’s struck before. And while he probably won’t strike at Kellerman’s again -- he was, after all, fired for having sex with a teenage customer -- it’s likely that he’ll strike again… unless he remains a fixture in Baby’s life, crushing her Peace Corps dreams by dragging her down with him as he joins the house painters union. But hey, at least they won’t be in danger of having too many kids. Johnny knows a guy.

So yeah, maybe Baby should have stayed in the corner. It wouldn’t have made much of a difference to Johnny Castle. Dude’s having the time of his life. Every summer.

You can read Kryza's entire article there. The comments following the article are worthwhile to read.