Baby Houseman's Inner Conflict About Femininity -- Part 1

Baby Houseman is contrasted with her sister Lisa Houseman as being less interested in her appearance and more interested in political issues. While the Houseman family is driving to the Kellerman Mountain Home, Baby is reading a political book whereas Lisa is grooming her hair.

Lisa wearing beautiful clothes and grooming her hair.
Baby wearing dopey clothes and reading a political book

Riding in a car and reading with feminine style
http://sempre-eterno.tumblr.com/

Then as they are unloading the car at the resort, Lisa expresses her clothing preoccupation, which annoys Baby:

Lisa Houseman
Oh, my God. Look at that! Mom, I should've brought the coral shoes. You said I was taking too much.

Marjorie Houseman
Well, sweetheart, you brought ten pairs.

Lisa Houseman
But the coral shoes matched that dress.

Baby Houseman
This is not a tragedy. A tragedy is three men trapped in a mine or police dogs used in Birmingham, monks burning themselves in protest.

Thus from the beginning, the movie portrays Lisa as more feminine than Baby. The difference is a matter of degree. Both sisters are obviously feminine, but Baby is restraining her feminine development.

Baby is 17 years old, an age at which American young women normally yearn to develop a romantic relationship with a boyfriend.

Yearning for a Romantic Relationship
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However, Baby has decided to spend the next four years at a women's college and then the following three years in the Peace Corps, living with villagers in a poor foreign country. In other words, she is placing herself deliberately into circumstances where developing a romantic relationship during the next seven years will be unlikely.

Lisa, in contrast, strives to optimize her appearance in order to attract male attention. She intends to involve herself in a female-male romantic relationship at the resort. Even if that relationship does not last beyond the vacation, she will improve her skills and experience in playing the female role in such a relationship.

On her own initiative, Lisa participates in the talent show. Her participation will provide opportunities to socialize with young men and to display her pleasing and entertaining personality.

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Click on an image to enlarge it:

http://the-art-of-femininity.tumblr.com/

From a LovePanky article titled
"20 Hot Tips: The Ultimate Guide to Being More Feminine"

Anne of Green Gables

Miss America 1963

"Calling All Girls" magazine, February 1963

"Calling All Girls" magazine, April 1962

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Before the family departed from their home, Lisa consulted with her mother about what clothing to take to the resort. The mother advised Lisa against taking too much clothing. This clothing discussion between Lisa and her mother continues after the family arrives at the resort. Apparently, Lisa and her mother enjoy a close relationship, and Lisa values her mother's opinions.

In contrast, Baby is oriented toward her father. Already in the first scene, as the family is driving to the resort, Baby thinks aloud that her father is a great guy, but does not express a similar thought about her mother. Later in the movie, whenever Baby needs help, she turns to her father. Later still, when Baby's father expresses his disappointment in her, she is emotionally crushed.

In one scene, Lisa and Baby are lying in their hotel beds, and Lisa describes the two sisters' relationships to their father:

You're not Daddy's girl anymore. He listens when I talk now. You hate that.

In other words, their father was significantly more interested in Baby and paid relatively little attention to Lisa. Furthermore, Baby was happy about being "Daddy's girl".

In general, Lisa orients herself toward her mother, whereas Baby orients herself toward her father. This orientation difference characterizes Lisa as more feminine than Baby.

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Although Baby has not intended to involve herself in a romantic relationship with a man during her vacation, she happens to fall into such a relationship with Johnny Castle. Penny Johnson's pregnancy creates a fortuitous situation that causes Baby to spend a lot of time dancing with Johnny.

Baby enjoys her relationship with Johnny as it becomes fun, romantic, sexual and intimate. However, the relationship causes an internal conflict. Baby feels that she should inform her father about her relationship with Johnny, but she cannot bring herself to do so.

Baby's reluctance to inform her father is caused by several considerations. Baby foresees that her father will perceive that Johnny ...

* was responsible for Penny's pregnancy and abortion.

* is too old for Baby.

* is too uneducated for Baby.

* has poor prospects for earning a living.

* lives in an unsettled lifestyle.

* is not Jewish.

Baby foresees that her father will object to her relationship with Johnny and will prevent her from continuing it. Baby will be upset and humiliated by her father's intervention.

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In this article, however, I will address another consideration.

Baby's romance endangered her father's satisfaction with her restrained femininity.

Jake Houseman is an intelligent, liberal man with two daughters. He never will have a son. He never will enjoy the life-long satisfaction of trying to be the role model to a son.

Jake favors his younger daughter Baby, because she has become his quasi-son. Baby is postponing romance, marriage and motherhood in order to devote herself to a higher education and a professional career. Eventually Baby might even follow his own career path and become a medical doctor.

Of course, Jake wants Baby to enjoy love, marriage and motherhood, but he has been happy that she has decided to postpone those stages of her life. Baby herself decided to postpone them, because she understands that delaying gratification now will enable her to profit later.

Now, however, Baby's romance with Johnny might derail Baby's life course quickly. She might even become pregnant soon and drop out of school to give birth to the baby. Maybe Baby herself has even entertained that fantasy since she has fallen in love with Johnny.

This consideration about her relationship with her father -- that he has been counting on her to prioritize her professional career -- is one reason why she cannot bring herself to inform him about her relationship with Johnny.

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The movie's screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein herself was the younger daughter of a medical doctor. I assume that her own relationship with her father guided her characterization of Baby and Jake Houseman.

Eleanor did not follow her father's example and become a doctor. Instead, she became a dance instructor and then became a writer of novels and screenplays that are mostly about women's concerns.

In her previous screenplay, which became the 1980 movie It's My Turn, Bergstein portrayed a younger daughter who became a mathematics professor, an occupation dominated by men. That character was troubled by insecurities and resentments related to her being a rare woman -- perhaps a mere token -- in the profession. In that movie too, the female character's father is a doctor who is adored by this female protagonist.

This kind of daughter-father relationship evidently interests Bergstein, and it is a continuing theme in her literary work. The plot situations portray the heroine's inner conflicts not only in life-long daughter-father relationship but also in her new daughter-boyfriend relationship. The daughter aspires to a professional career, but then her infatuation with a masculine, unintellectual man threatens to upset her career and her daddy's-girl relationship with her intellectual, professional father.

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This is the first in a series of articles. Part 2, Part 3 , Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7.