Behind-the-Scenes Stories

"Last week I took a girl away from Jamie the lifeguard" -- Part 3

This article follows up Part 1 and Part 2.

Also, my recent article The Song "You Don't Own Me" Sung by The Blow Monkeys suggested that this song might have been intended for an extinct, swimming-pool scene involving Jamie the lifeguard.

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This series of articles analyzes the following dialogue.

Baby wondering if her parents might be looking for her.
Her parents are in the gazebo in the background.

Neil Kellerman
I love to watch your hair blowing in the breeze.

Baby Houseman
Maybe my parents are looking for me.

Neil Kellerman
Baby, don't worry. If they think you're with me, they'll be the happiest parents at Kellerman's. I have to say it: I'm known as the catch of the county.

Baby Houseman
I'm sure you are.

Neil Kellerman
Last week I took a girl away from Jamie, the lifeguard. And he said to her, right in front of me: "What does he have that I don't have?" And she said, "Two hotels."

Right after Neil compliments Baby's blowing hair, Baby remarks: Maybe my parents are looking for me.

Right behind them is the gazebo where her parents are dancing. From the gabebo, her parents can see her.

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However, just a few minutes previously, Baby had been standing with her parents in the gazebo. Her parents had been waiting for a slow waltz to play.

Baby, a few minutes before her parents might be looking for her.

Why was Baby standing with her parents in the gazebo? As soon as a slow waltz would begin, her parents would begin dancing with each other.

Then what would Baby do? Dance with Max Kellerman?

Of course not. Baby was waiting for Neil Kellerman to come into the gazebo so that she could dance with Neil. Baby had danced with Neil in the ballroom on her first night at the hotel. Since then, Baby had danced with Neil in the "playhouse", according to Billy Kostecki.

The hotel employees -- who watched their boss Neil closely -- perceived that Baby and Neil were in a girlfriend-boyfriend relationship. A short time after the gazebo scene -- that very same night -- Penny Johnson remarked: Now she's gonna run and tell her little management boyfriend, and then we'll all get fired.

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So, Baby was standing in the gazebo with her parents, who were waiting for a slow waltz. Baby was waiting for Neil and intended to dance with him.

Then Neil comes into the gazebo and approaches Johnny Castle.

Neil Kellerman
Where's Penny? Everybody's been asking for her.

Johnny Castle
What do you mean, where's Penny? She's taking a break. She needs a break.

Neil Kellerman
(Addressing Johnny)
As long as it's not an all-night break.

(Addressing Baby)
Come on, doll. Let's take a walk.

So, even though Baby had been waiting for Neil to come and dance with her, she instead takes a walk with him, as he suggests.

Baby does not object: Hey, I've been waiting here to dance with you. Let's dance for a while first and then go take a walk afterwards.

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In an earlier article, titled Baby Houseman's Inner Conflict About Femininity -- Part 6, I argued that Baby considered Neil to be her practice boyfriend. I wrote:

... Baby was using Neil as her practice boyfriend, also known as a starter boyfriend, without his knowing his status.

The website Girls Ask Guys includes a webpage titled I'm thinking of looking for a "practice boyfriend." Is this a bad idea?, where an anonymous girl's questions defines the term:

... I have social anxiety and act really awkward around guys. I want to become desensitized to them. In addition I'd like to have some experience just to say I have it so this idea will kill two birds with one stone.

So basically what I would require from the guy who agrees to this is:

* He helps me practice kissing

* He touches me a bit so I can be comfortable with guys and also gain some experience

* He messes around with me a bit without going all the way. Possibly I might change my mind and let him go all the way anyway. I want the experience and to be desensitized to guys.

* He's clean.

I don't care if he sees other girls on the side. This is all just practice for me. I understand how insane this sounds but I'm getting pretty desperate and tired of feeling the way I do around guys.

This book is not associated with
the "Girls Ask Boys" website

-----

The website Yahoo! Answers includes a webpage titled Should I get a starter boyfriend?, where the question is asked and answered as follows:

Question: I am 22 and I never been on a date. I never kissed, held hands, etc. I don't want to be in a serious relationship right now. I enjoy being single because one day I'll get married, have kids and that's it. I am pretty (not meant to sound conceited) so I do get "offers". ... I do want to hang out with a guy and gain experience (not sexual) because I feel when I do meet a man I really like I should know something about relationships. So, should I get a starter boyfriend?

Answer: .... Find a guy you like, even if you're not nuts over him, but someone you like enough to date and would enjoy being with for more than the "dating points" and go out with him.....but make it clear right away that you just want a casual relationship with no strings attached. If he's cool with that -- and some people are -- then proceed, but if you sense he is getting too attached, it might be a good idea to distance yourself at that point till things cool down. Also, if you really want a "casual" relationship, keep in mind that if it lasts for a long time, the more likely he is to get feelings for you that aren't casual.

This book is not associated with
the "Yahoo! Answers" website.

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A young woman with a practice boyfriend can experiment in her responses to the various male remarks, compliments, suggestions, requests, teasing jokes and physical advances that she will experience later with men in real relationships. For a young woman, interacting with a practice boyfriend is lots of fun. ....

Because Baby is using Neil as a practice boyfriend, she meekly complies with Neil's suggestion that they go for a walk instead of dancing for a while first. She does not have enough girlfriend-boyfriend experience yet to object to his suggestion. She supposes that in such a situation a good girlfriend should follow her boyfriend's lead compliantly and gracefully.

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Neil leads Baby some distance from the gazebo -- not very far; the gazebo is still in sight -- stands close to her, and begins to complement the beauty of her hair blowing in the breeze. His compliment embarrasses her. Perhaps she is ashamed of her too-curly, unruly hair.

She feels nervous about what else he might say and about what he intends to try with her.

An important consideration in Baby's situation is that she knows that her sister Lisa has gone alone with Robbie Gould to the golf course to advance their sexual relationship during that nighttime. Baby has been thinking about what Robbie might be trying on Lisa, and Baby is nervous that Neil soon might try to progress likewise with herself.

Therefore, Baby immediately wants to escape her isolated situation with Neil. She wants to head back to the gazebo, where her parents are dancing.

Baby does not mean to insult Neil. He can go back to the gazebo and dance with her in her parents' presence or else he can depart from her. She is giving him that choice.

This moment of her acting promptly to control Neil is a benefit of her having him as a practice boyfriend. Although she has femininely and compliantly followed his lead in going on this walk instead of dancing, now she is exercising her feminine prerogative to block his tactic to advance their intimacy. She is learning how to deal with a boyfriend.

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Baby likes and respects Neil. She is happy to talk and dance with him. She is happy to be complimented and admired for her femininity by him. She is happy to practice having a boyfriend and being a girlfriend.

He is not much taller than her, but he is a few years older than her. She has just graduated from high school, and he already has been studying in a college of hotel management. His slightly older age and life experience enables her to admire him somewhat.

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Eventually in the movie's story, Baby will drift away from Neil as she spends more time and becomes sexually involved with Johnny.

Even so, Baby continues to respect Neil as being an intelligent and reasonable young man -- even as being more intelligent and reasonable than Johnny. After Neil and Johnny argue about the what dance will be performed at the talent show, Baby advises Johnny: You tell him your ideas. He's a person like everyone else.

In the stage musical, Baby does not become disillusioned with Neil until near the story's end, when he backs out of his stated intention to travel to South to participate in Civil Rights activities.

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This series will continue in Part 4.

A Family's Halloween Costumes

From the blog Love Doing Life Together

Click on the image to enlarge it

The blog writers describe themselves as follows:

Hey there! We are Michael and Elizabeth Ann. We believe in loving life, building a strong family and an exceptional marriage. Love Doing Life is all about loving the beautiful life you have. Here you will find insightful marital guidance, life encouragement, and family-centered resources.

On top of that, we also have an amazing community for parents who are in our same walk of life. Parents with young kids who desire support and love to do family-focused activities.

On a more personal note, we have been married since 2011, have two children (Charlotte and Henry) and one on the way. We met at the University of Georgia back in 2007 when we were just two young 20 year-olds. College football and coffee are just two of the many things we love. Intentional, dedicated family time is another thing we love. Building a strong family unit is something we take seriously and know that investing in our family is worth it.

See also The Baby-Pink-Dress Halloween Costume

You Don't Own Me -- 5

You Don't Own Me -- 4

You Don't Own Me -- 3

You Don't Own Me -- 2

You Don't Own Me -- 1

The Song "You Don't Own Me" Sung by The Blow Monkeys

Johnny Castle has become angry because Baby Houseman will not tell her father that Johnny is her boyfriend. Later, Baby runs to Penny Johnson's cabin and finds Johnny there. Baby and Johnny goes out onto the porch, where she silently caresses his back and shoulders.

Then Robbie walks by and remarks that Baby is slumming with Johnny. Then Johnny beats up Robbie.

While all that is happening, the soundtrack plays the song "You Don't Own Me" sung by The Blow Monkeys.

The song is barely audible for the movie audience. The person who made the above videoclip is specially playing the song much louder on some audio device.

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The song You Don't Own Me, which was a big hit in the year 1963, when the movie's story takes place. This 1963 hit was sung by 17-year-old Leslie Gore.

Here are the lyrics:

You don't own me.
I'm not just one of your many toys.
You don't own me.
Don't say I can't go with other boys.

And don't tell me what to do.
Don't tell me what to say.
And please, when I go out with you,
Don't put me on display.

You don't own me.
Don't try to change me in any way.
You don't own me.
Don't tie me down, because I'd never stay.

I don't tell you what to say.
I don't tell you what to do.
So just let me be myself --
That's all I ask of you.

I'm young, and I love to be young.
I'm free, and I love to be free --
To live my life the way I want,
To say and do whatever I please.

In the finished movie, however, the song is performed by an all-male British band, The Blow Monkeys. The performance was included in their album released in 1987, which was the same year when the movie was released. The singer was 26-year-old Robert Howard (born in 1961).

The Blow Monkeys, who in 1987 sang for the 1963 movie "Dirty Dancing"
Don''t say I can't go out with other boys. 

In the 1987 performance, Robert Howard sings: Don't say I can't go out with other boys.

Because the song is played so quietly in the movie's soundtrack, most of the audience does not recognize or even notice it and cannot understand any of the lyrics.

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The movie scene shows Johnny and Robbie fighting. However:

* Johnny has not told Baby she can't go out with other boys.

* Robbie has not told Baby she can't go out with other boys.

* Baby has not told either Johnny or Robbie that she wants to go out with other boys.

Baby's father, however, has prohibited Baby from going out with Johnny. Because Baby has not objected to that prohibition, Johnny is mad at Baby. She has not protested to her father that he (her father) does not own her. Those are the circumstances of this scene.

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The fight was added by Patrick Swayze, who wrote in his autobiography Time of My Life (page 136):

Some of what Lisa [Mrs. Swayze] and I suggested made it into the film ... We inserted the fight scene between Johnny and the cad waiter, Robbie, to give Johnny the rougher edge his character needed. We wrote it so Johnny would stop before knocking the guy out, though, since he’d be wary of getting fired — something that had no doubt happened to him before.

If the fight had not been added to the scene, then how would the scene have ended? Perhaps Baby, while caressing Johnny's back and shoulders, would have said, I promise I will tell my father that I am going out with you.

If the scene had ended thus, then the song "You Don't Own Me" on the soundtrack there would make sense as foreshadowing Baby's imminent confrontation with her father.

Perhaps Baby did say so in the original script, but Swayze removed that statement when he re-wrote that scene. Swayze wanted the scene to show Johnny's wrath, and so Johnny should remain angry at Baby's refusal to tell her father about him.

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I speculate that Bergstein and the producers intended for the soundtrack to play Leslie Gore singing the song. However, because of a later decision to buy the rights for the song Love Is Strange, the producers no longer could afford to buy the rights to Leslie Gore's recording. Bergstein has told this story about the filming of the song.

Love is Strange. The script says "Baby is teaching Johnny to dance." Kenny [Ortega] and I worked out the routine in my motel room the night before. The executives came running onto the set after it was shot -- the song was not listed on the carefully calibrated chart of songs we could afford. There was no budget for it -- and worst of all -- we'd had the actors "lip synch," meaning we couldn't replace it with a cheaper song and might have to scrap the whole scene. Luckily everyone agreed after they saw it the scene was to good to scrap. You do what you have to do.

What the producers had to do, apparently, was to buy just the lyric rights to the song "You Don't Owe Me" (written by John Madara and David White, not by Leslie Gore) and then pay a low-cost band to sing the lyrics. (See also my article Business Decisions About the Movie's Music.)

Eventually when the scene was filmed, Baby's promise to Johnny to tell her father was removed from the dialogue. Thus the song no longer made any sense in the scene, and so its volume was reduced so far down that the movie audience hears only a soft instrumental.

I suppose that The Blow Monkeys sold the song to the movie's producers for a flat payment that did not entitle them to any royalties from the soundtrack album.

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Here I will offer an alternative explanation for the inclusion of this song in the movie.

I recently published on this blog a couple of articles titled "Last week I took a girl away from Jamie the lifeguard" -- Part 1 and Part 2. There I speculated that Bergstein's story originally included a subplot that took place at the resort hotel's swimming pool. In this subplot Neil Kellerman took a girl away from a character named Jamie the lifeguard.

If Jamie objected to that girl leaving him for Neil, then the song "You Don't Own Me" would make sense in the soundtrack there.

No such subplot, however, was included in the final movie. If the producers already had purchased the song's lyric rights and also the Blow Monkey's cheap cover recording to play over that subplot, then perhaps they simply placed the song onto the fight scene as the only plausibly suitable scene in the final movie.

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"Last week I took a girl away from Jamie the lifeguard" -- Part 2

This article follows up Part 1.

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The Houseman family arrived at Kellerman's Mountain House on Saturday, August 10, 1963. On that evening Baby Houseman and Neil Kellerman became acquainted and danced in the ballroom together.

Some days later, in a scene a gazebo, Neil told Baby: Last week I took a girl away from Jamie, the lifeguard.

In Part 1, I argued that Neil said so on Friday, August 23 -- almost two weeks after Baby arrived at the hotel. So, Neil took the girl away from the lifeguard during the week of August 11-17.

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I could be contradicted by an argument that Neil said his lifeguard remark during the week of August 11-17 and that therefore Neil took the girl away from the lifeguard before Baby arrived at the hotel.

I myself used to think that the gazebo scene happened on Friday, August 17. However, my careful study of the story's chronology has convinced me that the scene happened on Friday, August 23.

If my chronology is correct, then Baby and Neil were not involved with each other during the week of August 11-17. That's why Neil felt free to mention that he had taken a girl away from a lifeguard "last week".

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The movie's screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein intended to include a subplot that revolved around a swimming pool. The subplot was not included in the final movie. One reason why this subplot was eliminated was that the movie's producers could not find a resort hotel with a swimming pool that could be used as a filming location. In an earlier article, I wrote.

When the producers were selecting a resort as a location for the movie, they looked for a resort with a swimming pool, because the movie was supposed to show that the swimming pool was racially integrated. The author Eleanor Bergstein in her running commentary mentioned that the Jewish-owned resorts racially integrated their swimming pools before the other resorts did so, so apparently her original script included a reference to that fact.

However, the producers could not find an available resort with a swimming pool (we do see guests swimming in a lake). Therefore none of the movie’s dialogue refers to the racial integration of the swimming pool, although the dialogue refers several times to the Civil Rights movement that was developing in the South in the early 1960s.

We can suppose that the African-Americans in the planned swimming-pool scene would have been the orchestra members, who were idle during the days.

A swimming pool in a Borscht Belt resort hotel in the early 1960s
(click on the image to enlarge it)

The subplot had something to do perhaps with ....

* swimming pools being racially integrated at Jewish resort hotels

* Martin Luther King's March on Washington during the movie's story

* the big band's black musicians

* Neil's friendship with two Negro employees who would travel with him to the South

* Neil's intention to participate soon in a Freedom Ride in Mississippi

* Billy Kostecki's romantic relationship with a Negro female employee named Elizabeth

* Jamie, the lifeguard.

This subplot was at least in Bergstein's mind in her early development of her Dirty Dancing story. One relic of that extinct, swimming-pool subplot is the finished movie's mention of Jamie, the lifeguard.

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The swimming-pool subplot was supposed to be placed in the story between:

* the ballroom dance of Baby and Neil

* the "dirty dancing" party in the employees' bunkhouse.

Baby would know who Jamie the lifeguard was, but she would not know -- until Neil told her at the gazebo -- that Neil took a girl away from Jamie.

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The stage musical includes more relics of the extinct, swimming-pool subplot. For example, the stage musical portrays Billy and Elizabeth as an interracial romantic couple. You will see Billy and Elizabeth singing together in this video, beginning at 1:14.

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I will continue this article in Part 3.

Further "Dirty Dancing" on Deviant Art

For previous posts, click on the Drawings label (tag) in the right margin.

Click on images to enlarge them.

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"kaccako" by alpakami

kacchako by alpakami

The artist's comments about her drawing:

This was a lot of fun to work on, I genuinely loved doing this order !!
Kacchako AU / Crossover to the movie "Dirty Dancing"

The artist's comments about herself:

Alpakami

arts and d o o d l e s ♦
Little doodles which I simply don't post on my main account
Pixels/stamps will be posted here

The artist's Deviant Art gallery.

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"Poniosl ich melanz - Adas" by JustSilvia

Poniosl ich melanz - Adas by Just Silvia

The artist's comment about her drawing:

How do you call your lover boy?
Zadanie Adasia do anonymouscrusaders:
Nie wiem, o co chodzi z cieniami tutaj, ale mam już dość, a chcę jeszcze zrobić reszcie moich biedaków XD
Tak że no. Dirty Dancing. Ale sytuacja fikcyjna, przykro mi XD

Adaś (w czarnym) - mój.
Polly (skrzydlaty) - :asztat:.
exp - podzielmy wyjątkowo między Adasia i Pinkiego (do Pinkiego 2 XD)

The artist's comment about herself:

JustSillvia

Sylwia
Artist | Hobbyist | Digital Art
Poland

The artist's Deviant Art gallery.

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"My Back" by Takoyamafan23

My Back by Takoyamafan23

The artist's comment about his drawing:

[As (I've Had) The Time of My Life plays, Boredom and Envy dance à la Johnny Castle and Baby Houseman from Dirty Dancing]

Envy: Get ready for the lift, sugah!
[She runs into Boredom's arms and he lifts her into the air. His back cracks]
Boredom: [Loud, painful scream] MY BACK!
Peace: Aw, dude! That's gotta hurt.
Boredom: Joy, stop recording!!!
Joy: Got it!
Frustration: [Laughs]
[Boredom puts his girlfriend down and she helps him to the couch]
Peace: Dude, stay right there. I'll go get my healing crystals.

The artist's comment about himself:

Takoyamafan23

Pat
United States
Hey there, I'm Pat (RPing as Swizzle Malarkey from Wreck-It Ralph, Ma-san from the PaRappa series and The Perry Brothers from Monsters University

The artist's Deviant Art gallery.

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"Dirty Dancing" by Stregcia

Dirty Dancing by Stregcia

The artist's comment about herself:

Stregcia

Sylwia
Poland

The artist's Deviant Art gallery.

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"Rainbow as Baby Houseman from Dirty Dancing" by Colleen15

Rainbow as Baby Houseman from Dirty Dancing by Colleen15

The artist's comment about her drawing:

I really really wanted to do the pink dress from the final dance number but i decided on this "outfit" even though its very similar to Lisa's outfit from "Weird Science" but it was the only one i could do. I love this movie its so damn romantic and I love imagening Rainbow as baby and Felix as Johnny

The artist's comment about herself:

Colleen15

Colleen Kiely
Artist | Student | Literature
United States
Current Residence: CHicopee; Massachusetts
Favourite genre of music: pop
MP3 player of choice: Ipod
Skin of choice: don't care
Favourite cartoon character: Zuko

The artist's Deviant Art gallery.

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"Dirty Dancing" by 4everbacon

Dirty Dancing by 4everbacon

The artist's comment about her drawing:

I had sooo much fun drawing these two, the dynamic closeness of the pose was the real fun part

The artist's comment about herself:

4everbacon

Dee
Artist | Hobbyist | Varied
United States
Just a a gay canadian living in america!!!
I've been gone for some time now, but I'm making a come back and I hope to be a little more active on this website.
Feel free to msg me about anything, I'm a pretty laid back individual!!

My current fandoms are voltron, digimon and a little bit of sonic~~~~
`Bacon

The artist's Deviant Art gallery.

Born Too Late -- 5

Born Too Late -- 4

Born Too Late -- 3

Born Too Late -- 2

Born Too Late -- 1

"Last week I took a girl away from Jamie the lifeguard" -- Part 1

The Houseman family arrived at Kellerman's Mountain House on Saturday, August 10, 1963. On that evening Baby Houseman and Neil Kellerman became acquainted and danced in the ballroom together.

The next day shown in the movie is Sunday, August 18. On that evening Baby came into the "dirty dancing" party in the employees' bunkhouse.

The next day shown in the movie is Friday, August 23. Baby is in the gazebo, where older couples are dancing. Neil comes into the gazebo and reprimands Johnny for not knowing the whereabouts of Penny Johnson. Baby and Neil leave the gazebo, stand alone together and talk.

Neil and Baby talking on the evening of Friday, August 23

Neil Kellerman
I love to watch your hair blowing in the breeze.

Baby Houseman
Maybe my parents are looking for me.

Neil Kellerman
Baby, don't worry. If they think you're with me, they'll be the happiest parents at Kellerman's. I have to say it: I'm known as the catch of the county.

Baby Houseman
I'm sure you are.

Neil Kellerman
Last week I took a girl away from Jamie, the lifeguard. And he said to her, right in front of me: "What does he have that I don't have?" And she said, "Two hotels."

Why did Neil remark to Baby that in the previous week he took a girl away from another guy?

I analyze Neil's remark as follows.

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The previous week -- the week when Neil took that girl away -- was the week from Sunday, August 11, through Saturday, August 17. Neil was not involved with Baby during that week, and so he felt he did not need to hide from Baby the relationship he had experienced with some other girl during that previous week.

Although Baby and Neil had become acquainted and danced in the ballroom on the evening of Saturday, August 10, they did not involve themselves with each other during the following week.

Baby and Neil began to involve themselves with each other during the evening of Saturday, August 17, or the day of Sunday, August 18. On that latter evening, Baby was walking alone in the woods and she began to follow Johnny Castle. While doing so, she encountered Billy Kostecki. She wanted to follow Johnny into the employees' bunkhouse, but Billy told her:

No guests allowed. House rules. Why don't you go back to the playhouse?

I saw you dancing with little boss-man.

Baby ignored that remark and instead offered to help Billy carry a watermelon into the bunkhouse.

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I recapitulate the story's chronology as follows.

* Because Neil remarked to Baby that he had been involved with some other girl during the week of August 11-17, Neil and Baby must not have been involved with each other during that week.

* During the evening of Saturday, August 17, or the day of August 18, Baby and Neil danced together in a place called "the playhouse".

* On the evening of Sunday, August 18, Billy remarked to Baby that he had seen her and Neil dancing in that playhouse.

* On the evening of Friday, August 23, Baby and Neil are standing alone, and he is playing with her hair. He remarks that in the previous week he had taken a girl away from a lifeguard.

So, Baby and Neil were involved with each other from about the evening of Saturday, August 17, through the evening of Friday, August 23.

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I described their relationship in a previous article titled Baby Houseman's Inner Conflict About Femininity -- Part 6. There I wrote:

Baby was using Neil as her practice boyfriend, also known as a starter boyfriend, without his knowing his status. ...

A young woman with a practice boyfriend can experiment in her responses to the various male remarks, compliments, suggestions, requests, teasing jokes and physical advances that she will experience later with men in real relationships. For a young woman, interacting with a practice boyfriend is lots of fun. ....

Baby was insulted by Billy's remark -- and gave him back the watermelon and started to walk away -- for several reasons:

* She had thought that nobody saw her dancing with Neil, her practice boyfriend, in that secluded room -- "the playhouse".

* She resented Billy's insinuation that she chose Neil as her practice boyfriend mainly because he was a manager -- a "boss-man".

* She was embarrassed that her practice boyfriend was so short -- "little boss-man".

* She did not think that her having a practice boyfriend should disqualify her from following Johnny up the stairs to the party.

Earlier that evening, August 18, Baby had put on her party dress -- the same dress she had worn on August 10 in the ballroom -- and flat shoes. Thus dressed, she met with Neil, and they practiced dancing in "the playhouse". She wore her party dress so that she could watch in the room's mirrors how she looked when she danced. She wore the flat shoes because Neil is so short. When she saw herself and Neil in the mirrors, the appearance of her dress's prettiness was spoiled by her practice boyfriend's shortness.

For some reason, Baby and Neil parted from each other after their dance practice. Because he was her practice boyfriend, she allowed him to give her to embrace her and give her a brief kiss on her lips. Then Neil went off to do some management duty.

Baby is in a good mood. Still wearing her her party dress and flat shoes, she goes on a stroll through the woods. Then she notices Johnny with a female guest amid the trees. He is tall and is wearing his handsome tuxedo. Johnny is fondling and kissing the woman in a manner that she never has permitted to her practice boyfriend to do to her. The sight arouses her, and she decides to follow Johnny as far as she can, just to enjoy watching him some more.

Baby is having some fun on her adventure to watch naughty, tall Johnny. She walks past the prohibiting sign. When she encounters Billy heading toward the stairs, she immediately grabs one of his watermelons as an excuse to follow Johnny further.

Billy enables Baby to follow Johnny's path up the stairs to the "dirty dancing" party in the employees' bunkhouse. There she has great fun.

In the following days, she does not tell her practice boyfriend Neil about her adventure, because she was not supposed to go into the employees' bunkhouse and because he would be upset to learn that she had dirty-danced with tall Johnny.

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The next scene involving Baby and Neil takes place on the evening of Friday, August 23. In the gazebo, some guests are dancing, and Johnny is dancing with Vivian Pressman. Baby is standing morosely between her father and mother and is watching Johnny and Vivian jealously.

Neil comes into the gazebo and asks Johnny why Penny is absent. Johnny says that Penny is taking a break. Neil scolds that Penny better not be taking an all-night break. Then Neil says to Baby:

Come on, Doll. Let's take a walk. I love to watch your hair blowing in the breeze.

Since Neil now has been Baby's practice boyfriend for a week, he calls her "Doll", and she goes on a walk with him. They walk far from the gazebo and stand near each other. He fondles her hair, which she allows him to do. As her practice boyfriend, he may fondle her hair and has done so many times.

At this point, however, Baby is considering that she maybe should dump Neil as her practice boyfriend soon.

Then follows that conversation -- quoted at the beginning of this article -- in which Neil remarks that during the previous week he had taken a girl away from Jamie the lifeguard.

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I will continue this article in Part 2.

Miscellaneous Videos - 77

The Development of Baby's Political Rebellion -- Part 3

This article follows up Part 1 and Part 2. It will continue in Part 4.

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The book Twelve to Sixteen: Early Adolescence includes an article, written by sociologists Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan, titled "The Adolescent as a Philosopher: The Discovery of the Self in a Post-Conventional World".

Book Cover

Kohlberg and Gilligan argue that a young person's moral philosophy develops through three main stages:

The preconventional stage happens before elementary school. The child understands moral actions in relationship to rewards and punishments that are applied to himself.

The conventional stage generally happens during elementary school. The child understands moral actions in relationship to social conventions. The child learns that his society and institutions have rules that are good for everyone. A person who conforms to those rules is a moral person.

The post-conventional stage generally happens after elementary school. The child learns increasingly that life contains many situations where the conventional rules are problematical. There are moral uncertainties, dilemmas and conflicts, and everyone must morally navigate through them.

Baby Houseman's elementary-school years coincided with the Eisenhower presidency -- a period of extraordinary prosperity and power for the USA. Social conformity was a good path to personal success. If you dressed correctly, studied hard, and got married like you were supposed to do, then you almost certainly would enjoy a happy life. Social rebels would fail in life, and their failure would be there own fault.

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Kohlberg and Gilligan interviewed many adolescents to determine their current moral stage. One moral question that helped to determine whether an adolescent was in the post-conventional stage was this:

In Europe, a woman was near death from a very bad disease, a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug

The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $1,000, which was half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it."

Heinz got desperate and broke into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife.

Should the husband have done that? Was it right or wrong?

An adolescent in the post-conventional stage recognizes and so must navigate the moral dilemma. Various reasonable arguments can be formulated either way -- that the theft was morally right or morally wrong.

If this question were posed to Baby Houseman, then she would have to deal with the moral dilemma itself and also with her personally loyalty to her father, who argued that the free market was the best way for society to make medical decisions. Baby knew that her father would argue that high prices for new drugs are always necessary in order to motivate new investments to develop future new drugs.

Baby might recognize her father's logic but still feel very troubled by Heinz's inability to use an available drug to save his wife's life. After all, Heinz even offered to pay the full cost but merely asked for some more time to do so.

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Adult life is full of such moral dilemmas, and so every adolescent must begin to develop his own moral philosophy to navigate through such dilemmas.

For Baby, her own beginning of moral self-definition coincided with the 1960 presidential election when she was 14 years old. As she and her father watched John Kennedy on television, she heard her father criticizing Kennedy, but she herself felt that Kennedy seemed to be rather reasonable.

Kennedy won the presidential election in November 1960 and was inaugurated as the US President in January 1961. Just three months later, President Kennedy suffered a fiasco when he launched the so-called Bay of Pigs Invasion to overthrow the Castro government in Cuba.

Jake Houseman would exclaim, "I told you so!" about Kennedy, who indeed seemed to be too naive and foolish to wield so much political power. Baby had to agree with her father's opinion, at least for a while.

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In August 1961, however, President Kennedy's Peace Corps went into effect, as its first  volunteers traveled abroad to help poor people in poor foreign countries.

Baby felt strongly inspired by the Peace Corps and soon decided that she herself wanted to join it as soon as she became eligible in a few years. One feature that she especially liked was that the US Government would pay the full expenses for Peace Corps volunteers to provide some free medical care to the poor foreigners.

This moral exception to her father's free-market arguments was justified by the argument that the Peace Corps helped to persuade poor foreign countries to ally themselves with the USA against the Communist Bloc. Baby could argue to her father that this was a case where free medical care was a smart policy.

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 As adolescents go through the post-conventional stage of moral thinking, they appreciate increasingly that their own country's current social conventions are a limited case in world history. In particular, the USA's social conventions in the late 1950s and early 1960s were reasonable and practical for that particular society of that particular time. However, other countries had their own social conventions that were reasonable and practical for themselves. Furthermore, the social conventions of the past were different from the present but were reasonable and practical for past times. And social conventions surely would evolve differently in the future but would be reasonable and practical.

In other words, social conventions are relative to a society's particular location, time and situation. This understanding helps people in a post-conventional stage of moral thinking to consider and adopt new alternatives.

The opportunity to experience a foreign culture -- to experience different conventions -- in the Peace Corps attracted Baby strongly. Not only would she help other, poor people, she also would learn from them and would enrich her own moral philosophy.

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During the years 1960-1962 Baby began to develop her own moral philosophy in her own personal post-conventional stage of moral thinking. Her political opinions began to drift away from her father's political opinions. She was charmed by President Kennedy's intelligent, humorous and graceful political persuasion of the US population.

However, Baby still respected her father's political opinions and expressed her agreement with him frequently. She did not argue about politics with him.

Although Baby was entering her post-conventional stage, she still was partly in her conventional stage of moral thinking. She still wanted to be a "good girl" who earned praise by being nice, obedient and dutiful. In particular, she still wanted to be a "daddy's girl" who pleased her father simply by doing what he wanted her to do.

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This series continues in Part 4.

This series of articles follows up an earlier series, "Baby Houseman's Thinking About Social Justice" -- Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

The Development of Baby's Political Rebellion -- Part 2

This article follows up Part 1. There I offered the following arguments.

Baby Houseman was born in about 1946.

Her father Jake had wanted a son, so he encouraged career ambitions in her.

She was a "daddy's girl, wanting to please him.

Her elementary-school education coincided with the Eisenhower presidency.

Jake opposed the Democrats because he opposed socialized medicine.

Jake and his associates vocally supported President Eisenhower.

Baby liked President Eisenhower.

In late 1958 and early 1960 Jake supported New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller against Vice President Richard Nixon in the primary elections to select the Republican Party's candidate for the 1960 presidential election.

Baby was about 12 years old in 1958 and about 16 in 1962. The 1960 presidential election happened when she was about 14.

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The 1971 book Twelve to Sixteen: Early Adolescence includes two articles that are relevant to my discussion here.

"The Political Imagination of the Young Adolescent" by Joseph Adelson

"The Adolescent as Philosopher: The Discovery of the Self in a Post-Conventional World" by Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan

I will summarize the first article in this blog post and will summarize the second article in a future post.

Book Cover

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Adelson's article begins with this overview.

The years of early adolescence, twelve to sixteen, are a watershed era in the emergence of political thought. Ordinarily the youngster begins adolescence incapable of complex political discourse -- that is, mute on many issues, and when not mute, then simplistic, primitive, subject to fancies, unable to enter fully the realm of political ideas.

By the time this period is at an end, a dramatic change is evident: the youngster's grasp of the political world is now recognizably adult. His mind moves with some agility within the terrain of political concepts; he has achieved abstractness, complexity and even some delicacy in this sense of political textures; he is now on the threshold of ideology, struggling to formulate a morally coherent view of how society is and might and should be arranged.

Adelson's article is based on sociological interviews of 450 adolescents. He summarizes his findings as follows:

Surprisingly, it seems that neither sex nor intelligence nor social class counts for much in the growth of political concepts. There are simply no sex differences; and while there are some expectable differences associated with intelligence and social class (the bright are capable of abstract thought a bit earlier; the upper middle class are somewhat less authoritarian) these differences are on the whole minor.

What does count, and count heavily, is age. There is a profound shift in the character of political thought, one which seems to begin at the onset of adolescence -- twelve to thirteen -- and which is essentially completed by the time the child is fifteen to sixteen.

The shift is evident in three ways:

first, in a change in cognitive mode,

secondly, in a sharp decline of authoritarian views of the political system,

and finally, in the achievement of a capacity for ideology.

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Those three shifts happened in Baby Houseman as she watched the political campaigns that began in the Republican Party's primary race from late 1959 until July 1960 and then continued until the presidential election in November 1960. She watched the Republican Party select Richard Nixon over Nelson Rockefeller and then watched the US electorate elect John Kennedy over Nixon.

While she watched these important political developments, her father advocated Rockefeller over Nixon and then supported Nixon over Kennedy. In other words, her father advocated the loser (Rockefeller) in the primary election and then advocated the loser (Nixon) in the general election.

These failures of her father's advocacy revealed to Baby that she should not rely reflexively on his political opinions but rather should think more independently about political decisions. She began to ponder why her father advocated political opinions that were merely minority opinions.

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The first shift in Baby's political thought was a change in cognitive mode. I will not belabor this point. I will summarize it as follows.

Baby's political thinking became more complex.

Instead of thinking about only individuals, she increasingly thought about larger social groups -- about large minorities and about city, state and national entities.

Instead of thinking only about the present, she thought more about the past and the future.

Instead of thinking only about explicit motivations, she thought about implicit and deceptive motivations.

Instead of thinking only about concrete considerations, she thought more about abstract considerations.

Baby understood increasingly that politics are complicated. Many varied opinions --not merely her father's opinions -- had merit.

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The second shift in Baby's political thought was a sharp decline of authoritarian views. Baby understood increasingly that individuals and social groups had various rights that superseded the government's power. For example, she understood that the Constitutional right to freedom of speech meant that the mighy US government could not prevent individuals from criticizing the government.

She saw that Negroes recently had established their right to attend Caucasian schools in states that had established racially segregated schools.

She realized that lawbreakers might reasonably appeal to mitigating circumstances. For example, Negros broke some rules and laws in order to protest against racial discrimination. Perhaps she justified some stealing when the culprits seemed to be unbearably poor.

Perhaps she reasoned that individuals have a human right to healthcare despite her father's opposition to socialized medicine.

More generally, she felt increasingly empowered to question and even oppose her father's political opinions.

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The third shift in Baby's political thought was the achievement of a capacity for ideology.

Baby's ideological basis was her father's political ideology, which included these elements:

People should enjoy a great deal of liberty from the government. The government's power to control people should be limited.

Personal liberty is more important than social equality. When people exercise their own liberty and talents, some people will succeed more than others.

Free-market economies develop more progress and prosperity than socialist economies do.

When the government interferes in economic enterprises, the government usually causes more problems than benefits.

For Baby's father, a major issue was the proposal that the US Government interfere much more in the country's medical business. Like most doctors -- and like the American Medical Association -- Jake thought that such interference would cause more problems than benefits. The Government would distort prices, priorities and profits. The government would reduce salaries and investments in medical businesses. And so forth and so on.

In general, Jake's political opinions were represented well by the Republican Party. That is why he and his medical associates advocated Richard Nixon over John Kennedy in the general election.

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Baby had absorbed her father's political opinions as she grew up, but the 1960 presidential election caused her to consider increasingly the Democratic Party's arguments and ideology:

In the USA, which is not ruled by a royalty or aristocracy, the Government generally is not a threat to personal liberty. On the contrary, the government is an instrument to promote liberty.

Too much social inequality causes various crucial problems for political, social and economic systems.

A mixed economy that includes some socialist elements provides more stability and progress in the long run. Prosperity should including social nets.

The government can apply smart regulations that improve the US economy.

As Baby watched the 1960 election race, she paid attention to Kennedy's arguments.

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The entire Houseman family -- including 14-year-old Baby -- surely watched the four Nixon-Kennedy debates in September, October and November 1060.

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This series continues in Part 3.

This series of articles follows up an earlier series, "Baby Houseman's Thinking About Social Justice" -- Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.