「Be a good girl!」 」Were you spoiled?」 These lines come from the classic
movie 「Splendor in the grass」- when the heroine』s (Deanie』s) mother
talked to her dear daughter after her daughter had a date with her
boyfriend, Bud. What does 「spoiled」 mean? We can get some ideas from
the movie-it means 「make love.」 A girl can fall in love with a boy, but
she cannot 「make」 love with him because they are not married. Virginity
is like the greatest trousseau that the bride』s family sends to the
bridegroom』s side.
The setting of this classic movie is the late 1920s, an era when
opinions of sex were changing. We can read different expressions of
women』s sexual passion from the female roles in 「Splendor in the
grass.」 The Heroine-Deanie is a girl who had been taught to be a good
girl, in other words, to be a virgin, by her mother. She fell in love
with Bud. In the first scene, they kissed and touched each other in
front of the waterfall which resembled the sexual desire-strong and
attractive. Deanie kept on saying 「No」 to Bud』s advances. She wanted
to try the thing but she was also afraid of it. When Bud forsook Deanie
and turned to enjoy sex with a casual girl, Deanie』s classmate, Deanie
suffered so much from the news that she thought that Bud forsook her
because she couldn』t make love with him. Then she tried to do something
to show her change, for example, the sexy dress, the heavy make-up and
the fashion haircut. She asked Bud to make love with her directly but
clumsily. However, Bud』s embarrassment and his refusal made Deanie feel
hurt and confused. That was when Deanie lost her mind and she was sent
to a sanitorium.
Another female character--Deanie』s mother-- told Deanie that the man
just wanted the woman to have a son to carry on the family name so the
sexual intercourse was without much love. Another woman--Jeanie-- was
Bud』s sister. She expressed her sexual passions freely; however, she
enjoyed the happiness from the freedom and suffered the pain from the
freedom. She was the modern woman in the late 1920s. She tried the
unknown and new things and she indeed got something. Her happiness made
Bud want to try, but her pain made Bud feel fearful. There was also
Deanie』s classmate and Bud』s new girl friend after he forsook Deanie. In
most classmates』 and teachers』 views, she was a bad girl and it seemed
that every man could fuck her. However, I think that she maybe a casual
girl but she was a girl with her own mind. She could choose what she
really wanted and she could take the others』 opinions easily. I think
that she was the only free and happy girl in the movie.
The 1920s passed by, the roles passed by, too. Among the roles, there
were the modern, the conservative and the contradictory. How do you feel
about the new change?