For the 45th anniversary of the movie Grease, we gave it the Two Drink Cinema treatment. Lee did his usual in depth analysis of the story and the writing behind the movie and Brett gave us all the info on its cultural impact (spoiler alert, that\u2019s significant). But one of the questions that came up is whether or not Grease really is <\/em>the word, or at least was it the word in the 1950s?<\/p>\n\n\n\n No. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While \u201cgrease\u201d wasn\u2019t used in a slang way and certainly wasn\u2019t used as \u201cthe word\u201d, which implies something cool and popular, the term \u2018greaser\u2019 was definitely popular and the T-Birds in the movie Grease are certainly greasers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The greaser subculture was prevalent in the 1950s in the US. It\u2019s often related to \u2018hood\u2019 being \u2018from the \u2018hood\u2019 or neighbourhood, but where the greasers differed from the hoods was in their look. The greasers looked, well, exactly like Danny and Kenickie; leather jackets, white shirts, blue jeans and a big handful of grease in their hair. The nickname greaser comes from the grease in their hair but also from their love of cars. Working on hot rods was a common hobby for the greasers so motor grease was often a part of their life and their look. <\/p>\n\n\n\n How this relates to the movie is the movie\u2019s focus on the teen issues of the 1950s, and the youth\u2019s desires to break out of the prevalence of conformity present in post-WWII America. The teenagers of the 1950s certainly aren\u2019t alone in struggling against conformity, nor are they alone in having the kind of angst we see in the movie Grease, but it\u2019s the generation that we\u2019ve seen represented in media pretty heavily. There\u2019s Grease of course, but we\u2019ve got long-standing successes of American Graffiti and a few series of Happy Days too, with their resident grease The Fonz thrown in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So while \u201cGrease is the word\u201d wasn\u2019t a thing in the 1950s, grease was a huge part of the youth culture of the time, whether in your hair or in your motor and the greasers who favoured it are a great presentation of the life and struggles of the youth of the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to hear more of our analysis of Grease, check out the podcast episode below.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Short Answer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Longer Answer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Final Word <\/h3>\n\n\n\n