Presbyterian Ladies College and Scotch College, two of Perth’s snobby schools, have banned Grease from being performed by students because it is now deemed inappropriate.
A statement from Scotch reads, “A number of PLC students raised concerns whether the musical was appropriate in modern times. Scotch College listened respectfully to the girls’ concerns and both schools agreed a different musical would be better suited for their joint production in 2022.
Lauren Rosewarne of the University of Melbourne joined Oliver Peterson on Perth radio station 6PR to discuss the ban. She is a “pop culture expert”. While alluding to the outdated values in the plot (fair call), the conversation failed to align the position of ‘Grease’ in pop culture with what students are actually listening to today.
Lauren said, “It was a film made in 1978 so it is going to be a film that is dated. It was a film set in the 1950s so it had already had values that seemed dated to the audience at the time. Flash forward so many years, close to 50 years, there are elements in the film that audiences are going to be uncomfortable with, particularly around sexual consent. If this is a question about whether its appropriate to have teenagers performing, yeah I think there are better choices”.
But how does that argument stand alongside what students today and in recent years actually listen to. Lets take The Kid Laroi, Cardi B and even ‘Queen B’ Beyonce as examples. If we are going to judge what teenagers find or don’t find appropriate, shouldn’t we be looking at what they are listening to? What is actually their “pop culture”.
It is hard for a demographic that has made The Kid Laroi’s ‘F*ck Love’ one of the biggest hits of 2021 to argue that Grease is inappropriate. He was 16 years old when ‘F*ck Love’ came out last year, by the way.
What about Cardi B ‘WAP’. That stands for “wet ass pussy” in case you didn’t know. The lyrics go:
“Yeah, you fucking with some wet ass pussy
Bring a bucket and a mop for this wet ass pussy”
That was a number one song in Australia in 2020, by the way. 40 years old’s aren’t listening to his. High school students are. The video has also had over 400 million views on YouTube. That’s disturbing, isn’t it?
Even going back, Beyonce had some suggestive words for the demographic in her 2013 song ‘Blow’.
“Can you eat my skittles/ It’s the sweetest in the middle/ Pink is the flavor/ Solve the riddle.”
Do you want to cancel Beyonce as well?
Lauren tells Oliver that “we’ve just got to be mindful because our values are always in flux and how we perceive something 20 years ago won’t be the same today”.
Well yeah, but … na … because, you know … WAP. Values cannot be cherry-picked. If ‘Grease’ is no longer appropriate, Cardi B never was.
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