The "Nobody Puts Baby In A Corner" Syndrome

One of the most famous characters in the film "Dirty Dancing" captivated the female audience with a higher meaning of liberation beyond mere romance alone. What is even more interesting is that actor Patrick Swayze desperately wished to remove the most famous line "nobody puts baby in a corner" from the script. Now, it has become one of the most recognised phrases throughout the movie industry.

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Many of us have repeated this line to ourselves, but instead replacing Frances "Baby" Houseman with our own name. There has always been a magical sentiment to this sentence; perhaps even a hidden meaning that our very own "Johnny Castle" would come to pick us up and dust us off if we were placed into our very own corner once again. This can be portrayed as a happy ending that stretched far beyond banal romance alone. On the contrary, it broke through the wall of the "love that triumphs" and catapulted this notion into a higher dimension. In some ways, this dimension may be called salvation.

In fact, Johnny goes far beyond recovering his relationship with Baby. On the contrary, he saves it. He rescues her from a rather challenging name (Frances), from her domineering father and from a form of self contempt. He also extricates her from a social class to which she never belonged, a sad engagement to Niel Kellerman and from a life without any real emotion. In taking her hand, his character unknowingly took the hand of every woman who had been waiting for such a saviour with bated breath throughout her life. His "dirty" demeanor actually made him the hero in the film. This is still perceived in the male icons that are seen to dominate; the traditional man of power.

Patrick Swayze Hated the Saying "It Seemed so Trivial"

It is shocking to think that the very same unforgettable face of Dirty Dancing abhorred the line so much as to desire to have it removed from the script entirely. In the book published "The Time of My Life" co-written by Lisa Miemi shortly after his death, Mr. Swayze wrote:
"We rewrote that final scene a number of times. Still, the fact that I hated the phrase remained. I found it hard to quote the line 'nobody puts baby in a corner'. It seemed so trivial [...] but seeing the finished film, I had to admit that it worked. Of course, it has now become one of the most famous phrases of the movie. I've even taken this statement to address my personal issues lately; turning it into 'nobody puts the pancreas of Patrick into a corner' when facing the cancer that has stricken me for some time."

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