The Fantasy/Reality of Flashdance
In 1983, Flashdance set off a craze of butchered sweatshirts and bunched-up leg warmers. Young girls were dancing in the streets to Irene Cara’s theme song, “What a Feeling”. In Flashdance, Alex Owens (Jennifer Beals) is a welder by day and an exotic dancer by night. In the world of industry, she wears protective gear and melts iron into steel. In the world of kink, she gets paid to perform original dance numbers to a bar full of male patrons. From the steel mill to Mawby’s Bar, Alex is a woman in a man’s world.
When Alex steps out onto the stage at Mawby’s, she holds her arms up like a puppet. She is pulled one way, then the other way. She dances to the lustful song by Shandi, “He’s a Dream” as she begins to break free. Her moves become skillful and passionate. She strips down from a suit to a red lace G-string leotard. She spins and lands in a chair on stage. She throws her head back and her legs forward. She reaches up for a lever and pulls it toward her. Water escapes in heaps from the ceiling and threatens to break her. She arches her body to face the collision. The water crashes into her and bounces off her skin. She throws her wet head forward and back. Wild drops of water shock the audience as they cheer her on. She stands tall on the chair, leaps to the floor and falls to her knees. She slams her fists down hard again and again. She rises, struts and spins down stage as she sings along ecstatically to the music. I can't believe he's lookin' at me. He's a dream. He didn't mean to catch my eye, well he's lucky, he just walked on by. While her body masters erotic bravado, according to the song, her heart is hungry for recognition. In Alex’s performance, she journeys from a doll whose movements aren’t her own to a feral soul confessing desire and conflict. Her erotic dance is an act of intervention in a man’s world of uniforms, machines and factories. The erotic dance sequences of the film can be read as a form of radical speech if seen in the context of a film about women and work.
Films about women and work traditionally express anxiety about independence and sexuality. At the movies, women can be strong when it is tied to motherhood or avenging sexual violence as seen in films such as Kill Bill (2003), Terminator II: Judgment Day (1991) and Thelma and Louise (1991). The ambition of the mother or the avenger affirms a patriarchal narrative about a woman’s body as a site of attachment or oppression. But what happens when a woman is cut loose and pursuing self-sufficiency? What happens when she is seduced by self-determination? When it comes to the world of industry, stories about women at work become a fable about the abuse of power or the breakdown of the family. In Mildred Pierce (1945), Joan Crawford plays a divorcee in a 1940s America who opens her own restaurant. Her success hinders her ability to be a mother and a lover. In Network (1976), Faye Dunaway plays a merciless television producer whose obsession with good ratings reaches a frightening climax. In Working Girl (1988) and The Devil Wears Prada (2006), naïve young women look to emotionally bankrupt women bosses with the expectation of a mentor. In 9 to 5 (1980), secretaries Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin fight for the right to wear tight blouses and make copies. Julia Roberts as a secretary in Erin Brockovich (2000), and as a prostitute in Pretty Woman (1990) struggle with a similar starvation for respect and opportunity. What a feeling to be a young ambitious woman in a patriarchal culture!
In Flashdance, Alex Owens is a woman cut loose. The film struggles to account for why an unconventional woman is so compelling. The feminist climate of the 1980s was successful in drumming up curiosity about strong women, but left much to be desired in its understanding of a liberated erotic voice. Flashdance’s interpretation of an independent woman betrays the confusion of its time. Alex is both portrayed as a subject of curiosity and an object to possess. This division most aptly expressed by the “Maniac.” Alex’s “Maniac” dances for herself. In her warehouse, she doesn't need any costumes or an audience. She wears only a black leotard and black leg warmers. She wraps her feet with tape, committed to the demands of practice. Her experience and knowledge of dance shows as she moves across the floor. The “Maniac” is the true self beyond the limits of the steel mill and Mawby’s Bar. The film reveals the “Maniac” as a driven and powerful author of erotic dance. Just a steel town girl on a Saturday night, lookin' for the fight of her life. In the real-time world no one sees her at all, they all say she's crazy. Locking rhythms to the beat of her heart, changing woman into life. She has danced into the danger zone, when a dancer becomes the dance. It can cut you like a knife, if the gift becomes the fire. On a wire between will and what will be. She's a maniac, maniac on the floor. And she's dancing like she's never danced before. Michael Sembello’s song “Maniac” was originally written from the perspective of a serial killer hunting his next victim. In Flashdance, the “Maniac” sequence still seeks to dismantle its subject into smaller parts---a thigh, an ass, a breast, a waist, a foot, a sweaty face. Alex’s “Maniac” is a woman’s private world unveiled. The film pursues a plot of anxiety about whether there is a place in the legitimate world of dance and in romantic love for a “Maniac.”
In Flashdance, Alex is not the only woman who struggles to find her place in a man’s world. Tina Tech (Cynthia Rhodes) may pump iron to Joan Jett’s anthem, “I love Rock and Roll”, but she also waits by the phone. Tina worries about hearing from a date. Ring damn it! Alex reassures her co-worker, He’ll call! I don’t think so, Alex! He’ll call! The women laugh at Tina’s doubt. In Tina’s dance performance, she emerges from a sea of uncertainty as the grinning “Manhunter”. I'm goin' on a manhunt, turn it around. Women have been hunted, now we're huntin' around. Manhunt, we all got the need. The one that's been waitin' has taken the lead. For Tina Tech, there are only two options—the offstage life of the coveted phone call or the imagined space on stage of the “Manhunter”. In her performance of “Manhunt,” an angry call of resistance can be heard in Karen Kamon’s voice and seen in Tina’s punk-inspired costume. She rips a catcher’s mask from her face and yells, 1..2..3..4! She refuses the playing field of recognition. Her body is made for more than sport. She tears through the air of male spectatorship with an acrobatic flip. She paints herself gold but defies the life of a trophy. Tina’s “Manhunt” rages against the irrational partnering of sex and power. She moves with mayhem, then with control. Behind a dance of dominance is a woman's fury. She mocks capture and collapses as if to say—no surrender.
Jeanie Szabo’s entry at a local ice show competition raises the stakes of spectatorship in the film. Jeanie (Sunny Johnson) is the first woman in the film to dance for an audience outside the kinky margin of Mawby’s. At Mawby’s, Jeanie is a wholesome waitress dating the cook. As a skater, she dances as she balances blades at a remarkable speed. Her father disapproves of her pursuit of skating. Jeanie has previously lost the ice show competition. Alex and Jeanie’s mother, a former skater, defend her desire to return to the ice. Jeanie’s friendship with the Flashdancers has nurtured a rebel heart. When she skates onto the ice, she wears a low cut black leotard distinguishing her from the graceful blue costume of the traditional skater before her. Jeanie’s song choice of Laura Branigan’s “Gloria” is radically different than the classical musical played by the traditional skater. At the time Flashdance was released, the name “Gloria” was synonymous with Gloria Steinem. In the 1980s, Steinem was a powerful figure in the fight for women’s speech—in particular, labor rights. Jeanie’s true opponent in the competition is “tradition” itself. In “Gloria,” Jennie calls out to a woman who has lost her voice among appointed identities. Gloria, How's it gonna go down? Will you meet him on the main line? Or will you catch him on the rebound? Will you marry for the money? Take a lover in the afternoon? Feel your innocence slippin' away. Don't believe it's comin' back soon. Jeanie’s first fall on the ice is followed by a stunning recovery and extraordinary spin. Jeanie’s second fall means she will not win. She is not able to return to her dance. She stays on the ice floor as the music continues to play. And you really don't remember. Was it somethin' that he said? All the voices in your head. Calling Gloria. Gloria. Jeanie’s loss at the competition overwhelms her. The next time she takes the stage, is as a stripper at the demonized Zanzibar. Alex bursts into the strip joint and drags Jeanie out of the club. They argue about money, dance and friendship. In the pouring rain of the streets of Pittsburgh, Jeanie begins to cry. Beyond the waitress and the stripper, beats the broken heart of a skater.
Alex arrives to her audition for a prestigious dance company with her wings clipped. Her best friend is battling a broken heart. Her mentor, the former ballerina Hanna Long (Lilia Skala), has died. Her boyfriend and boss, Nick (Michael Nouri), has secretly used his connections to secure her audition. Alex feels this act is an assertion of dominance on his part. His interference makes her feel like her love relationship is not a relationship between equals. When Alex discovers his interference, she storms out of the car on a highway and throws her heel behind her. The film characterizes a woman’s desire for equal exchange in her love relationship as childlike defiance. Between death and dominance, Alex is a “Maniac” in trouble.
Alex begins her “What a Feeling” dance as a servant, as if bowing to a throne. First when there's nothing but a slow glowing dream that your fear seems to hide deep inside your mind. All alone I have cried. Silent tears full of pride. In a world made of steel, made of stone. She loses her balance and falls. She asks the judges if she can start again. Alex’s fall weaves Jeanie Szabo’s story of loss into her own. I hear the music. Close my eyes. Feel the rhythm. Wrap around. Take a hold of my heart. She begins again and is able to move with more confidence. The judges are startled by the fall but curious by her awakened strength. They begin to pay closer attention. She moves in unexpected ways. The judges are inspired, tapping and bopping to the music. She becomes the sermon rather than the servant. Alex does an acrobatic flip across the room. Her flip weaves Tina Tech’s story of anger into her own. In “What a Feeling”, Alex’s dance is about her experience of her body—the landscape and location that is woman. She acknowledges other souls unseen, unheard. Alex lands from her flip and spins like a breakdancer. I am rhythm. In a flash it takes hold of my heart. She points at each judge as she spreads her word of feeling. What a feeling! Bein's believin'. I can have it all. Now I'm dancing for my life. Take your passion and make it happen. Pictures come alive. You can dance right through your life. Alex’s successful audition rewards her with Nick rather than a position at the company. Despite the film’s preoccupation with domesticating its “Maniac”, the voice heard in “What a Feeling” breaks with convention. Alex’s love and artistry of dance is triumphant but remains boxed in a world made of steel, made of stone.
Flashdance dreams up a world where a young woman with two jobs is recognized for her talent as an artist of erotic dance. The film has grossed over $150 million since its release. Flashdance is based on the true life of Maureen Marder, who was paid $2300 for her life story. When initially produced it was considered a risky project and was only released on video for the first week. While the critics panned it, audiences went nuts for it. The film’s success launched the careers of some of today’s most powerful men in Hollywood. Director Adrian Lyne went on to make the films 9 ½ Weeks (1986), Fatal Attraction (1987) and Unfaithful (2002). Screenwriters Tom Hedley and Joe Eszterhas went on to make films such as Basic Instinct (1992) and Showgirls (1995). Producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer went on to produce Top Gun (1986), Pirates of The Caribbean (2003) and the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The women behind Flashdance have met up with a different fate. Singer Irene Cara, who won a Grammy award for “What a Feeling”, spent years in an arduous legal battle to receive royalties from her records. The dance sequences for Alex were not played by actress, Jennifer Beals but by French actress Marine Jahan who was never credited in the film. Lead actress Jennifer Beals’ career went into a near two decade long halt when she pursued academic life at Yale University soon after Flashdance.
The true stories behind Flashdance present an opportunity to see the gap between fantasy and reality, and only a vision that takes both into consideration can we document the truth of feminist progress. Almost three decades since the popularity of Flashdance, it is still necessary to ask, what women will be judged for as they navigate their careers and what cultural values determine their worth to the world of industry.
