MovieChat Forums > Dirty Dancing (1987) Discussion > Penny Had Options

Penny Had Options

posted 7 years ago by shadaif
7 replies | jump to latest

I hate to criticize her choice or this movie (it's one of my favorites), but it just occurred to me that her situation was not as hopeless as she claimed. Of course, if you disagree with me feel free to comment (nicely) on why my theory is wrong as maybe I'm missing an important piece of information that would make an abortion her only option.

I know being a single mom was not a option for her. She had one skill: dancing. I know even now that is a difficult career to pursue with a kid and no family. Max would never hire a single mom the next summer. However she wasn't visibly pregnant and she was nearing the end of season (did the resorts stay open all year?). She could have easily snuck off after the final show, had the baby sometime in March, give it up for adoption, then be back for the next summer just easily from Max as hiding that she had illegal abortion. It from all the people in her room that night it wasn't exactly a secret what she did. I know she said her mother kicked her out when she was 16, but I don't think she ever says how old she was that summer. My guess would be 22/23. Wouldn't an un-wed mothers home somewhere had taken her in and helped her place a baby? It's just a thought I had and I'm open to anyone else's opinions.

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[–] danithang82 7 years ago

You are not wrong, she did have that option, but for storyline purposes they needed her out of commission for Baby to step up in her place. She probably wasn't that far along so could have still danced till the end of the season. Another option to avoid the abortion story but also get her out of commission for Baby was to have her miscarry. Personally, I did not mind how it went down but I like your alternative for a real life situation.

[–] shadaif 7 years ago

Thanks.

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[–] geirfold 7 years ago

Actually, she didn't have that option. This was not the only job she worked, it was just the summer job. IIRC, Johnny stated in an early conversation with Baby that they had several jobs lined up after the one at Kellerman's. He specified where, but I don't remember where he said.

By not having the abortion, she would have missed out on more than a years worth of income. I don't know if you are old enough to know what it was like back then, but unwed mothers were almost always thown out by their parents if she still lived at home, if the woman lived in an apartment, the landlord could, and often did, throw the woman out. Women had few legal rights back in the '60s.

[–] Furienna (3322) 7 years ago

Actually, I don't believe that Penny would have had to miss an entire year of income. Okay, maybe I can assume that a dancer would have a harder time hiding the baby bump than most other women. But still, many women did go through pregnancies and gave the baby up for adoption back then. Despite all that shame and all those cruel prejudiced people. Those homes for unwed mothers might have been gloomy places, but they did exist. So it should have been possible for Penny to look for other options. But I guess that she simply saw an abortion as the quickest and easiest solution to her problem, no matter how illegal and dangerous it was.

[–] Fairy_snuff (389) 7 years ago

Of course she had other options but for whatever reason, she didn't feel able to go through with the pregnancy. It's much easier said than done to just have the baby and have it adopted.

[–] MovieFan00 (211) 5 years ago

Abortion was an option that she took.

Why do people act like carrying a kid for 9 months and giving it away is so simple?

[–] pioneergrrrl (2390) 4 years ago

No she did not have other options--being out of commission actually means you don't do anything you miss a year of schooling. It's not like now with the pandemic!)

You miss work you miss getting wages you miss being able to pay your bills/those bills on time
people pretending this is easy are merely thinking how cute and fun it is to play with a baby.

I think our current situation confusing them re what "out of commission" now and then would be like. She can't continue schooling or work if she is pregnant. There were no laws protecting pregnant girls back then--it was not 'right' for single white women to work be in school and pregnant. Online schooling of course did not exist. She would have had to drop out and stop school/work.

The difference of course is that this only happened to women so this was 'okay' the guy got to go about his life unscathed even if he did get somebody pregnant. He could continue school, work.