Eleanor Bergstein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Bergstein is the woman who wrote the story behind the 1987 movie Dirty Dancing, based on her own adventures as a teenager. I saw this movie 72 times (yep!!) because it has a hidden message that, over the years, I was trying to identify. It finally happened last year. The hidden message is not the beauty of the dancing, the appeal of the music of the 1960's with Cousin Brucie of 77WABC (those of you on the East Coast will right away recognize the melancholy), or the beauty of Patrick Swayze: These are obvious things.

The hidden message is that Baby (the 16 year old who is the hero of the movie, who is what Eleanor Bergstein was at that age) sees something that she wants (Patrick Swayze) and although she is not in his league on the physical level (she is an ordinary looking girl while he is a god), she does what it takes to get him, no matter what.

And she gets him.

Then the dynamic changes between the two of them, and he is the one who says that she is out of his league because of her remarkably positive attitude to life (while he is a loser). Anyway, league or not, we all know that these two can't last long together but this is not the point of the movie. The point is: Go get what you want.

Many women still don't get it. They still rely on guys to give them what they need and want including a great reflexion of themselves as women. And some guys (like we have been reading on this board for years) resent having to pay for dinner when all they want is sex. But on the other side, when a woman shows that she is able to stand on her own, to fight on her own, she is called a feminista by the old timers (including the guy who does not want to pay for dinner) and she is hated as the worst thing that can happen to man-kind (I totally mean the hyphen in: man-kind). This is what Fifi described in her post above.

I get your message Fifi. I am proud of what you did with the old timers ("I slay, I slay") and I wish you a great Women's Day tomorrow.

Below: Bergstein at 71. Like Gloria Steinem, she remains beautiful and vibrant through the decades. Bergstein photo from: https://www.facebook.com/pg/diego.percossipapi/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1073137166052146