Celebrating Patrick Swayze: ‘Himbos’, Dirty Dancing, and ‘loose masculinity’

Welcome to another Deep Dive edition of Are You Sitting Comfortably?

The Deep Dives are longer posts where you will learn how to be vigilant to ideologies that surround us like water, and see how my mind actually works when it comes to exploring matters of identity.

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Sit back, settle in, and read on for insights and advice on how to tackle ideologies that can feel suffocating, and expose the invisible strings of power that pull on us all. Today, we’re going big on the topic of masculinity, via one of the best films of all time. EVER.

Enjoy.

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Every time we watch him, every year that passes, my wife and I find ourselves falling more and more in love with Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing.

It’s something about the way Patrick Swayze plays him, immortalised in that 1960s via the 1980s fever dream of perfection, all bouffant hair, black vest, pigeon toes and swivelling hips. 

We’re not alone. As I’ve become increasingly public with my love of Dirty Dancing on emotional, biographical and intellectual levels, I continue to discover legions of DD devotees. People like me who are fascinated by the film and revel in gushing over just how brilliant, and relevant, it is. [Author stands up and extends arms] My people, welcome.

It’s the first film my wife and I watched together, and so good it was that we actually watched it all the way through, undistracted even by our own lustful curiosity in each other. In the 16 years since, it’s been a guaranteed cinematic cornerstone in our marital sofa-surfing.

Swayze is a huge part of the equation.

When I attempt to ascertain exactly why this is, my mind hovers over a number of plausible hypotheses. I’ll list them: