Wallflower Week: "Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner"

In honor of the wonderful Maya Rodale's newest book, Avon Romance has declared it to be Wallflower Week. It's about time wallflowers got their own week. To me, they aren't the girls nobody will dance with. They're the girls who are different, who don't quite fit in. I love wallflowers, maybe because I love people who stubbornly cling to their own uniqueness, no matter what pressure they're under to be like everyone else.  To me, the classic wallflower storyline will always end with the wallflower finally being seen and loved for her own enchanting and irreplaceable individuality.

So who is my favorite wallflower? Here she is: Frances "Baby" Houseman in the movie Dirty Dancing.

I've seen this movie probably fifty times, and I never get tired of it. Her older sister is the "popular" one, the one who does exactly what's expected of her. Baby herself is just starting to figure out what she cares about, and how she wants to live her life. The movie is about so much more than dancing. It's about injustice, and hypocrisy, and class inequality. Most of all, it's about a young woman discovering how much power she has when she finally claims center stage -- on her own terms.

So let's hear it for wallflowers! Who's your favorite? More importantly, how many times have you seen Dirty Dancing? ;-)

(Moment of silence for Patrick Swayze, who was smart enough to know that "Nobody puts Baby in a corner." Wallflower motto, perhaps?)