Comments on: Peggy is working it out.

By: Melville

Melville — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 12:20:08 +0000

Ack, that should be "the problems don't change." I hate when I do that!

By: Melville

Melville — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 12:11:50 +0000

Reading through this thread again, it strikes me how brilliantly created a character Peggy is. My first reaction when seeing her in these types of situations is to bemoan her solitary condition, thinking "if only it was a few years later, there would be a feminist movement to help her get her bearings, consciousness-raising groups, magazine articles, books, role models, etc." Instead she has to figure it out by herself, barely knowing what to do or how she's supposed to act.

But it's not just the period she finds herself in. As I read the reactions here, mostly from people who went through the same situations in eras much later than Peggy, you see that the problems doesn't change. We're still all trying to figure out for ourselves "what does the opposite sex want? How am I supposed to act?" (I include myself in this. If, when I was a college student at the end of the 1970's, the girl I was talking to had just reached over and taken a bite out of my burger, I would have been just as charmed as Peggy's date, relieved by someone who cut through all the nonsense I was trying to figure out.)

Peggy's both specific to her time and universal, like a Jane Austen heroine.

By: Luisa

Luisa — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 03:04:13 +0000

It doesn't matter if Peggy knew if that was Ann-Margret's genuine singing style or not. She probably did, but maybe she didn't–she was just trying it on to see if it would work for her. And either way, Ann-Margret attracted the men's attention. And that annoyed Peggy most of all.

By: Roberta Lipp

Roberta Lipp — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:48:08 +0000

Yes, and by saying it as many times as you've said it/continue to say it, you're really crawling up the wall of indicating that the rest of us are a little stupid too.

In case you're wondering why I'm sounding exasperated.

By: Rosie

Rosie — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:41:49 +0000

Rosie, you have said this like a dozen times. Got it. You think you are smart and Peggy is stupid.

I don't think I'm that smart. But I'm beginning to think that Peggy might be a little stupid.

By: Roberta Lipp

Roberta Lipp — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:27:13 +0000

Rosie, you have said this like a dozen times. Got it. You think you are smart and Peggy is stupid.

By: Rosie

Rosie — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:23:28 +0000

Great thread. Loved Peggyâ€™s sly smile, when she was trying on saying â€œMy boss is a jerk.â€ Squirmed during the makeout scene, felt that was hitting a little too close to home, the way another Basketcase remarked on squirming during the scene of Peggy aping Ann-Margret in the mirror.
BTW Ann-Margret was irrepressably annoyingâ€”why was it that Peggy was the only one to admit that? She made my ears hurt, not my heart.

That's not Ann-Margret's genuine singing style. She was faking that shrill, annoying style, because she was spoofing teenage girls. If Peggy was really that bright, one would think she knows this. I knew it when I first saw the movie around the age of 12 or 13.

By: Rosie

Rosie — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:21:29 +0000

It took her some time, but she finally seems to be finding out the kind of woman she is..

I believe that Peggy is still far from reaching that goal. And this episode proved it to me.

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:38:17 +0000

On Peggy and condoms: If girls today feel uncomfortable going into the drugstore to pick up condoms, then girls back in the 1960s would have been even moreso…whether there was a law or not!

By: Deborah Lipp

Deborah Lipp — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:04:50 +0000

gypsy, I like your interpretation.