This weekend, our friends hosted a movie viewing of Newsies…
The 1992 musical — starring Christian Bale, David Moscow, and Doogie Howser’s best friend — follows a group of teenage newsies who organize their own union so they can stand up to the “muckety-mucks,” aka the newspaper tycoon Joseph Pulitzer and his henchmen.
I was excited to show the movie to my own boys, ages 12 and 15, because I ADORED THIS MOVIE at their age. “I love Newsies and I take it very seriously,” wrote The New Yorker’s Hannah Goldfield, who is younger than I am but also watched the movie on repeat throughout her childhood. “The characters are interesting and complex, and the cast is all-star.” But, aside from the dancing and singing and punches and kissing, do you know the reason I remember it most? It was my best friend’s sexual awakening. She fell hook, line, and sinker for Christian Bale, talked about him non-stop for a year afterward, and still credits the movie for kickstarting her romantic yearnings.
Curious about other women I knew, I asked friend Izzy if there was a character who opened her eyes to the world of love and lust. “Mine was Robin Hood, the Disney cartoon,” she told me, laughing, “followed closely by Westley in The Princess Bride.”
And another friend named Keanu Reeves in Speed. “Halfway through that movie,” she said, “I became a woman.”
So, now I’m curious: Did you have a TV/movie sexual awakening? Or teenage celebrity crush? I can tell you my post-divorce re-awakening: Dirty Dancing when I finally saw it in 2024. Gahhhh!
P.S. An “I Can’t Believe You’ve Never Seen That!” movie night, sex-positive parenting for prudes, and how did you learn about sex growing up?
