Bitch Male Objectification Rave of the Month: John Travolta

We here at Bitch are in thorough approval of the post-Pulp Fiction Travolta renaissance that has awarded our favorite 1980s cinematic cheese-king some new credibility. Back in our prepubescent days, we wished we could be Olivia Newton-John in Grease, J.T.’s disco-dancing partner in Saturday Night Fever, and Debra Winger in the god-awful Urban Cowboy. Do you have to ask why?

It might be the naughty eyes, the oily smirk, the way he walks like his hip joints are primed with Astroglide. The man’s got style. Yeah, he’s a devout Scientologist, but are we going to let that overshadow the fact that this tasty slab could work a poly-rayon-blend suit, Cuban heels, and a pompadour like nobody’s business? After a recent viewing of the 1981 Brian de Palma conspiracy extravaganza Blow-Out, in which Johnnie-pie plays a sound technician caught in the midst of a political cover-up, we offered up tentative observations on the level of, “Well, he’s a much better actor than you would think from watching Look Who’s Talking.” Soon enough, though, we got down to the real deal, cooing about how hunky he looked in those tight cordouroy flares and vinyl car coats. Yes, we’ve got it bad, but not so bad that we’ll be running out to rent the Look Who’s Talking trilogy. We want our Travolta, the disco-dancing, pavement-strutting, cigarette-smoking, greasy charmer who can belt out a verse of “Summer Lovin’ ” in between discourses on the beauty of the French McDonald’s. Lisa said it best: “I have the same exact giggly movie-star crush that I had fifteen years ago. I feel like it gives symmetry to my crushed-out life.” —az.

This article was published in Premiere Issue #1 | Winter 1996
by Andi Zeisler
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Andi Zeisler is the cofounder of Bitch Media and the author of We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement. You can find her on Twitter.

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5 Comments Have Been Posted

FYI

I spliced in the "bitchmagazine.org" part to get this page to show up, but it's possible that others may not think or know to do the same. So just a little heads up that your link is broken . . . :)

Link from where?

philosophress,
Where was the link from? On this site or from somewhere else?

All fixed

Thanks for pointing that out!

I have to make a confession,

I have to make a confession, Travolta is one of my favorite actors due to his incredible talent and sexiness. And I agree that we need our Travolta "the disco-dancing, pavement-strutting, cigarette-smoking, greasy charmer ". I really love this quote:
“When I was a kid in the 60s, believe it or not, most of you are younger and don't know that, but it was a blast to fly! You dressed up, you got in your Sunday best, women wore white gloves, you had room to stretch your legs out, you had a very nice meal, the stewardess paid particular attention to you. It was an event. It's so different today.”
John Travolta.....

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