ABSTRACT
In Babes in Arms (1939), Mickey Rooney (imitating President Roosevelt) hears a litany of contemporary political woes, and offers a solution: “Just dance!” In Saturday Night Fever (1977), John Travolta (not imitating President Carter) faces the recession, an 8 percent unemployment rate, a skyrocketing poverty rate, the rust belting of the Northeast, and millions of dreams deferred by “Staying Alive” on a flashing checkerboard dance floor. During the economic downturn that ended the Generation of Love, disco, recreational drugs, white leisure suits, and giggly one-night stands staved off despair, at least among young adults and the glitterati. Yet everyone still wanted to save the world, so there were marches, protests, reevaluations, and pride. Miss and Mrs. became Ms.; ethnic minorities got new names and academic departments; and the post-Stonewall Gay Liberation Front became the Gay Rights Movement, a massive, international upswelling of activists, scholars, journalists, and everyday gay people demanding recognition, that they number in the millions—10 percent of every human population—and that they are not monsters.
