Several years ago, in 2020 or 2021 I sat down to rewatch Top Gun. It had been years but this is a movie that I have seen many times. It came out in 1986 and growing up we had it on VHS. When my dad first got his subwoofer he would put on this movie to illustrate the awesomeness of the surround sound system capabilities… how the sound made you feel like the jets were landing around you. He did this more than once and it’s something I remember well. He was so excited. This movie is about a rebel underdog coming of age, excelling and then experiencing profound loss. It also has deeper patriotic undertones, good old boys and the American flag, being a rebel and falling in love with people in a situation that is perceived as unethical. Strong friendships that are also toxic, intense competition between those who are meant to be comrades in arms. It opens up with all of this and most starkly front and center is the competition, the rebellion and the beginning of a black sheep getting his chance.
What I want to address here specifically is a series of scenes that happen as Maverick and Goose first arrive at Top Gun, the elite training school for fighter pilots; when Maverick meets his love interest. I want to preface these observations and analysis by saying that the main female character, Charlie played by Kelly McGillis is a strong and bad ass woman and this really is not about her character or the actress but how I saw what was happening in these scenes so differently than I did as an impressionable child and adolescent growing up, enamored of this hot movie star and also growing up learning that what you were meant to do as a woman was to get a man to fall in love with you to have that fairy tale life and love.
Setting the scene: Goose and Maverick arrive at the local bar which serves as the hangout for the Top Gun school. As they’re chatting they make a $20 bet that Maverick must have carnal knowledge of a woman on the premises. Pretty quickly the camera cuts to Kelly McGillis’ character sitting at the bar and he singles her out, informing Goose of his plan, alluding that, “She’s lost that loving feeling.” They approach with a ruse and begin serenading her with the classic song, You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling originally sung by The RIghteous Brothers. Suddenly multiple Naval pilots in their crisp white uniforms join in. McGillis’ character looks a little stunned and embarrassed but she’s a confident woman and in mere moments she acquiesces with a smile, inviting Maverick to sit down at which point the other Navy men finish the serenade while simultaneously celebrating Tom Cruise’s success as he takes his place at the bar next to her. The song fades out as introductions are made, she flirts with him a bit, pretending not to know anything about Naval Aviators and to be terribly impressed. She then informs him that her date has arrived and before leaving to sit with an older man in a booth she jabs him with an insult about him not quitting his day job. Maverick sullenly congratulates himself for the crash and burn and grabs a beer. Almost immediately the camera pans and we see McGillis’ character, Charlie get up, glance inconsequentially at Cruise and head to the bathroom. He takes this as an invitation and swiftly follows her, adjusting his belt buckle with a mischievous grin as he enters the ladies’ room.
Kelly McGillis is applying lipstick in the mirror and quips about him thinking that they would just go at it on the floor, and Tom laughingly replies that he had the bathroom counter in mind as he feigns testing its sturdiness. He then says he came in there to SAVE her from making a mistake with an older man. She scoffs at his gaslighting and exits the bathroom, but as she walks by Goose at the bar she says to him, “your friend was magnificent”, and Maverick slides into the frame confirming the lie with his smile and body language.
You can watch the clip on the instagram profile, @thesalonletter set up for It Could Be Anything additional content.
Analyzation of this scene shows the power it had to contribute to conditioning in young impressionable minds but it was also written and created by those who thought of this behavior as sexy and attractive due to their own programming and by putting it in the script they were promoting inappropriate behavior through a lack of awareness of
how this could and would impact those who viewed the movie.
As I reflect on how this impacted me as a young girl, I know that I knew it was wrong for this man to walk into the ladies room with the intention he had, “to have carnal knowledge of a woman on the premises.” but I definitely wasn’t thinking about that when I watched the movie. Instead I can hear societal programming saying to me, “oh he’s a cute boy and he likes her and oh look how sexy and adorable he is when he smiles and flirts.” One thing that struck me as I watched this movie with fresh eyes, is that as Charlie is being serenaded surrounded by multiple men with a smile on her face, her body language speaks volumes, her arms crossed over her chest in a protective manner and if you pay attention they stay that way until Maverick sits down next to her and the other men fade into the background. In that moment as I was watching that scene I felt her discomfort at the unwanted attention masquerading as a grand gesture, which is the equivalent of love bombing someone you just met.
This scene highlights how for generations our society has been forgiving, allowing men to behave poorly. You can follow that knowledge down the line to asking questions like: How does this scene impact the behavior and thought processing of young boys and men? Do they see this and then think, is it okay for me to be this aggressive when flirting and pursuing a romantic interest? It must be ok if it makes girls giggle and laugh and swoon. It must be ok if she lied to his friend after the encounter, (as she does) saying, “your friend was great.” Can that lead to a young man then believing that it would be even more acceptable to then force himself upon that person, because he believes she wants him to? It is imperative at this point to observe how patriarchal sexual storytelling has impacted not only women but men as well, and how we do not hear anyone talking about this. We do not hear anyone talking about how behaviors are conditioned into all of us from so many different angles, and as far as I am aware no one is concentrating on male patriarchal conditioning.
Certainly no adult sat me down to let me know that Maverick’s behavior was in fact not romantic, that after Charlie turned him down that it was NOT OKAY for him to follow her to the bathroom, that it wasn’t cute or sweet. I wish someone had because I probably saw this movie sometime around age eight and I know it was years and years before any adult ever had a conversation with me about consent, but my ideas about how to behave around potential love interests were formed way before I ever learned about sex or dating or understood about what it looked like to be treated well in a relationship. Entertainment media conditions us from a very young age. As adults we have common sense and experience to frame these things within that children do not, and it is very important to talk about how Hollywood uses things that are not okay in real life to further storylines.
Is there a movie from your adolescence that stays in your mind, that influenced how you think? There is probably more than one… let me know if there is anything that stands out that impacted how you view the world or how you behave.
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