Last year, she published a book about the film called Grease: Gender, Nostalgia and Youth Consumption in the Blockbuster Era. “Coming towards the end of the swinging 1970s but supposedly lacking any condemnation of the 1950s era, Grease was criticised for being a reactionary piece of (white) male fantasy, one longing for a time when boys could be boys, women knew their place, and there was no racial conflict (or diversity, for that matter),” she explains. Yet she feels this assessment does the film a disservice. “The film is, through much of its action, a girl’s film – exploring girls’ ‘bedroom culture’ and fandom, wrestling with and critiquing that sexual double standard impinging itself on Rizzo and Sandy, and focusing on female teen friendships, more so, one might argue, than many, many teen films then or since.”