Hollywood censors puberty: let’s change that

From the studio that brought us Inside Out, we now have Turning Red, an animated journey into the grim world of periods and puberty – finally!

Jeswin Thomas | Unsplash

Of course it would be Pixar, first they tackled mental health, then life and death and now the ultimate stigma: puberty. Whether you find it uncomfortable, or it invokes your feelings of tween PTSD, Pixar is exactly the vehicle we need to open discussions on this unavoidable stage of our life-cycles.

Yet this animated flic, in which a young girl turns into a red panda when she gets to a certain age, has been labelled inappropriate, disgusting, and even demonic by one US pastor. While it’s unsurprising that many people still can’t seem to cope with the fact that women (wait for it…) get periods, it is shocking that it’s taken this long for large film corporations such as Pixar to get to this topic.

So far, according to the world of Hollywood, teenagers are gorgeous, lip-glossed glamour queens. High heels are a must and the criteria for bullying is that you must be classically beautiful but with a slight interest in Sylvia Plath. If, as is likely when growing up, you watched the likes of Mean Girls, Clueless and High School Musical, you might have spent much of your high school years wondering why your skirt hung off you like a shapeless blob, or why you couldn’t go to bed with perfectly winged eyeliner.

Many people still can’t seem to cope with the fact that women (wait for it…) get periods

Few films have ever got it right. Booksmart, the 2019 film directed by Olivia Wilde, is one of them, as it beautifully depicts the struggles and celebrations of high-achieving teens. Another one worth watching is Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging. Yes, its main character is unbearable and early 2000s style homophobic, and yes love interest Robbie has the worst London accent since Dick Van Dyke. But it's also the closest replica of the British secondary school teenage-hood I have ever seen. I mean, haven’t we all felt the same level of embarrassment as Georgia when she was dressed like an olive?

It's actually pretty sad that teenagers have to go through the most uncomfortable, un-graceful, and un-memorable stage of life alone, with an unreachable standard set for them by twenty-four year old actors with personal trainers. It’s easy to look to these characters and feel wrong for your small boobs or greasy hair, and it is very easy to dislike your body in today’s culture of beauty.

So to see such vehement disgust at a film like Turning Red. A film that actually respects puberty and portrays the harsh truths of it, is very worrying, and the exposes a sad message for teenagers; don’t talk about, suffer in silence, and definitely don’t mention your period.

It’s been a long wait but hopefully Pixar’s new edition to the very small puberty genre will encourage more filmmakers to follow suit and give teenagers the representation they deserve.

Turning Red official trailer | Pixar