Straightlaced - How Gender's Got Us All Tied Up
How gender pressures impact all youth - straight and LGBT
by Debra Chasnoff200967 minsClosed captioning available
With a fearless look at a highly charged subject, Straightlaced unearths how pressures around gender and sexuality are confining American teens. These stories reflect a diversity of experiences, demonstrating how gender role expectations and homophobia are interwoven, and illustrating the different ways these expectations connect with culture, race and class.
From girls confronting media messages about body image to boys who are sexually active just to prove they aren’t gay, a fascinating array of students opens up with brave, intimate honesty about the toll that deeply held stereotypes and rigid gender policing have on all our lives.
From girls confronting media messages about body image to boys who are sexually active just to prove they aren’t gay, a fascinating array of students opens up with brave, intimate honesty about the toll that deeply held stereotypes and rigid gender policing have on all our lives.
Synopsis
Straightlaced includes the perspectives of teens who self-identify as straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual or questioning and represents all points of the gender spectrum. With courage and unexpected humor, these students open up their lives to the camera: choosing between “male” and “female” deodorant; deciding whether to go along with anti-gay taunts in the locker room; having the courage to take ballet; avoiding the restroom so they won’t get beaten up; or mourning the suicide of a classmate. It quickly becomes clear that just about everything teens do requires thinking about gender and sexuality.
Coming of age today has become increasingly complex and challenging; Straightlaced offers both teens and adults a way out of anxiety, fear and violence and points the way toward a more inclusive, empowering culture.
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Citation
The New Day Collection site only licenses this film as part of the New Day collection. If you are interested in licensing just this title for your institution, view this film on the main New Day site.