Growing Sideways – Queer Childhoods in the Movies
Growing Sideways – Queer Childhoods in the Movies
Justin Aaberg. Billy Lucas. Cody Barker. Asher Brown. Raymond Chase. Tyler Clementi
– These are just a few names representing the many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teenagers around the world who have taken their own lives due to the constant bullying by their peers for the way that they are, or rather, the way that they are not.
The act of bullying against children outside heteronormative standards already starts at a very early age: not just teenagers are affected, but also tweens. Many of the shared stories of queer grown-ups on platforms like It Gets Better Project indicate that children can be very much aware of their own queerness or the queerness of others. This is why educational work has to start at a young age to prevent this early stage of prejudice formation, as well as to inform and familiarize children with alternative life-styles.
Films play an important role in this process. In the last ten to fifteen years, filmmakers have started to make films about queer children aimed at depicting such topics as gender and queer sexuality. Growing Sideways – Queer Childhoods in the Movies aims to present a selection of these films to queer children, their friends, families and teachers to encourage them to familiarize themselves with and discuss the topic of gender and queer sexualities before prejudices are established and bullying begins.
Maxi. Robin. Wilma. Ludovic. Logan. Greg. Jonathan. Spork. Laure
– These names represent children portrayed in films that push the limits of our society’s gender and sex norms. They refuse to unconditionally grow up by our cultural norms, but develop their own breadth of experience and ideas about life and their identity, which they use to challenge and question heteronormative society structures. Rather, these children are growing sideways from what society normally expects from them instead of growing up in the traditional sense of the term.
Coined by Kathryn Bind Stockton in her work, The Queer Child (Duke UP, 2009) the term ‘growing sideways’ is used to describe children that are not growing ‘up’ in a linear course towards full stature, marriage, reproduction and the relinquishing of childish ways in adult life, but who are growing ‘sideways’ alongside these norms, choosing alternative paths, their own pace of development and showing a general attitude to question and challenge those norms that are so often forced upon them.
The children in the films presented – no matter if they choose to live as a male or a female, to fall in love with a boy or a girl, or to simply take pleasure in their position at the margins of the mainstream –learn to benefit from growing sideways. On their journeys, they discover that being different and standing out from the others can be enjoyable and that all that really matters are the people you care about, and the people who care about you. We hope that the audience will learn this lesson as well.
Sources:
Pictures Cover (left to right):
Die Wilden Hühner und die Liebe ( Vivian Nafae, Germany 2006/2007)
Ma Vie En Rose (Alain Berliner, France/Belgium/United Kingdom, 1997)
Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros (Auraeus Solito, Philippines 2005)
Wild Tigers I Have Known (Cam Archer, USA 2006)
Tomboy (Céline Sciamma, France 2011)
Pictures Personal Pages (in order of appearance):
Wild Tigers I Have Known (Cam Archer, USA 2006)
Die Wilden Hühner und die Liebe ( Vivian Nafae, Germany 2006/2007)
Franswa Sharl (Hannah Hilliard, Australia 2009)
Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros (Auraeus Solito, Philippines 2005)
Tarnation (Jonathan Caouette, USA 2003)
Tomboy (Céline Sciamma, France 2011)
No Bikini (Claudia Morgado Escanilla, Canada 2007)
Spork (J.B. Ghuman, Jr., USA 2010)
Ma Vie En Rose (Alain Berliner, France/Belgium/United Kingdom, 1997)
The Closet (Stewart Handler, USA 2008)
There are 2 Comments to "Growing Sideways – Queer Childhoods in the Movies"
I like the idea of collecting and presenting movies related to the issue of queer childhoods. I think it is just needed to inform and familiarize children with feelings beyond heteronormative standards. To fight against prejudice has to be the aim from the beginning of the educational system. The fact of being child or teenager and being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender is still not enough represented in media for young people and not always possible to discover for them as commonly accepted .
Now, one could argue: Don’t we separate queer children from “normal” children, declare them as “the other” if we show movies “about” them and talk with them about their “special” sexual identity or feelings? Or degrade the movies in a special category instead of criticizing and discussing them as individual artistic expressions?
I think even if there is always a danger in categorizing people and declare sexual identity as an alternative life-style, it is still important to represent different forms of sexuality of children and teenager to make them to equal options of identity in contrast to the always existing and oppressing heterosexual norm.
Especially during my theatre pedagogical work with young people from 6 to 20 years I recognize special barriers to talk about queer realities and life styles with teachers or in the youth peer groups. Harmony, family and a happy life is almost always related to heterosexuality in education although than in media (books, plays, shows, television and films).
So I really welcome the idea of presenting this range of movies. In particular I think films are an ideal media to communicate with children about queerness because watching a movie is a well known way of perception and does not have the special and always “strange” connotation as theatre can have. From the main audience viewpoint films are more related to representation of realities than theatre.
The selection of the movies about queer childhoods is an important step to realize the aim of making every child aware of the wide range of sexual identities and alternative life styles beyond the heterosexual norm and to prevent prejudice, bullying and discrimination. Everybody should have to get the chance to develop his or her sexual identity as freely and supported as possible from the beginning.
Children and their sexuality, or their various playful and straightforward paths (if not stopped and try to normativate by adults) to explore and search for a sexual identity are still criminially underrepresented in our society, almost a tabu so to speak. Wether it be in literature, film, television, theatre or any other medium that holds the power to create languages, images, emotions and imaginations beyond our often narrow minded environment, children are seldom seen as human being with their own sexuality. Specially those who chose to walk beside or criss cross the normative path that mainstream society pushes us to follow from a very early age on, often get harrassed, humilated and isolated from their peers or even their parents and families.
But there are several films out there (and probably also other works in different mediums) which show in very different ways, might it be thematically or asthetically, positive or at least ambiguous perspevtives on queer children and their life experiences.
The problem is only, that often these are short films or small budget films, that rarely get to be seen by the audience it should reach – the kids themselves. Filmfestivals often show these works, but unless they are not programmed in a special childrens program, they are only to be seen by people over 18 years (at least in germany).
It is a wonderful and challenging idea to curate a thematically specialized film program for children with films that actually show that it is not only possible to “grow sideways” but that it also can be healthy, enjoyable and exciting at times, but unfortunately also painful and serious. Knowing over half of the programmed films and be able to read the others synopsis it seems like a very balanced and carefully selected program, which is of course important as films within a program should not only stand as sole parts but communicate as a whole. Interrelations only will be exposed on the surface when a number of films are programmed together in a certain way. Considering the limited number of available films, the selection shows first a variety of queer characters from different backgrounds; second a certain time period within the films were produced that allows to maybe see certain developments in society or content driven approaches and third also a variety of countries of origin, which is always an important and vibrant part of a curated program.
To offer this program online to schools, parents and kids themselves is a very important part of the idea i think. As mentioned before, distribution nowadays rarely takes care of bringing those films anywhere near us, unless you are an adult and attend queer film festivals, therefore online platforms open for everyone could indeed make a big difference here. There is a big need out there for a queer memory, a total recall of what was is and will be created in different mediums by different generations of queer artists for queer people. As the traditional ways of distribution are becoming more and more restrictive, online platforms or databases could provide us with a queer memory that provide also children with stories and images beyond their imagination. This program should be definitely part of this memory.
The visual style seems very accessable and familiar to children and also shows a certain sensitivity for the project that is beyond just selecting the films, but also presenting them in the right way and reach the potential viewer.