Tag Archives: family dynamics

Stranger Things

Title: Stranger Things

Date: 2016

Media type: Television

Format: Episode

Rating: PG 13 – Parents strongly cautioned

Audience(s): High School Age, College Age, Adults, Parents, Couples, Families

Language: English

Source: Netflix

Film/Episode Summary: Stranger Things is an American horror filled science fiction/thriller that pays homage to cult classics of the eighties. The plot follows the mysterious disappearance of Will Byers, a 12-year-old adolescent from the fictional town of Hawkins, the small but enterprising town’s people fighting to get him back, and the supernatural forces surrounding his disappearance.

Comments or Recommendations for Teaching: Analyze the parenting styles utilized by Joyce, one of the main protagonists of the show.

Places to view: Netflix

Contributor: Nasiha Abdi

Tomboy

Title: Tomboy

Date: 2011

Media type: Film

Category: Health and Human Sexuality

Keywords: Transgender, sexual orientation, family dynamics, gender

Rating: PGPG 13 – Parents Strongly Cautioned

Audience(s): High School Age, College Age, Adults, Parents, Couples

Language: French

Comment or Recommendations for Teaching:

  1. At what point did you first realize that Mikael was not born a boy?
  2. Before that, why did you assume that he was a boy? What cues did you follow?
  3. When did YOU first realize that you were a boy or a girl?
  4. We see Mikael’s father playing cards with him and then offering him a sip of his beer – do you see this as a “father-son” ritual, or a “father-daughter/parent-daughter/parent-son” ritual? Why?
  5. When Mikael was caught urinating in the woods by another child, do you think that it was more socially acceptable for him to be caught “peeing his pants” or to be caught with a vagina?
  6. Why was it acceptable to Mikael’s mother that he was “playing the boy” but not for him to continue to do so in school?
  7. It appeared that in the end of the movie that Lisa accepted Mikael for who he was – if she continued to be sexually attracted to him does this make Lisa a “lesbian?”
  8. How many U.S. citizens identify as transgender?
  9. Was Laure going through a “tomboy” phase, or did she want to be identified as a boy?
  10. What would you do if your child indicated that they felt like they were “in the wrong body” and identified as the gender opposite to what they were assigned at birth?

Places to view: Youtube, Amazon Video, Vudu, Google Play, Itunes

Contributor: Lisa M Moyer