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:
- At what point did you first realize that Mikael was not born a boy?
- Before that, why did you assume that he was a boy? What cues did you follow?
- When did YOU first realize that you were a boy or a girl?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?
- 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?”
- How many U.S. citizens identify as transgender?
- Was Laure going through a “tomboy” phase, or did she want to be identified as a boy?
- 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