Category Archives: Ethical Issues and Dilemmas

Ethical Issues and Dilemmas

The Help

Title: The Help

Date: 2011

Media type: Film

Format: Complete

Category: Ethical Issues and Dilemmas

Keywords: family demographics, family functioning, parent-child relationships, parenting styles, types of parents, work and family

Rating: PG 13 – Parents Strongly Cautioned

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

Language: English

Film/Episode Summary: The Help takes place in Mississippi in the 1960’s. Skeeter Phelan is a writer that has just returned from college looking to write a book. While she was away at college, most of her friends got married and had children. Now her friends have help to run their homes and take care of their children. Skeeter has noticed how rampant racism is in her hometown and in the South and is on a mission to stop it. She decides to write a book about the help and tell their stories. While it puts all of their lives at risk, they write the book anyway to help eliminate racism and division in the South.

Comments or Recommendations for Teaching: Who does more parenting in the film, the birth parents or the help? How do you think being raised by the help affected Skeeter’s relationship with her own mother?

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

Contributor: Krista Hamann

Ethical Issues and Dilemmas

The Blind Side

Title: The Blind Side

Date: 2009

Media type: Film

Category: Ethical Issues and Dilemmas

Rating: PG-13

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

Language: English

Film/Episode Summary: Leigh Anne Touhy is a strong, tough, and opinionated wife and mother. While she rarely shows the soft side of her personality, that all changes when she learns about Michael Oher, a homeless boy that is seen hanging around her children’s private school. The movie follows the family as they take in Michael as their own and push him to his full potential. With their assistance, Michael becomes a successful student and football player. They all learn that family is more important than anything else.

Comments or Recommendations for Teaching: Why do you think Leigh Anne chose to be a parent to Michael? How did the family have to change to accommodate a new member in the family? How do you think Leigh Anne reacted to other’s opinions about her changing family?

Contributor: Krista Hamann

Ethical Issues and Dilemmas, Families in Society, Internal Dynamics of Families, Interpersonal Relationships, Parenting

Jane the Virgin

Title: Jane the Virgin

Date: 2014 – Present

Media type: Television

Format: Episode

Rating: TV – 14

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

Language: English

Film/Episode Summary: Jane the Virgin is an American comedy-drama television series that premiered on The CW on October 13, 2014. The series follows Jane Villanueva, a hard-working, religious young Latina woman whose family tradition and a vow to save her virginity until marriage is shattered when a doctor mistakenly artificially inseminates her during a checkup. To make matters worse, the biological donor is a married man, a former playboy and cancer survivor who is not only the new owner of the hotel where Jane works, but was also her former teenage crush. Jane the Virgin also explores issues of immigration, raising children, and parent-child relationships between adults of all ages, and young children.

Places to view: Youtube, Amazon Video, Vudu, Google Play, Jane the Virgin, Hulu

Contributor: Mikayla Perrault