So last night Jessica calls to check in and also to ask me to look movie times up ‘cuz she’s in the car coming back from a holiday visit and can’t do it from there.

“What movie?” I ask.

“Juno,” she answers.

Yikes. And so I worry. And offer unasked for advice. I ask her who she’s seeing it with. I tell her that maybe she’ll feel triggered. I mention some other people “touched by adoption” who have seen it and that it was hard for them. Then — because I’m predatory like that — I say, “Hey, if you wanted to write a review for openadoptionsupport.com from a birth mom perspective that would be awesome.” Because, you know, it’s all about my web site.

So Stacy went and saw it and, of course, saw all the same things that everyone else is seeing but she also thought it was a pretty good movie and she asks if it’s fair to hold artists who are making art to a standard of also creating realism, which is an interesting question. As someone who was deeply offended by Girls in Trouble (oh the awesomeness of google books! you can look inside this one) but who hypocritically loves the incredibly offensive Penny Serenade, I have mixed feelings.

I guess I think you ought to do some research when you’re writing about a topic, yeah sure, but how much research? For all I know the Juno screenwriter, Diablo Cody, is a first parent and is writing from the inside out albeit with some ideas that a lot of us disagree with. Or she may be buying into a lot of adoption stereotypes out of ignorance. I really don’t know.

I haven’t seen Juno and frankly I don’t have Jessica’s bravery so I’m not likely to. I’ll wait and see what she says though. Maybe on DVD so I can cry in private because I hate trying to muffle my sobs in a movie theater.

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