Teenagers are pretty pumped to have sex. It's the reason they go to parties, the subject of every locker room conversation and definitely the most important goal they have before reaching high school graduation. At least this is the case for the boys, right?
That's the prevailing narrative of most Hollywood films. Just queue up "Superbad,""American Pie" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" for proof. Dudes are obsessed with sex in movies and making that sex happen is typically plot point A.
But teenage girls are often left out of the narrative of sexual desire altogether -- and are instead put in the position of defense. They must decide when it’s time to give up their virginity, usually to the guy who has been persistent enough that she finally deems him worthy.
The leading character in the film “The Diary Of A Teenage Girl,” Minnie, tells us a different story -- and a truer one. She is really excited to have sex. Growing up in San Francisco in the 1970s, Minnie, 15, thinks about sex constantly. She talks about it with her friends, writes about it in her diary and thinks about it when attractive young men walk by.
When she loses her virginity and embarks upon an ongoing sexual relationship with her mother’s boyfriend, who is 20 years her senior, the story becomes much more complex. Seeing a film deal with young female sexuality head on is rare. Seeing a film about sex with a minor that is not about victimization is also rare.
Moviegoers are left with many questions when the screen fades to black in “The Diary Of A Teenage Girl.” Does it matter that Minnie pursued the much older Monroe? Can a 15-year-old make mature decisions about sex? Should Monroe be charged with statutory rape?
The Huffington Post spoke with filmmaker Marielle Heller, as well as the author of the autobiogra
As I grew older, my experience of feeing unrepresented in any medium grew stronger."
“I was always curious about sex. My mother had Lolita and Naked Lunch. Anything with a title like that, I would read,” Gloeckner said. “I would get so angry when I read some of those things because I just felt like something was wrong -- and I couldn’t figure out what.”
Gloeckner kept a diary as a teen and used her writing and drawings (she’s also an illustrator) as source material for her graphic novel The Diary Of A Teenage Girl, which was published in 2003. It is a hybrid book featuring both prose and comics.
“I wrote very frankly about my life when I was a kid, and as I grew older, my experience of feeing unrepresented in any medium grew stronger. I was very frustrated as an artist,” she said.
Marielle Heller, who has received rave reviews as a first-time writer and director on this movie, found that Minnie’s relationship with sex in the book was something special -- not because Minnie is so different than other teen girls, but precisely because of the inverse.
Heller believes that Minnie is like many other teenage girls who think about sex, but no one ever puts that character on screen. Instead, Heller says, the way girls experience sexuality is made out to be distinct and separate from the way boys do.
It’s damaging to both sexes that we don’t talk about sexuality as something we are both experiencing equally."
“The narrative I was given as a teenage girl was that boys are going to be the ones who think about sex. Boys are going to be the ones who want to have sex. You’re not going to want to have sex,” Heller said.
“That’s incredibly confusing because girls often develop before boys and sometimes want to have sex first. It makes you feel like something is wrong with you -- or that maybe you’re a guy,” Heller said.
“The narrative is you won’t want this. And nobody tells you what to do if you ar