I Can’t Wait to See “Straightlaced”

I just found out about a new documentary film screening across the country: “Straightlaced: How Gender’s Got Us All Tied Up.” The film takes a powerful and intimated look at how popular pressures around gender and sexuality are shaping the lives of American teens.

The filmmakers made the film to draw attention to the fact that gender-based stereotypes and anti-gay attitudes affect the lives of all students today. The girls who won’t play sports because they don’t want to be called “lezzies”; the boys who make crude comments about girls’ bodies just to prove to their peers that they aren’t gay; the students who won’t raise their hands in class because it’s gay to be smart.

Here’s some more info from the film’s sponsoring organization, Groundspark:

The heart of Straightlaced is candid interviews with more than 50 teens from diverse backgrounds. With refreshing honesty, the diverse youth in the film open up about the pressure to conform to rigid gender role expectations. Boys who have to act tough even though they may feel vulnerable, or girls who have to dress provocatively just to fit in, reveal the toll it takes on them to live up to gender role expectations and how that limits who they really want to be.

Any student who watches the film will find someone whose experience with these issues mirrors their own. This is not a film for students about “those other people” — it is a film about them. Audiences will walk away from the film inspired to challenge anti-gay assumptions and actions among others, and for themselves.

Check out the trailer below and find out where you can see the film on the .