‘The Diary of a Teenage Girl’: What happens when a movie is hidden from the demographic it’s designed for?
As a 14-year-old, school had barely scratched the surface besides presenting us with cucumbers and condoms during a particularly awkward PSHE lesson, so I had to figure out this foreign world of sex education by deciphering what was shown on screens, and that’s why films like 2015’s The Diary of a Teenage Girl are so important.
I remember figuring out what a blowjob was by seeing one depicted in a show I was certainly too young to be watching, and piecing together terminology and acts as I was exposed to media that depicted sexuality with frankness. 2013’s Palo Alto was another big one, showing me how blasé the world of teen sex could be.
But Marielle Heller’s The Diary of a Teenage Girl was something different, as it brought attention to the very real desires and curiosities that we have as we start to grow out of playing with dolls and instead look towards a world we know very little about. We’re not fully grown at this point, where the protagonist of the film, Minnie, is on the cusp but not quite 15 years old and developed enough to look like a woman, but young enough to be naive, uncertain, and ultimately confused.
Minnie worries that she isn’t attractive enough and retreats into a world of cartoons, yet her lingering desire to have sex comes to a head when her mother’s boyfriend, Monroe, takes her out, and when he starts to flirt with her, she can’t resist this entrance into an exciting older world. The pair begin an affair, with Monroe unbothered by Minnie being underage, and he takes advantage of her, which is painful to watch, but it’s real. Many girls have ended up in situations like this, and just because Minnie is curious about her burgeoning sexuality doesn’t mean that she’s to blame in the slightest.
Heller’s film is frank in its depiction of female sexuality, and we see Minnie in various states of undress, sometimes looking in the mirror, inspecting herself, or lying in the bath, contemplating; sometimes, the nudity is in sexual contexts, like when she sleeps with Monroe, but of course, the actor playing Minnie, Bel Powley, was firmly of age during filming.
So, is there anything wrong with showing such direct depictions of sex and nudity when it’s in such an unsensationalised and considered context? According to the BBFC, the movie was not appropriate for teenage viewers, even though that’s who Heller had in mind when she made it. It was rated an 18, even though she wanted it to be passed as a 15, predominantly because of the ‘strong sex’ it involved.
“The film explores female sexuality with boldness and honesty in an unexploitative manner,” Vertigo Releasing’s Wahida Begum said (via The Guardian), “In an age where young women are still continually being sexualised and objectified, we feel The Diary of a Teenage Girl sends a very positive, reassuring message to young girls about female sexuality and body image. It is a shame that audiences will not be able to legally see a film that was made by women for women of all ages.”
According to the BBFC, various instances of nudity, “mechanical thrusting,” and the “brief sight of a pencil drawing of a young woman with a penis in her mouth” made it inappropriate and meanwhile, the consumption of drugs and strong language added to its 18 rating, because teenagers don’t know anything about that, right? Age ratings can certainly be important, I’m not denying that, but teen girls should see The Diary of a Teenage Girl, and it’s a disservice to Heller’s vision to keep it rated an 18.
Watching the movie when I was 14 certainly left an impression on me as a relatable female coming-of-age story, even if I wasn’t sleeping with 35-year-old men in my spare time. I watched it online, bypassing the age rating, but think of how many of us could’ve seen such an important story on the big screen yet just weren’t given the chance.
