Turning Red and Media Critique as Parents

By David Chase

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ne legacy of the pandemic for my family was an uptick in media consumption for both parents and kids. While I was suddenly working from home and my kids were doing school from home at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, suddenly, media became an important part of life, more than ever. With this increased focus on media came increased scrutiny.

In the wake of the pandemic, we are all consuming more media at home. And some Christian parents have been more vocal in their fear of the media when we as families have less time to vet it. “Woke” agendas were infiltrating the media, I read, allegedly taking advantage of the needs of families for affordable entertainment and support in occupying kids.

Most recently, I have seen this skepticism directed at Turning Red, about a Chinese-Canadian 13-year-old girl, Mei who transforms into a red panda and also wrestles with the transformations that puberty entails, such as having a period, rebellion against parents, becoming aware of romantic love, physical attraction, and so on. Furthermore, Mei starts the film saying “The number one rule in my family: honor your parents.” She goes on to note that some people advise her: “Be careful. Honoring your parents sounds great, but if you take it too far, well: you might forget to honor yourself.” This tension results in Mei at times beating herself up for her own actions or rejecting friends in favor of family and at times pushing back against her mom’s authority.

Honestly, I shared some of the concern, as my children are not yet adolescent, and I did not know how far the movie went in exploring physical attraction, puberty, and the like.

Being an art appreciation and art history instructor, as well as a parent, I wondered if there were any tools that my discipline could give parents to make informed decisions about sensitive media content. As it turns out, I believe there are.

I teach people to start their interpretation of art by describing the work of art. From there, we can reflect on our response to what is in the work of art. Third, we could compare the work of art with another, similar work of art as a way of seeing different perspectives about the art. A final step is comparing our response to others’ response to see if we overlooked something in our understanding of the art.

Let’s take Turning Red as an example. Describing Turning Red is hard to do if we have not watched the movie in advance. But there are tools that can help. I would advise against hearsay on the internet, and go to a more authoritative, descriptive site, such as Common Sense Media. I cannot stress enough the importance of describing the art before we pass judgment on its contents. There may be legitimate concerns, but we gain credibility with our kids and our parenting peers if we take the time to evaluate the media in question. For example, of the concerns I frequently saw referenced in Turning Red was the lack of respect Mei shows her mother. Taken in the context of the climactic scene, Mei is taunting her mother for the purpose of taking her attention off other people whom Mei’s mother might hurt. Further, Mei is telling her mother the truth about Mei’s behavior throughout the film instead of concealing the truth out of fear of how her mother might react. If we think about these events in the context of the film, our interpretation becomes more nuanced, whether or not we ultimately approve of the artwork.

The second step is to reflect on our response to what we are seeing in a work of art. What appeals to us and what does not and why? For example, Cinema Blend Reviewer Sean O’Connell created controversy in his review and accompanying tweet, noting that: “Some Pixar films are made for universal audiences. ‘Turning Red’ is not. The target audience for this one feels very specific and very narrow. If you are in it, this might work very well for you. I am not in it. This was exhausting.” For others, the Asian representation was part of the appeal; still others connected with the idea of being an adolescent finding one’s way in the world. I remember having awkward conversations with my parents where I tried to assert myself in some way, talking about what I cared about and how it was different than what they or others perhaps expected of me, like conversations Mei has with her parents. The reality is: not everyone will connect with every work of art; but we must be careful not to make our experience into a universal pronouncement on the value of the artwork (more on this in step 4). By identifying our response and thinking about why we are having it, we continue to make sense of the work of art.

A third step in coming to terms with our response to art is that of comparing our response from one artwork to another. This can yield additional insights into ourselves and the work of art we are coming to terms with. For example, I had a social media discussion with a parent expressing concern about the voodoo in The Princess and the Frog as antithetical to Christian spirituality. A question I had was whether this applied to other artworks. Did the shamanism, alchemy, and druidic elements of Frozen and Frozen 2 elicit concerns about the spirituality of those films, or were they simply seen as fairy tale magic? Similarly, the rebellion the main character of Turning Red exhibits toward her parents is not unique in storytelling geared toward children or teens. For example, how do we relate to Ariel’s rebellion in The Little Mermaid or Simba’s in The Lion King? What are the similarities or differences? We can be concerned as parents, but as thinkers, applying our criteria evenly makes sure we are consistent with our values and not judging art using a sliding scale where some things get a pass while others do not.

Finally, we can look at what others have said. Before we fully make up our mind, it is worth checking to see if we are missing something. Or, even if we are not missing something, we can understand the art better by looking at what people see as positive about it. For example, when I was in my 20s, I read a poem by Lucille Clifton called “To my Last Period.” I could not relate to it, but as I investigated it more, I came to value the poem’s central idea of looking back at life with appreciation, even of the messy and inconvenient parts (“trouble for me somewhere, somehow” as the poet puts it). We can look at those parts of life that we do not belong to, perhaps even never will experience, and still feel what the artist is trying to convey: “now it is done, /and i feel just like/ the grandmothers who,/after the hussy has gone,/sit holding her photograph/and sighing, wasn’t she/beautiful? wasn’t she beautiful?” These grandmothers in the poem never really approved of the “hussy” (a metaphor for the period). But they came to appreciate it. Maybe we do not ultimately accept the way that Turning Red deals with puberty or adolescent rebellion, but even so, we can appreciate the attempt to deal with a challenging topic even if it is not how we would handle it.

Isn’t that what art is about: coming to appreciate or understand something or someone quite different from you? I can acknowledge my experience and situation may not match other people's situation or experience. Turning Red may not matter to me in the same way as it matters to others, and that is ok. I can still appreciate it as someone else’s expression of themselves where I am along for the ride, connecting with what I can.

Maybe a parent chooses not to show Turning Red to their kids after going through this process of reflection. But, ideally, along the way, we will come to understand why someone else might value the film as a representation of culture, a representation of adolescence, an exploration of family, friendship, and what growing up looks like.

Photo by Bobby Mc Leod on Unsplash

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David Chase is an adjunct professor of art appreciation and art history. He is also a stay-at-home-dad of two kids. As such, he reads story books, cooks, cleans, chauffeurs, and more! In his spare time, he likes to read, draw, and go for runs or hikes. Weather permitting, camping and kayaking with the family are also fun. Weather not permitting, a museum or a library will do just fine.