Juno

The film Juno, has been both celebrated and criticized for its unique portrayal of a pregnant 16-year-old. Those who criticize it argue that the movie makes Juno’s situation look easy, even fun. Others applaud the film for showing, without resorting to stereotypes, how real people behave in a situation like this – whether they be cheerleaders, stepmothers, married couples, fathers, or the pregnant teenager herself.

Although I understand the concerns of the first group, I fall firmly in the second. In fact, I don’t think the true message of Juno has much to do with pregnancy at all. Instead, this film concerns itself with breaking down common assumptions about people and their relationships. In doing so, it becomes a movie full of reals – real people, real relationships, real moments.

Real Girl

Yes, Juno talks like no one you’ve ever met. Beyond that, however, she really looks and acts like a completely unique, real high school girl. Her hair and wardrobe are far from perfectly put-together – she’s actually kind of a mess. She decides to have an abortion, and then does a 180 and chooses adoption instead without really considering the consequences of either– the kind of decision-making a lot of young people engage in. And she deals with her pregnancy day-to-day without a lot of angst, tears, or heart-to-heart, spill-your-guts conversations. A lot of movies and TV shows get mileage out of clichés about pregnant women – crazy food cravings, dramatic moods swings, or an attachment to the unborn child that is unbreakable. Juno resorts to none of these, and the result is a much more satisfying story.


Real Relationships

The makers of this movie didn’t rely on tired stereotypes of different kinds of people when they built the relationships between characters. For example, lots of teen movies love to hate on the cheerleader-type because it tends to be a crowd-pleaser. Juno, however, made the lead character’s best friend happy and beautiful and popular and…actually a really good person. This is not only a more fair portrayal of a certain kind of girl, but also a more realistic and interesting one.

Juno’s stepmom is another example. Stepmothers are often written as mean or manipulative. Bren MacGuff loves her stepdaughter and is a huge support for her during her pregnancy. That doesn’t mean there are lots of gooey moments between the two of them – just the kinds of interactions that happen between real adults who care about real teenagers.

In the characters of Vanessa and Mark Loring the audience sees most obviously the filmmakers’ joy in dismantling stereotypes. At the beginning of the movie, the audience is led to believe that Mark is cool and laid-back while Vanessa is uptight and a pain-in-the-neck. By the end, many viewers’ opinions have shifted to favor Vanessa, and Mark’s coolness starts to look immature and, in one scene, even predatory.


Real Fathers

The dads in this film, Juno’s dad Mac MacGuff and Paulie Bleeker, provide two different but entirely realistic perspectives on fatherhood.

Juno’s dad stands out from typical movie fathers of sexually active teenage girls. He doesn’t chase the Bleeker down with a shotgun or, out of shame, threaten to disown his daughter. While her pregnancy disappoints him, he supports Juno like most fathers would if their children were in the same situation.

Paulie Bleeker also provides a realistic, although less positive, portrayal of a father. Bleeker plays only a minor role in Juno’s life during her pregnancy and no role in their child’s. In fact, his judgmental mother never even discovers that the baby is his. This is true of many of the girls I knew who became pregnant in high school or college. Whether by their choice or the males’, they went through the ordeal without the fathers’ participation.


Real Discrimination

Juno rarely faces outward discrimation or shaming because of her pregnancy. Instead, her differentness is represented in more subtle ways. She is shown over and over walking the opposite way of other kids. She doesn’t go to prom. She only spends time with the guy she likes a couple of times during the course of the movie.

Again, with the real pregnant girls I knew, few people came out and criticized them to their faces. However, their lives were fundamentally different from their peers. People whispered about them. The young mothers were excluded - sometimes to keep them and their children safe and sometimes to punish them - from the activities they used to participate in at school. Just like Juno, they lived outside of their normal social circles but because of discrimination that is less outward than how it’s often presented in pop culture.


Real Ratio

The soundtrack includes as many songs fronted by women as by men! In an industry dominated by male voices, that is truly an accomplishment. One complaint – most of the women on the soundtrack are, in fact, one woman – Kimya Dawson. There is a much larger variety of male artists.



Juno is full of characters who are fully developed and who therefore act differently than characters do in a lot of less thoughtful stories. Whatever you may think about the decisions made in this film, it’s got to be a positive thing for viewers to witness how these characters act. It gives all of us an alternative to stereotypes that we may hold about others. Cheerleaders CAN be nice! Step-moms CAN be supportive! Uptight women might not be as obnoxious as you think they are! Dads might not be as overly protective as we expect! And pregnant teenagers just might continue to live their lives despite the situation they find themselves in.




***Go to Juno's Website***