Rosalyn Payne

Really felt her pain - she had two powerful influences: home and her friends/ acceptance. My story of growing up was not like this one at all but the confusion and pain of adolescence is so well portrayed in this film - the dance competition is cringe-worthy, but it’s meant to be. The girls copy things they didn’t understand (very publicly) which were uncomfortable to watch, but ALSO not well received in the film- the audience there cringed also. At the end the character realises she has gone too far and goes to her mum. I thought it was unsettling, of course!! However the message of the film has obviously been misinterpreted as promoting the behaviour of the girls. It doesn’t! At the end she seems to reject the hypersexualised influence, and the pressures from home, and is dressed in neutral clothing. She joins in with skipping. I read this as suggesting she was finding who she wanted to be, and it came from the reassurance from her mother. I understood part of her rebellion into hypersexualisation was the issue of her father taking a second wife, her anger towards him, and a rejection of the culture permitting it.