Weird Science Q&A

On Sunday 11th December I’ll be taking part in an interview and Q&A after a screening of the film ‘Weird Science’ (showing at 2.30pm). It’s at the Clapham Picture House and it’s part of the CineSci series, you can read more about this here

It’s a story about two adolescent young men who use their geek power to create the ideal woman for themselves. Their creation, a kind of sex-charged Mary Poppins with a nuanced understanding of D/S, takes them on a journey of self-discovery of dangerous driving, risk taking, re-enforcing racial stereotypes (and how this is linked to masculinities), drinking, busty women wearing little, slush puppies, destructive parties, violence and guns.

Though it’s ostensibly a story about creating the ideal woman (there will be a handout about this before the screening, so bring a pen), I think it’s actually about how young men negotiate, construct and perform masculinities within the hegemonic rules of ‘being a man’ (see more about this here)

I’ll be talking about this with science writer Simon Franz after the screening, talking about some of the work around young masculinities as well as reflecting on my experiences working with thousands of teens over the last 12 years. Hopefully it will be entertaining and a bit informative: I’ll try not to extract all the fun out of the film, honest (though let’s face it, I probably will).

There will be a podcast of this which I’ll link to here, once it’s up.

If you’re free do come along! It is the first public thing I’ve ever done, so I’m excited and nervous. (Friends, don’t heckle or ask really hard questions).

J