Motherly Blues: 'What? I Read it in the Paper'

While watching Puberty Blues (1981), I was struck by a recurring theme that resonates deeply with my own childhood experiences as a teenager in Australia. In one scene, Debbie (our teenage protagonist) is picked up by two guys in their car to go to the movies, but her mother, Mrs. Vickers, warns her not to sit in the aisle, fearing she might get "jabbed by a pusher with heaven knows what." This moment brought back vivid memories of my own mother’s similar warnings. When my sister walked near Kings Cross in Sydney in the late 1990s, Mum cautioned her about drug dealers who might jab her with heroin and turn her into a prostitute. In the early 2000s, while hanging out with friends along a suburban bike track in Melbourne, I received similar warnings about strange men who could stab me with a knife. I hear both Debbie’s and my own mother’s voices echoing, "What? I read it in the paper," to affirm their concerns.

Screenshot from Puberty Blues (1981)

As teenagers, these weren’t the imminent risks we faced as we gained independence, began meeting boys, and explored our sexuality. Instead of discussing topics like consent, safe sex, drinking and recreational drugs, and respect in relationships, we were bombarded with sensational, exaggerated fears.

bell hooks (2014), in Feminism is for Everybody, talks about how patriarchal society controls women by directing their fears toward distant, often unlikely threats, rather than addressing the everyday risks they are far more likely to encounter. Hooks explains that this tactic reinforces a sense of vulnerability in women, keeping them reliant on male protectors and unprepared for navigating real challenges, like those related to consent or emotional manipulation in relationships.

Hooks, B. (2014). Feminism is for everybody (2nd ed.). Routledge