This Wednesday, April 13th, the Friends Select Upper School will watch a documentary titled The Mask You Live In, published in 2015 by director Jennifer Sniebel Newsom. The film covers topics of gender, healthy and toxic masculinity, and sexism. This initiative is driven by the Healthy Masculinity Club and will be broken into two watching sessions throughout the day and accompanied by a subsequent reflection by advisory.

This film “follows boys and young men as they struggle to stay true to themselves while negotiating America’s narrow definition of masculinity,” both by sharing difficult stories but also offering a “hopeful view of how to raise boys and young men who are confident, empathetic, creative, and working for respectful treatment of all people,” explains Upper School Director Chris Singler in an email to upper school students and families. 

This definition of masculinity bleeds into teenage social scenes and media, and continues throughout adult lives. Documentary subjects “confront messages encouraging them to disconnect from their emotions, devalue authentic friendships, objectify and degrade women, and resolve conflicts through violence,” to name a few hyper-masculine stereotypes. As a result, more boys than girls in the United States are “more likely to be diagnosed with a behavior disorder, prescribed stimulant medications, fail out of school, binge drink, commit a violent crime, and/or take their own lives.” The film further explores these results by investigating how all of these behaviors are interwoven with structural issues of race and class.

In illustrating these painful but hopeful stories, the film covers potentially triggering topics such as “drug and alcohol abuse; violence and mass shootings; sexual assault, abuse, and molestation; suicide and depression; prison; pornography, and more,” explains Chris. The FSS administration encourages students to be “emotionally prepared” for the film. Part of this preparation will come from a Worship Sharing programming set to take place on Tuesday, April 12th. In addition, students who feel very uncomfortable with these topics have the option to opt-out of the viewing by contacting Chris Singler. 

Chris explains that the “goal of screening this film is to provide space for a meaningful learning and discussion around this topic, but to do so in a safe, supportive, and structured way.”