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#1435: Girl Flu And Finding One's Place

On this week’s 51%, we speak with the writer/director of a film called Girl Flu about menstruation and womanhood. And we bring you two commentaries on origin, race and assumptions. I’m Allison Dunne and this is 51%.

Girl Flu is a film written and directed Dorie Barton. It’s Barton’s first and focuses on a girl’s graduation to womanhood, getting her period at the age of 12 in front of her entire sixth-grade class. Devastated that her childhood is over and still reeling from a recent move, Bird struggles through her new reality along with some helpful, and some not-so-helpful, friends and family. The Los Angeles-based Barton says the coming-of-age story offers a perspective on a universal, yet underrepresented experience. The film had its East Coast premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival the fall of 2016. I spoke with Dorie Barton about her film, its impact and more. She says women now come up to her with their first-time stories, especially after having seen the film.  

Next we have two commentaries about origin and what other people assume. First we hear from Anjani Iman, who talks about the struggle of many Asian-Americans to find their place in a country divided by both culture and race. 

In our second commentary, the author says the question "Where are you from? ... No, where are you really from?" is one she fields all the time because of her skin tone and features, Milani Chatterji-Len’s answer says something about what it is to be an American.  

And that's our show this week. Thanks to Patrick Garrett for production assistance. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock. Our theme music is Glow in the Dark by Kevin Bartlett. This show is a national production of Northeast Public Radio. If you’d like to hear this show again, sign up for our podcast, or visit the 51% archives on our web site at wamc.org. And follow us on Twitter @51PercentRadio  

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