Kid 90: Opening Pandora’s Box
For this reading: https://bit.ly/3ziJpQg
“What happens once I unlock it? I don’t know the answers, I don’t know the ending.”
Soleil Moon Frye appears on television as a child in the role of “Punky” but when she successfully completes that, she is forced to be an adult as a 13-year-old girl, just because of her body. Soleil’s body progresses rapidly during adolescence, causing people to abruptly take Soleil from her protected childhood. Her adolescence depresses her, and she can’t really tell whether she’s a woman or a 13-year-old girl. As Soleil mentioned in the documentary, when female bodies start to develop, everyone begins to focus on their “tits and ass” rather than every other unique and wonderful thing they have, so whatever she says, it is obvious that she knows viewers can find parts of their lives to relate to.
“I just want people to see me for the person I am inside.”
She gets a boob reduction while still a teenager in order to “have her own identity” with her own words. The world not only makes Soleil feel trapped and vulnerable inside her body, but it probably makes most teenagers feel the same way, and Soleil meticulously documents her own journey while continuing to speak about it. Soleil is not the only one who feels like everything about her centres around her “tits and ass” because that is what being a teenage girl implies in a patriarchal world. She wishes to be able to make others focus on her mature personality and respect her after the surgery, not because of her developed body, but because she can now finally represent herself. On the other hand, people send her thousands of fan letters only to tell her how terrific her little “Punky” character is, which also blocks her from claiming her maturity. She becomes a child rather than a woman just after surgery. Almost everybody wants to transform her into something other than what she is. While she thinks her breasts are the problem, after the surgery, she notices that this topic is more than just her breasts. So, what’s next? What alternatives does she have, and why do people have such a big problem with teenage girls? Why are teenage girls unable to be teenage girls and should become women immediately or stay as children forever? Why must women be the representation of sexuality or purity, and there is no middle?
The documentary doesn’t only focus on Soleil Moon Frye. It follows teen stars of the 1990’s through their teenage years with the help of old journals, video tapes, and answering machine messages from Soleil’s archive. All people in the documentary are themselves, and they don’t bother to think about Soleil’s video tapes since recording someone in the 1990s doesn’t imply having a huge amount of power over them. People are relaxed in the clips because the motto is “Show yourself as who you are.” instead of “Play hide and seek until you become what everyone wants to see.” Joshua Miller does not believe he can receive thousands of hate comments that are full of homophobia just because he said “It is something I am just born with, a feeling I have.” about being gay in the 1990s’ social media free environment.
Soleil also archives and keeps memories for more than two decades for her friends too. Soleil’s documentation about her friends causes her to be able to go back and see the painful experiences of her friends, such as Jonathan Brandis. Soleil’s friends confirm the importance of mental health and being aware of such things at such a young age, while also creating an image of the cruel world and industries that exploit young people.
She learns a lot from her friends’ and her own experiences and struggles, who are all magnificent, special, and gifted children.
