Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is due in theaters this weekend, and the timing couldn’t be more exhaustingly ironic; as moviegoers old and new prepare to experience/revisit the Judy Blume story that America fell in love with over 50 years ago, the state of Florida has, in turn, rolled back approximately 50 years of progress on women’s rights thanks to Rep. Stan McClain’s heinous Bill 1069.
The bill seeks to place heavy restrictions on sexual health education, including but not limited to education surrounding sexually transmitted infections, human sexuality and gender, and menstruation. If passed, it will become illegal for Floridan students to receive formal education on these topics prior to the sixth grade, and considering how menstruation tends to begin as early as age eight, it doesn’t take long for one to start pointing out the flaws in McClain’s little strategy here.
Blume, herself a Florida resident, has already had quite a bit to say about the bill, cheekily apologizing to Margaret, the eponymous character from her beloved book and incoming film adaptation, who, among other things, contends with the challenges of menstruation over the course of the story. And now, with the bill having somehow passed the Florida House Education Quality Subcommittee with a vote of 13-5 (meaning it’s on its way to the Senate at the time of writing), such challenges could mutate into something even more burdensome for real-world students and children.
It’s no secret that this education is necessary to foster a world where people of all ages and bodies can thrive together, but the foundation of education is, has, and always will be a society that desires to cultivate such education in good faith. To that end, it’s terrifying to think that Florida’s lawmakers are ignorant enough to bar such education, but not quite as terrifying as the possibility that they know exactly what they’re doing here.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret opens to theaters on April 28, and could very well end up being the primary source of period education for Floridan students should the worst-case scenario come to fruition.