Lady Bird Maternal Relationships
Online Publication of Undergraduate Studies 2019, Volume 10, Issue 1
The Depiction of Attachment Theory and SES in Lady Bird Andrew Han
The film Lady Bird follows the titular character whose real name is Christine McPherson, but insists on being called “Lady Bird,” as she navigates the trials and tribulations of her senior year of high school in 2002 Sacramento. Between the tensions with her best friend Julie, romantic relationships, and the pressures of high school social hierarchies, Lady Bird is left to balance the typical challenges of adolescence. However, despite these issues appearing throughout the movie, the main relationship that the film explores is that of Lady Bird and her mother, Marion. Although Lady Bird detests her mother’s opinionated and strong-willed personality, the audience comes to find out that Lady Bird embodies more of her mother’s characteristics than she realizes. During one of many mother-daughter arguments throughout the film, Marion scolds Lady Bird for getting suspended from school, highlighting her daughter’s inability to appreciate the financial sacrifices her parents made to get her into a private high school. This is one of many strained interactions between Lady Bird and Marion that demonstrates the ways in which parent-child conflicts increase when children become adolescents and strive for emotional autonomy, or the ability to have control over one’s life and make decisions (Silverberg & Steinberg, 1987; Steinberg, 2001). However, as Lady Bird concludes, the audience and Lady Bird realize that familial discord, although aggravating, is often a result of love. The film reminds the audience of the conflicting and powerful feelings that families invoke; while many adolescents are desperate to leave home, they are often not developmentally ready to fully let go. In order to better understand the depiction of familial relationships in Lady Bird, this paper explores the attachment behaviors that shape who children become, while also examining how ecological factors (such as socioeconomic status, or SES) can impact them. Attachment Theories and Lady Bird and Marion’s Relationship Often, adolescents’ physical and mental health can partly be explained by their parents, who act as role models for socialization (i.e., the process of learning how to behave in an appropriate manner), help to mitigate their risky behaviors, and are the primary supporters of their financial resources (Repetti, Robles, & Reynolds, 2011; Repetti, Taylor, & Seeman, 2002). In the case of Lady Bird, many have argued that Marion acts as a negative role model for Lady Bird’s socialization, as there are multiple examples of her seeming unengaged with and unresponsive to Lady Bird’s needs (Liza, 2018). Although 44 | Film and Book Reviews
Marion’s comments can come off as harsh and often unprovoked, viewing their relationship through the lens of attachment theory clarifies that the true reason for her behavior is Marion’s fear of Lady Bird’s impending independence. John Bolby’s attachment theory (1969, 1980) posits that children’s social and personal development are often a result of how readily they have their needs met by their caregivers. Thus, attachment theory explains not only how child-caregiver relationships are formed, but also how early childhood attachment can provide the underlying basis for future relationship styles and communication patterns (Allen, Hauser, & Borman-Spurrell, 1996). In Lady Bird’s case, her often inconsistent social behaviors are influenced by her upbringing, in that Lady Bird’s needs weren’t always sensitively or consistently met, potentially impacting the way she expects others to love and care for her as a result. An example of this is evident in Lady Bird’s attachment style, which can be identified as insecure-ambivalent. In a well-known test of attachment known as the Strange Situation, Mary Ainsworth (1978) found that securely-attached infants use their responsive and sensitive caregivers as safe bases to explore the world from, thus creating the foundation of a child’s ability to maintain adult relationships. However, insecure-ambivalent infants tend to be clingy when exploring with their caregivers, extremely upset by the caregiver’s departure, and ambivalent upon their return (Ainsworth, 1978). Even though attachment theory was originally postulated for infants, it has been thoroughly explored in adolescence as insecure-ambivalent attachment in adolescence has implications for subsequent psychosocial development, where formation of peer relationships is considered a crucial to development (Allen, Moore, Kuperminc, & Bell, 2008). Mothers of insecure-ambivalent children are often described as inconsistently responsive, which parallels Marion’s responsiveness to her daughter’s needs through her vacillation between attentiveness to Lady Bird to then becoming completely emotionally unavailable. For example, Marion supports a tearful Lady Bird when she loses her virginity to a boy she liked who lied about the status of his sexual history, but when Lady Bird struggles to fit in her prom dress, Marion crudely responds, “Well, I suggested you not have that second helping of pasta” (Rudin, Bush, & O’Neill, 2017). Marion’s inconsistent support for her daughter may result in Lady Bird lacking the security to appropriately understand and handle relationships with others. For example, Lady Bird begins to hang out with a popular girl at her school and date a bad boy, ultimately ignoring her best
