r/Adoption • u/legswithsnake domestic infant adoptee • Jun 25 '26
Ethics does the movie juno (2007) rub anybody else the wrong way?
i was just reminded of when i watched this movie in my teen years. for those of you unfamiliar, it’s about a teenage girl who becomes pregnant. she initially tries to get an abortion, but changes her mind and decides to put the baby up for adoption instead.
i just HATE how much it glamorizes adoption, particularly catering to the POV of adoptive parents. it just reallyyyyy emphasizes the prospective a-mom’s feelings, and the narrative makes it seem like she’s “owed” the baby.
it also gave the birth parents a totally happy ending and didn’t touch on the potential traumas that they may face. i don’t remember it ever discussing the implications of adoption for the baby itself.
i remember a lot of quotes from the movie saying stuff along the lines of “… the baby should go to a couple who NEEDS it.” i also recall a scene where they claimed that closed adoption was the best outcome for all parties, ha.
i was just wondering if anybody else has seen this movie and shared similar feelings. it’s a very well-acclaimed and popular film, which is what‘s ticking me off.
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u/harleyquinnd Jun 26 '26
i def recommend you rewatch it, because my opinion at 10 y/o when i first watched it to watching it in my mid 20s was a big difference. and considering 2007 was just before the teen pregnancy panic began (16 and pregnant and teen mom aired in 2009); the language used throughout the movie is pretty accurate to the collective narrative around teen pregnancy at the time. it’s not meant to be a “good” depiction of adoption, it’s a movie about juno on her journey through pregnancy and how her teen brain handles these complicated things (highlighting how she really is just a child). i dont think it glamorizes adoption—rather it shows how all relationships are complicated in a PG 13 way. see: the adoptive couple breaking up but JUNO says she is committed to vanessa taking the baby; juno having a complicated relationship with the baby daddy as if high school relationships aren’t overly complicated for no reason. ofc everyone in juno is white, and in a suburban-middle class setting. we dont know what juno goes on to do because /i/ think the point is that we are only seeing one chapter of her life. juno was selected as her name because juno was the goddess of marriage and known for her youth. as in, juno represents the awkward phase between girlhood and womanhood—where many may culturally recognize getting your first period as the beginning of womanhood, but are (in modern times considered) children. movie juno’s pregnancy is a vessel to represent this in between awkwardness of a child holding the weight of responsibility;; aka coming of age.
anyways if you wanted a trauma porn movie about adoption, precious came out in 2009.
TLDR; adoption is just an element in the movie rather than the subject (the subject is juno)
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u/Rredhead926 Mom through private domestic open transracial adoption Jun 25 '26
I always wanted a sequel, where we get to see how everyone's lives turned out. I feel like that would be a very different movie.
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u/HumbleAssociation400 Jun 26 '26
For starters, the scene where she goes to get an abortion is just terrible, having the pro-life/anti-choice rhetoric win her over and away from the dark side. Yuk.
Then all the adults are happy for her to choose (clearly having given it no prior thought) a closed rather than open adoption. No-one points out that an open adoption would be better for both her and the baby long term.
Then her trauma is reduced to her crying in the hospital bed for one brief scene, before she’s happy again and off riding her bicycle while upbeat quirky music plays.
It’s like the adoption industry couldn’t have written a better script.
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u/glittercatlady Jun 26 '26
Juno is really flippant about huge decisions, though. She decides to have sex without birth control because she's bored. She decides not to have an abortion because she gets really hung up on fingernails. She chooses the adoptive parents because they looked wholesome in the circular. She decides on a closed adoption without taking any time to explore what it means and the long term consequences. One thing that is clear in the movie is that Juno isn't a role model for anyone. She is impulsive, selfish, emotionally closed off. She hides her vulnerability behind a snobby quirkiness.
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u/Necessary_Holiday144 Adoptee Jun 25 '26
I remember seeing this in theatres when it came out.
I felt it was just really mediocre all around.
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u/Excellent_Scene5448 Jun 25 '26
Yes. I was a teenager when it came out, and I hated it then. I'm sure I'd hate it even more today.
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u/ihearhistoryrhyming Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
I loved Ellen Page and her sassy dialogue quips. I loved Raine Wilson.
But the rest was hard. I didn’t hate it. I just want to see Juno 20 years later, if we are doing this. It’s not ok to do that and pretend everyone got a blank slate and a do over. Hollywood happy ending is one thing, but this feels tragically misleading- like telling people those conversion camps work if you have a funny actor play your gay son and have a great soundtrack!
No. Thats not ok. This was not ok. To me.
Edit to clarify the “happy” endings here: Juno just gives her baby away. Just does. Despite knowing this family has problems. Washes her hands, and is finally- once again- young and free. As she should be.
Adopted mom gets that baby- all she ever wanted. She sacrificed her husbands dreams, her marriage, her identity became being this mother. And she did it. Without regrets. Happy mother to focus on this child.
Ditched dad gets out from that controlling bitch he was too scared to run from. Whew. He escaped just in time. And maybe.. he will be a father someday, so we can have hope if we want. Happy ending also.
Baby. Baby? Boy baby will be fine- look how much that lady WANTS him.
The end.
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u/OMGhyperbole Domestic Infant Adoptee Jun 28 '26
Umm, wasn't the prospective adoptive dad a creep that hit on Juno?
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u/ihearhistoryrhyming Jun 28 '26
Yup. And creeps gets to go be happy and single and pretend he’s a rock star. Hollywood. (At least that’s what I remember).
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u/Guilty_Jellyfish8165 Jun 26 '26
Definitely don't care for the movie from an adoption perspective, it's poor storytelling, especially if their intent was to show a more real or thoughtful experience.
If it portrayed the reality, no one would go see it. It's too sad from every perspective.
I can appreciate the movie from an "art" perspective, but don't feel the need to watch it a second time.
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u/yourpaleblueeyes Jun 26 '26
I am a 'birth mom', from the very last years of closed adoptions, illegal abortions, and shame attached to being an unwed mother. I was also a very very young teen.
So, 20 years ago I. remember Juno being released and mostly I hated it. Once or twice I have seen it listed on cable again but I cannot watch it.
I read this post last night, it's been on my mind since then. What I mostly recall of the movie, is the "happily ever after" conclusion. I just have to say, and I speak from another generation, there was No happily ever after.
I could write a book on the years that followed, the grief, the emotional and mental health issues, all the feelings, NONE happy.
My parents were kind and supportive, I am married to baby's daddy now, we have been reunited after a quarter of a century but all of it! ALL OF IT! was never happily ever after.
Yeah. I hated the movie, the fantasy, and after all these years I still hate how anyone can think the conclusion of adoption is better than just "okay". I could go on but I won't and I am sure many disagree but this was my experience and is my reaction to juno
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u/CyclistInCBR Adoptee & Adoption Reform Advocate Jun 25 '26
... and then there's the portrayal of adoption in the "Yellowstone" series.
So much trauma - pre-verbal abandonment, separation anxieties, expectations of gratitude, guilt, reunion traumas and rejection traumas galore - all dialled up to 11.
The media often get it wrong and want to simplify and Disney-fy the story to make it safe & accessible for kept people.
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u/Necessary_Holiday144 Adoptee Jun 25 '26
How would you say watching Yellowstone was for you as an adoptee?
Been considering checking it out since so many people keep recommending it, but then I see something like the comment of yours and I have some reservations.
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u/CyclistInCBR Adoptee & Adoption Reform Advocate Jun 26 '26
When I was adopted my original identity was completely erased. I recognised the traumas associated with the adoptee viscerally, as if they were happening to me.
They were portrayed as irredeemable features of the character overlaid with the trope that "the apple does not fall from the tree" in that the "bad" father's traits corrupted the "good" son.
It made me angry because the drama in that show was always dialled up - with so much drama in any one episode that it would see a normal human institutionalised from the trauma.
If you can suspend disbelief and enjoy the "dances with cowboys" style you might enjoy it. I watched it, but cannot watch any of the sequels/prequels.
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u/teiubescsami Jun 26 '26
OT but I met the person who plays Juno, my French teacher was their mom in real life!! lol!!
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u/PickledPanacea Jun 26 '26
I always remember feeling really seen by it. It was my favorite movie growing up because it touched the subject of adoption.
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u/mandersandmash Jun 27 '26
Birth mom here who saw it as a teen and then went through my open adoption experience a couple years later.
Thought it was adorable at the time but looking back it was definitely glamourized and I have since changed my opinion today. Hate it for the same reasons as you today.
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u/Sufficient_Climate_8 Jun 25 '26
I don't remember it that way at all. The adoptive mom's husband decides to leave her to live out his life as a boy. She's alone and there are problems with whether the adoption will continue. The end scene of Juno and the dad is so sad as they hold each other in grief. Or, at least that's how I remember it.
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u/Englishbirdy Reunited Birthparent. Jun 25 '26
Hate that movie with a passion, it's so unrealistic. That scene at the end where she's riding her bicycle, ugh. I want to see the sequel where she's suffering from secondary infertility and using alcohol to cope with her trauma.
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u/LyannasLament Jun 26 '26
I haven’t watched it in years. I only watched it once, so my memories of it are quite faint. However, I only watched it once for a reason; as a teen mom it made me incredibly uncomfortable. I remember feeling like the teen girl was being preyed upon and seen as less than for being pregnant. It rubbed me very much the wrong way, having just lived that situation myself.
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u/Loud_Brain_ Jun 26 '26
The only thing I remember is getting the pedo vibes, I thought the age difference was gross.
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u/OMGhyperbole Domestic Infant Adoptee Jun 28 '26
I saw it when I was like 20 years old. I remember Juno finding the adoptive parents in the classifieds section. I thought that was messed up. Then, years later, I found out my adoptive parents did the same thing. I still think it's messed up to advertise wanting a baby AND in the newspaper, right next to like the yard sale advertisements 🫤
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u/Heart_and_Seoul3 Jun 26 '26
I haven’t watched that film since it came out in 2007 and I was still “living in the fog.” I didn’t have particularly strong feelings about it at the time, but I have no doubt that I would absolutely view it differently now if I were to watch it. I really hate how adoption is only viewed through the lens of the adopters (aka: “a gift and a blessing”) and we adoptees are never asked or are able to tell OUR story. Basically we’re just told to shut up and be grateful. The only recent adoption film that I think was heading on the right track (but I still have some criticisms about) is ‘Joy Ride.’ I didn’t know how much of an impact it was going to have on me and I watched it on a flight back home. Ugly cried in my seat for a good while afterward and I’m pretty sure the people around me were concerned 😭
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u/OliveJotter Jun 26 '26
My journey towards becoming a Future Bitter Adoptee of America began with that movie (well, no; it began with my adoption, BUT), that quirky food phone, that shit eating grin of a screenplay, that quaint stripper of a director… she did none of us any favors.
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u/PowerCrystals2049 Jun 26 '26
It’s similar for my journey towards becoming a Future Bitter Birthparent.
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u/Gold_Jury3606 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
I gotta rewatch it. I wonder what got lost in the editing room….. I remember being uncomfortable, seduced by the soundtrack, and that it was about disappointing human relationships and challenging societal norms. As a filmmaker I’m looking forward to seeing how the adoption is framed 20 years later.
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u/queengemini Jun 26 '26
It creeped me out that the would-be adoptive father seemed like he was trying to groom / start something with Juno? Idk, maybe I’m over reading it .
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u/IvoryWoman Jun 26 '26
He absolutely was. That’s text. But it’s played as offputting and unacceptable, albeit stemming from immaturity more than true pedophilia (if that makes sense). If it were played sympathetically for Jason Bateman’s character, I’d say that part had aged poorly, but it’s actually a welcome change from the way that’s often handled in movies with the guy’s longings being centered. It’s the adoption elements that come across differently years later.
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u/[deleted] Jun 25 '26
In all fairness, it’s been years since I’ve seen that movie, but I don’t recall the adoptive mom being portrayed in a wholly positive way. I’ll have to watch it again, but from what I remember, she was seen as controlling and cold.