“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?”: Reflections on learning about boyhood through Stand By Me

This piece offers reflections on the 1986 movie Stand By Me, drawing on some of the main themes and contextualising them in relation to my own childhood as a girl growing up in the 1990s. I reflect on how in my rewatch of the movie I was struck by how the class positions of the boys echoed my own experiences of transition and liberation through education. I also reflect on the significance of seeing boys cry and be scared – feelings that the boys at my school were policed out of performing in public.