Psychology Behind Turning Red: Individuality and Repressing Emotions

Turning Red is a period timepiece set in 2002. It is a very teen story about Meilin Lee, also called MeiMei, who is going through big changes in adolescence.

➡️ You can see more analysis on Turning Red Here: Generational Trauma and Perfectionism

Same Introduction, in case you didn’t see Part I. If you read Part I, skip to: The Panda and The Parents

No disclaimers here; we have a full page for that 💁🏻‍♀️.

Turning Red Spoilers Ahead❗️ Including the Ending 👀

🎬 For Parents: if you have children, you might consider watching the movie yourselves first or reading detailed reviews before playing it on movie night.

Some Points We Will Cover:

Changes and Individuality
What Happens When We Repress Our Emotions?
Difficulties Teenagers Face

Turning Red

Is a period timepiece set in 2002. It is a very teen story about Meilin Lee, also called MeiMei, who is going through big changes in adolescence.

Turning Red Characters We Will be Talking About

Daughter > Meilin Lee: MeiMei
Mom > Ming Lee
Astral Realm: a world where MeiMei and her ascendants have gone to part with the panda.

About Turning Reds MeiMei

The movie starts with a fearless, ready-to-conquer-the-world, 13-year-old Mei Lee. She embraces her intelligence as a trait she is proud of. Geeky and nerdy are cool. She is excited about her life and happy with who she is.

“I accept and embrace all labels.”
MeiMei

Somewhere along the story, after a very dramatic and emotionally draining night, MeiMei wakes up as a giant red panda. Yes, a panda 🐼. A panda that’s cute and fluffy.

Overall, the movie received some great and some not-so-great reviews ✍🏻. There were polarized views, with people who really disliked it and couldn’t connect with MeiMei and others who really loved it ❤️.

The Panda and The Parents

For the purpose of this analysis, let’s consider the big picture of the Panda, which represents a big change.

MeiMei is going through the pressures and changes of becoming a young adult.

🤯 Emotions: MeiMei is facing many struggles, including new and strong emotions.
- If you are a teen or going through something similar, experts and psychologists recommend embracing and understanding your emotions, whether messy or uncomfortable. You should deal with your emotions to be functional and grow as an adult.
- Instead of shoving your emotions, learn how to communicate. You don’t want to end up as MeiMeis mom, even though she is very kind and loving.

“Feelings are feedback.”
Heather Thom, 2022

☕️ For Parents: At this age, teens have many emotional outbursts, and everything is very dramatic💥. But if you’re a parent you already know this. Parents need to be understanding and compassionate and give their kids space to understand their feelings. Remember that these fast changes bring anger and anxiety to them.

🧠 The Brain: MeiMeis Prefrontal Cortex (the Executive Brain) is slowly starting to form. This part of the brain isn’t fully formed until the mid-to-late 20s. It is crucial for thought and planning. Children or teens at this age don’t have the forethought to consider the consequences of their actions, which can be problematic.

With so much change happening and trying to figure out who she is, it is hard for MeiMei to keep peace with all her relationships.

Her relationships with her parents and friends are impacted. Her parents’ reaction and maybe other factors are making her feel that teenage behaviors are turning her into a monster—and quite literally, a giant red 🐼 panda.

The panda brings strong emotions, both positive and negative, and really quickly, MeiMei realizes she needs to stay calm 😮‍💨 to control the panda. A message that strong emotions should be kept inside and that these emotions are not wanted, hence wanting to get rid of the panda.

MeiMei slowly embraces her emotions and passions realizing that: when you use your passion for purpose, it’s not all bad.

Individuality

In the movie, we also see some cultural wars that MeiMei faces. The collectiveness of family 💛 in Eastern culture clashes with the individualistic and independent view of Western culture.

💭 Between 7 and 12, children begin asserting their independence as they move from childhood into adolescence.

In MeiMei’s case, her mom is a helicopter 🚁 parent and overly intrusive, which is not okay. We get that she loves her, but showing up at school 🏫, embarrassing her, and causing a scene is not what MeiMei wants.

For example, MeiMei’s mom reads through her notebook 🗒️. Let’s analyze this; it’s quite simple.

❗️Parents, don’t read through your children’s diaries, book, journals “without their permission. These should be their private thoughts.” Georgia Dow, 2022

“The feeling of betrayal and embarrassment can actually be really harming to your relationship.”
Georgia Dow, 2022

You want to make sure you’re not intrusive and respect that they may not want to share everything. Give them space to decide and trust that decision. Keep in mind 💭 that this is a difficult age, so be empathetic.

Then MeiMei’s mom goes straight to the store without even thinking. Don’t do this. You want to lower your anger 😡 and anxiety before making a decision.

Relaxing changes our brain chemistry: slowing down and breathing tells our brain everything is okay.

The Psychology Behind Turning Red

MeiMei is enmeshed with her mother 👩‍👧. In several ways, she seemed like a mini-me of her mother. Everything moved at the same pace as the parental figure.

When children or adults are in such a relationship with a parent, they can’t make a choice without getting the parent’s approval ✔️. This could be a friend or other relationship, not necessarily a parent. They feel glued to the other person, which, in some cases, can cause a lack of identity. They can’t form their own ideas 💭; they lose sense of themselves.

Freud on Repression

Freud concluded that when people repress their emotions –so they don’t have to deal with them– they struggle to recall shameful memories. In the movie Inside Out, we clearly see the importance of emotions in forming memories.

Freud’s Theory of Repression: there’s an unconscious mechanism in which our minds 🧠 push down and hide unpleasant memories so we don’t have to deal with them. It has two stages:
- 1️⃣ Primary Repression: acting on certain desires leads to anxiety and other unpleasant emotions, so you repress the desire. This goes on to:
- 2️⃣ Repression Proper: the development of superego. The superego bosses our ego (the part of our mind that deals with our identity and helps us control impulses). Then the ego tries to balance the two forces.
  - The superego creates a structure where bad behavior or desires must be repressed. In MeiMeis’ case, the rules and structures were based on her parents.
  - It’s not good when a normal and healthy desire gets repressed. After a night 💤 of much repression, MeiMei wakes up as a panda. Makes you wonder…

Julia Kristeva, Bulgarian French Theorist on The Symbolic Stage

When MeiMei turns into a Panda, we see the mother-daughter relationship 👩‍👧starts to suffer.

Kristevas’ Symbolic Stage: when children enter the world of linguistic communication. In this stage, children develop an identity that is separate from their mother, involving a process called Abjection. Kristeva associates this process with the maternal figure.

Abjection happens when we encounter a rupture, a breakaway, between ourselves and the other. According to Kristeva, it is a necessary part of development.
Much of this development happens from birth 🐣 to age 4 and then repeats throughout life.

Teens are trying to understand who they are. MeiMei could be facing an identity crisis; she just wants to be a kid but is facing new and strong emotions and a monster 👀. She even tells her mom, “I’m changing mom. I’m finally figuring out who I am, but I am scared it will take me away from you.”

“It actually helps us separate so that we can become independent, which is what we need to be.”
Georgia Dow, 2022

💭 An identity crisis can lead to melancholia, depression, and even aggressive acting out.

The End

In the end, it’s not all bad. MeiMei stays with the panda ❤️. Before parting with it, she remembers the beautiful and joyful moments it brought her. The initial horrifying 🐼 panda became a part of her, and she came to terms with it.

After seeing her mom in the Astral Realm, they have greater compassion and understanding for each other. So, although MeiMei chooses to keep the panda, they can still have a relationship, and MeiMei gains some sense of freedom to be who she wants.