The author reflects on her youthful viewing of "Dirty Dancing" on video against her parents' wishes as one example of the ineffectiveness of a protectionist approach to media. She offers ideas on how she and her students (pre-service and in-service educators) think through how to navigate selection of materials for effective media literacy education. Concern over material selection is not new. Just as educators have done with print media, we, together with our students, must consider student needs and interests as we view and create media materials that both reflect and inspire critical interaction with media.