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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

But I'm a Gay Stereotype

Our Lady of The Two Towers

13:34 / 19.01.03

Grrr. Rant. Hate. Kill. Looked around but I couldn't find the topic for this so am starting fresh. Just watched 'But I'm a Cheerleader' and am now trying to calm down. For anyone that doesn't know it's supposedly a satire on hetero-fear of 'The Gay Lifestyle (pat. pend)' and the places where you get sent to be cured and made 'normal'. Christian cheerleader Megan is sent there by her parents where, unsurprisingly, she discovers she is a lesbian, falls for sulky sultry Graham and... you can guess the rest.

Now, the first forty minutes or so is quite funny, the 'evidence' for her being 'in danger' being her being a vegetarian and none too enthusiastic with her boyfriend's kissing technique, oh, and the picture in her locker.

Where the film comes unstuck is at the 'correctional centre'. Everyone else falls into a stereotype. The boys are all limp-wristed faggots, all swishy "you go Miss Thing" types who can't throw or run straight. For the girls, we have our two heroines, then sulky black-lipstick Goth, a bull-dyke with upper-lip hair and shy nerd with thick glasses. Midway through the film they sneak out to a local gay bar 'Cocksuckers', then there's the affirmative choice place, all rainbow colours, run by Lloyd Morgan-Gordon and Larry Morgan-Gordon...

Now, maybe writer/director Jamie Babbit intends to send up both sides of the sexual fence but I don't believe that ze has that intent. And at the same time ze is pointing out that the stereotypes of heterosexuality are too small to fit us all ze ends up saying "... but over here are some different stereotypes that will fit you instead."

One day we'll have queer characters that weren't abused as children, who don't schedule their day around the gym and who aren't outrageous and all-wise drag queens by night. There will be a cure for Lesbian Bed Death.

If anyone wants me I'm going to go watch Lieutenant Reed completely fail to pick up on the signs Captain Archer is giving him (Private Breakfast? "I do this for all my crew." Oh yes?)

14:10 / 19.01.03

Oh for heaven's sake, stop whining. Why, you'll be expecting black people to not be sidekicks who get killed off half way through the film next!

Matthew Fluxington

15:28 / 19.01.03

I've seen this film. It's meant to be an extremely campy and ironic satire. I haven't seen the film in about a year or so, so memory is admittedly a bit fuzzy, but I can't begin to understand how you're missing how camp the film is meant to be...it's like a film-length David LaChappelle photograph, for fuck's sake! I really don't think it is nearly as sinister as yr making it out to be - I think all of the stereotypes in that film are intentionally broad, but very affectionate.

--

16:04 / 19.01.03

this is interesting, in one of my college courses (a film course on Coming of Age films) we actually watched this movie and later on had a big discussion on whether it re-inforced stereotypes or not. I admit I found it funny at first, but later on I started to wonder if I should really be laughing at these stereotypes that I'm trying to fight as it is (oddly enough none of my lesbian friends had a problem with it, then again the male characters in the film are much more stereotypical) I know it's supposed to be campy and all but I had to stop myself from groaning at some points at how obvious the movie was (those extremely militant gay rights activists: not all gay rights activists are like that!) and does every gay COA film need a scene where the characters sneak off to a gay bar? Yeesh... well, the production and set design was good at least. Movie's most interesting point was the straight girl who looked very butch but she was really straight, perhaps we do stereotype based on appearance.

And having RuPaul play a macho straight guy does NOT equal big laughs. Oh, the irony...

Matthew Fluxington

17:54 / 19.01.03

I think the best defense of the film is that there aren't any characters which aren't broad stereotypes - I mean, the straight people in the film are stereotyped in a very unflattering way, so I don't think the film is taking any sides. I think it's definitely a pro-gay film in spite of making a lot of the gay characters look ridiculous.

I'm going to have to see if I can rent this film, to refresh my memory.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

19:09 / 19.01.03

I would have less of a problem with all the characters being stereotypical if it did something to acknowledge how stereotypical the characters are. But I don't see any pisstaking of the gay side of things, either at the nightclub or at the house of the two queer activists. The closest we get is where the lead, Megan, has been kicked out of the straight school and goes to them and says "I want to learn how to be a lesbian, where they go, how they dress..." but that's about it.

I don't know, maybe it's an American/British thing.

12:38 / 20.01.03

Well, just to play devil's advocate, this place she is sent is some kind of rehabilitation camp that parents send their kids to, right? Perhaps the kids most likely to be so found "out" and sent there by their parents are the most outrageously stereotypical (And therefore noticeable) ones? Parents can overlook the odd behavior of a gay teen that knows how to throw a football. It's the one wants to arrange flowers that are going to most arouse the fear of homophobic parents.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

13:39 / 20.01.03

But Megan isn't 'outrageously stereotypical' (well, not as a lesbian anyway), neither is Graham (the girl she falls for). In fact, of the other girls, none of them are so pronounced a stereotype as the boys.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:40 / 20.01.03

If Graham doesn't seem like a stereotype, that's probably because Clea Duvall is largely playing herself: "Babbit had pretty much created the part for her, going so far as to name the Graham character Clea in an early draft of the script".

I think the reason the girls seem less stereotypical than the boys is that it's possibly a female/lesbian film, more specifically than it is a queer one. Maybe. But I also agree with Flux that it's a very stylised, fantastical comedy - I think it's definitely paying homage to a certain kind of (primarily 80s) teen romance film, and it's also very visually stylised (almost as much as stuff like The Royal Tennenbaums, from what I remember). It's by no means perfect, but I don't think it's particularly objectionable or that much of a failure as a queer-positive film...

And, as suds has correctly observed, "Clea Duvall is the don".