Occasionally the best therapy is one’s sense of humor, which happens to be the advice Jamie Babbit’s 1999 camp cult classic But I’m a Cheerleader gave to a freshmen generation of queer youth. Tired of the tragedy of lesbian dramas, she widened the perception of serious issues within the queer community to allow for her audience to laugh at the absurdity of compulsory heterosexuality. From its casting, to the highly exaggerated replication of the gender binary, down to its set design, its satire is one that invites the viewer to laugh in the face of homophobia. A film that has aged to near perfection, is surely a landmark of the queer comedy genre.
A young Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan, a high school cheerleader who is in disbelief when her parents call for an intervention suspecting her of lesbianism. The title of the film then comes into play; what does lesbianism look like? Surely a girl who presents as feminine couldn’t possibly be guilty of having sapphic thoughts. But one of the hallmarks of Babbit’s satirical gem is that we get a nuanced view of queerness. Megan is sent away to a “reparative” therapy center ironically called “True Directions” where ‘90s gay icons RuPaul Charles and Cathy Moriarty (established as a very important camp player in her previous role in 1991’s Soapdish) play the role of “ex gays” committed to teaching teens the importance of correcting their queer identities and finding a path to straightness.
One of the staples of this addition to the camp film canon is its exaggeration of heterosexuality through color theory and its set design. The True Directions facility is designed to resemble a highly manufactured dollhouse. Its bright pink and blue color scheme signals to its temporary residents that the only way to make it in life is to abide by the gender binary assigned to them at birth. Interior set design follows this same structure, with the boys’ quarters being infused with blue and the girls’ in obscene amounts of pink. Texture comes into play as well. From fake flowers in a plastic garden, to a shiny latex wardrobe, every aesthetic choice is intentionally made to resemble a heterosexual nightmare Barbie Dreamhouse. This of course is to signify the inauthenticity of “True” Directions and their philosophy. Very much akin to the style of John Waters’ filmography, it’s the straight lifestyle this time that becomes the punchline of the joke, and a queer audience that is permitted to laugh.
Megan begins her journey at conversion therapy as a willing participant, but ironically accepts her lesbian identity when she falls for her bunkmate, Graham (Clea DuVall). DuVall and Lyonne’s first shared screen appearance, marks the beginning of a legacy pairing and a real-life friendship between them. The casting in general being one of the reasons for its cult status among the queer community, it’s also the use of real queer actors that differentiates Cheerleader from earlier LGBT releases. The queer crew also had a big hand in this as well, with director Babbit and the film’s producer Andrea Sperling wanting to represent queerness in a way that reflected their own community.
Babbit, as a lesbian filmmaker, made something lighthearted with a sharp eye on contemporary sapphic comedy with But I’m a Cheerleader. There’s a certain “kill ‘em with humor” approach to it that has made it one of those timelessly cool coming-of-age films that inspires while letting its audience laugh at the oppressor instead of being perpetuated as a tired stereotype. Whether it’s a first watch or a 20th rewatch, the viewing experience will always feel like being invited to the cool gay sleepover where everyone is in on the joke. And for this we say thank you, Jamie Babbit.
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