English 2850, Final Paper.
Crystal McCann
Allison Fernley
GLBT/Eng 2850
24 April 2011
But, I’m a Cheerleader
In this film, the main character, Megan is forced by her parents to go to a place, called “True –Directions” True directions is a place where homosexuals are brought for sexuality alignments, they must complete the 5 step program, which is; Admitting You're Homosexual, Rediscovering Your Gender Identity, Family Therapy, Demystifying the Opposite Sex, Simulated Sexual Lifestyle, before they are considered rehabilitated as heterosexuals.
When Megan arrives she must admit she’s a homosexual to the rest of the group. During this process she realizes that most straight girls actually like kissing their boyfriends and are not attracted to girls in the way that she is.
Once Megan admits she in a “homo” as she puts it. She meets a girl in her room named, Graham. Graham was caught by her mother with another girl and sent to True Directions to be rehabilitated. Her mother and father are the prissy rich type and her father is having a hard time dealing with her sexuality.
Mary, the leader of True Directions has everyone get into groups of two, this is supposed to help them become more familiar with their femininity/masculinity and fulfill their duties as a woman and as a man, i.e.; help women to become more familiar with diaper changing, doing dishes, dressing feminine, sitting like a lady, etc. Graham and Megan become partners for the rest of the course. During this time, they begin to develop feelings for each other.
One night they venture out with Sinead and Andre on a field trip to a local gay bar, called “The cocksucker” Lloyd and Larry who “Run the underground queer railroad” pick them up to provide an alternative to True-Directions. This provides this with a choice, as Larry puts it whether they choose to “Live a lie, or hide who they really are” During this field trip to the cocksucker, Graham kisses Megan. This opens an entirely new door to Megan’s discovery of her sexuality. She finds herself more and more attracted to Graham, they being to fall in love during this time.
One night they make love and are caught by Sinead who is also in love with Graham. Sinead tells Mary about this interaction between Megan and Graham, because of this Megan given an ultimatum. She must agree to do the sexual simulation with Mary’s gay son, Rock or be kicked out of True Directions. Megan’s parents told her that if she messes up in true directions she would be “on her own” she chooses to be with Graham and gets kicked out of true directions, however to her surprise Graham, intimidated by her fathers wrath and threats to take away her college fund and all other financial opportunities, Graham decides to stay and do the sexual simulation with Rock.
Megan goes to live with Lloyd and Larry and finds Dolf, a gay male who was kicked out of true directions earlier for sexual interaction with Clayton, another gay male going through the 5 step process to hetero-normality. Megan tells Dolf how much she loves Gram, she and Dolf plan to go back to True Directions to reclaim the people they love.
When they arrive, the remaining so-called homo to hetero converts are graduating, Clayton immediately goes with Dolf, however when Megan tries to get Graham to come with her Graham is hesitant, and asks Megan “Why are you here!? I can’t go with you, Megan” Megan doesn’t’ give up easily as she knows that Graham is scared, but knows that she loves her too. Megan remembers Graham saying “I would love to see you cheer” and comes back in her cheerleader uniform, pom-poms and all and cheers, “1, 2, 3, 4, I won’t take no any more, 5, 6, 7, 8 I want you to be my mate. 1, 2, 3, 4 you’re the one that I adore, 5,6,7,8 don’t run from me cause this is fate! And tells Gram she loves her. Mary stands up and yells “Megan you stop it this instant! Cause you will wallow in the smut of your homosexual depravity for the rest of your life!” Megan runs off and Graham runs after her finally deciding to be herself, to be with Megan.
I feel this film is very helpful for creating visibility in the LGBTQ community, because of the way it portrays “True Directions” even through the dialogue we are shown examples of why these types of places don’t work. When we take a place like “True Directions” and look at it for what it really is, it just becomes a meeting place for homosexuals who are struggling with the same things, and what can be better than that?
These places can really be the types of places homosexuals actually figure out who they really are; for example Jan, a female character with, I would assume GID, who, because of her appearance was labeled by her parents and society as a homosexual, because she is athletic, and dresses as a Tom boy and is considered more “butch” also, when Jan discloses that she is a Heterosexual, Ru Pauls character, (Mike) replies, “You were molested, I mean look at yourself!”
I find this to be a very important part of the film, because whether the viewer is gay or straight, they are forced to look at this issue in a different light and really question what is going on in that scene. Societies need to categorize each individual, forcing the individual to look at themselves in that light and perhaps ask themselves, “Is this really who I am?” And I think this is what happened with the character of Jan. This can work in both directions, because with Natasha Lyonnes character, (Megan) She is polar opposite of Jan character, she is feminine, she is a cheerleader; she has a football player boyfriend. From the outside of the queer window, society would perceive this character as a normal “straight” girl. Until, you take a closer look, as her family and friends did. This proves that one cannot be pegged as any set sexuality. The evidence is within the person, it has nothing to do with what people do for fun, what they wear, whether they play sports or not, what their diet is, etc. This is why I feel this film is so important for LGBTQ visibility.
I saw this film, shortly after I came out. Living in a small Mormon community and seeing this film really helped me to identify with a lot of the characters. I remember a scene after Megan is kicked out of True Directions and is living with Larry and Lloyd where she says “I need you to show me how to be a lesbian” and Lloyd replies, “There is no one way to be a lesbian” I had only met 3 lesbians at that point in my life and all three of them identified as being butch. This was confliction, because not only was I not attracted to butch girls, I felt like I was butch in some physical aspects, of wanting to fix cars, and build things and do hard labor, “be a hard working man” but in the same respect, I wanted to wear make-up and skirts on occasion and dye my hair super funky and get oodles of tattoos and piercings. This film for me helped me to identify as lesbian and feel comfortable keeping my identity without feeling like anymore of an alien than I already felt at the time.
The film helps to point out the “agreement” we make with ourselves when coming out, and that is such a bold thing to do, because people hate what they fear and they fear what they don’t’ understand. So, when we come out, we make this “unconscious agreement” with ourselves that we are going to love who we love and be exactly who we are without compromise and knowing that we will be picked on, we will be persecuted, we will literally go through seven shades of hell in order to get through the day. We ask ourselves, what is the reward in all of this? I would say, the reward of looking at yourself in the mirror everyday and not hating the person staring back at you for living a lie.
This, I believe is why the very end scene when Megan returns to True Directions to tell Graham how she feels and, essentially comes back to get her, is SO important. It’s not just the end of a love story, that is just the surface. It is two people saying to themselves and society, “I won’t strand for your idea of normality. I love this person, I love myself” and at that point, that kissing scene at the end is so powerful, because it showcases this unspoken “agreement” they have made, that they will love who they love and be exactly who they are. This film is very important for everyone to see at one point in their lives.
This films, helps point out the fact that, as discussed in our group presentations Things like; Sexuality and gender are created by society. The ways they define normal” i.e.; the “Happy couple at home scene” demonstrates how hetero-society has an agenda which Preserves privilege for some. However, we must consider the fact that, although places like True Directions still exist in this country. We are lucky we have the freedom to even have access to these types of movies. Unlike places in Iraq, where 5,000 homosexuals have been executed and homosexuality banned in the constitution.
As cheesy as it may sound, these types of movies help us to create a sense of reality when we are first coming out, re-discovering ourselves. The point of our lives we figure out that we are “Born with the sex, not the gender” as Jan discovers. She may “look“like a boy and still be a girl attracted to boys. There is no set standard on what is, or what is not “normal”
Director, Jamie Babbit, Takes serious issues, like; sexuality, gender-norms, hetero-norms, etc. And makes light of it, while also providing insight to anyone questioning their sexuality, or the sexuality of someone they know. It’s this perfect antidote of comedy and serious issues we deal with on an everyday basis, and the fact that these places still exist. Apparently there is a place Tennessee with a special summer camp called 'Safe place’ for gay teens, where they can learn to act straight. I’ve tried finding out more about this place on the internet, but have been unsuccessful. However, there is a quote in relations to this “straight-camp” on interstateq.com, which states “It is not known what type of effect the ex-gay camp has had on Zach. Before going into the camp Zach wrote about having suicidal feelings in his blog.” The idea of sending a suicidal gay teenager to “straight-camp” as way of solution, reminds me of The Melting pot and Assimilation, which doesn’t seem like the best option.
True Directions prescribes a sort of Homo-environmental setting; for each gender. They are not sharing beds in this film, however the décor and set-up in their rooms create that type of environment, which I would assume is opposite the “direction” a place like this aims for. There is a lot of room for comedy in this film, down to the fake plastic bed sheets, the fake flowers, etc. It creates a kind of parody of these types of places. “It isn’t real, it doesn’t work; everything about these types of places is farce” I really appreciate how they point how “gender-norms” with all blue and pink clothing, bedding, walls, etc in order to classify what is “normal”
The scene where everyone is admitting they are a homosexual proves that anyone can be homosexual; Dolf the wrestler, Clayton the retail guy, Joel the Jew, Megan the Cheerleader. Anyone and everyone can be homosexual it is completely normal. I found it interesting during this scene when Megan is accused of being a homosexual she replies “ I’m not, everyone just thinks I am” this is exactly what I’m talking about, she never really thought about labeling it until confronted with it. She thought everyone had “those type of thoughts” it wasn’t something she put a lot of though into naming it, or labeling it, she felt it was completely normal. Because it is! Society is the only thing that defines what is and is not, “normal”
There is a scene where they are being taught to be gender-conformists; taught to change diapers, to clean, to dress and sit girly, wear dresses as well as the stereo-typing slide-show examples of how to be a good wife for your husband, etc. This really makes you think that if society just left well enough alone, for people to become who and what they wanted, how different a place this we would live in, especially if it were world-wide. The idea of indentifying their “root” is especially ridicules. It’s trying to figure out what made you “abnormal” when there is nothing wrong with you in the first place, which is probably why everyone had such silly excuses on the subject.
I don’t believe this film really has the capacity to trouble gender/sexuality categories. It points out societies idea of hetero-normality’s, dissects them and spits them out exactly as they truly are in every aspect. It is EXACTLY how it feels when you are first coming out, you typically don’t like kissing the opposite sex, you have pictures of the same sex around and kind of go about your life checking people out of the same-sex and you don’t realize any of it means you are “abnormal.”
It is in my opinion one of the best films to watch when you are first coming out of the closet or feel lost, alone and rejected by society and those you love because of who you are/or who you love.
Work Cited
Anonymous, Brandy
http://www.interstateq.com/archives/34/
Nesselson, Lisa
http://www.filmfestivals.com/review/cheerleader/index_us.htm
Allison Fernley
GLBT/Eng 2850
24 April 2011
But, I’m a Cheerleader
In this film, the main character, Megan is forced by her parents to go to a place, called “True –Directions” True directions is a place where homosexuals are brought for sexuality alignments, they must complete the 5 step program, which is; Admitting You're Homosexual, Rediscovering Your Gender Identity, Family Therapy, Demystifying the Opposite Sex, Simulated Sexual Lifestyle, before they are considered rehabilitated as heterosexuals.
When Megan arrives she must admit she’s a homosexual to the rest of the group. During this process she realizes that most straight girls actually like kissing their boyfriends and are not attracted to girls in the way that she is.
Once Megan admits she in a “homo” as she puts it. She meets a girl in her room named, Graham. Graham was caught by her mother with another girl and sent to True Directions to be rehabilitated. Her mother and father are the prissy rich type and her father is having a hard time dealing with her sexuality.
Mary, the leader of True Directions has everyone get into groups of two, this is supposed to help them become more familiar with their femininity/masculinity and fulfill their duties as a woman and as a man, i.e.; help women to become more familiar with diaper changing, doing dishes, dressing feminine, sitting like a lady, etc. Graham and Megan become partners for the rest of the course. During this time, they begin to develop feelings for each other.
One night they venture out with Sinead and Andre on a field trip to a local gay bar, called “The cocksucker” Lloyd and Larry who “Run the underground queer railroad” pick them up to provide an alternative to True-Directions. This provides this with a choice, as Larry puts it whether they choose to “Live a lie, or hide who they really are” During this field trip to the cocksucker, Graham kisses Megan. This opens an entirely new door to Megan’s discovery of her sexuality. She finds herself more and more attracted to Graham, they being to fall in love during this time.
One night they make love and are caught by Sinead who is also in love with Graham. Sinead tells Mary about this interaction between Megan and Graham, because of this Megan given an ultimatum. She must agree to do the sexual simulation with Mary’s gay son, Rock or be kicked out of True Directions. Megan’s parents told her that if she messes up in true directions she would be “on her own” she chooses to be with Graham and gets kicked out of true directions, however to her surprise Graham, intimidated by her fathers wrath and threats to take away her college fund and all other financial opportunities, Graham decides to stay and do the sexual simulation with Rock.
Megan goes to live with Lloyd and Larry and finds Dolf, a gay male who was kicked out of true directions earlier for sexual interaction with Clayton, another gay male going through the 5 step process to hetero-normality. Megan tells Dolf how much she loves Gram, she and Dolf plan to go back to True Directions to reclaim the people they love.
When they arrive, the remaining so-called homo to hetero converts are graduating, Clayton immediately goes with Dolf, however when Megan tries to get Graham to come with her Graham is hesitant, and asks Megan “Why are you here!? I can’t go with you, Megan” Megan doesn’t’ give up easily as she knows that Graham is scared, but knows that she loves her too. Megan remembers Graham saying “I would love to see you cheer” and comes back in her cheerleader uniform, pom-poms and all and cheers, “1, 2, 3, 4, I won’t take no any more, 5, 6, 7, 8 I want you to be my mate. 1, 2, 3, 4 you’re the one that I adore, 5,6,7,8 don’t run from me cause this is fate! And tells Gram she loves her. Mary stands up and yells “Megan you stop it this instant! Cause you will wallow in the smut of your homosexual depravity for the rest of your life!” Megan runs off and Graham runs after her finally deciding to be herself, to be with Megan.
I feel this film is very helpful for creating visibility in the LGBTQ community, because of the way it portrays “True Directions” even through the dialogue we are shown examples of why these types of places don’t work. When we take a place like “True Directions” and look at it for what it really is, it just becomes a meeting place for homosexuals who are struggling with the same things, and what can be better than that?
These places can really be the types of places homosexuals actually figure out who they really are; for example Jan, a female character with, I would assume GID, who, because of her appearance was labeled by her parents and society as a homosexual, because she is athletic, and dresses as a Tom boy and is considered more “butch” also, when Jan discloses that she is a Heterosexual, Ru Pauls character, (Mike) replies, “You were molested, I mean look at yourself!”
I find this to be a very important part of the film, because whether the viewer is gay or straight, they are forced to look at this issue in a different light and really question what is going on in that scene. Societies need to categorize each individual, forcing the individual to look at themselves in that light and perhaps ask themselves, “Is this really who I am?” And I think this is what happened with the character of Jan. This can work in both directions, because with Natasha Lyonnes character, (Megan) She is polar opposite of Jan character, she is feminine, she is a cheerleader; she has a football player boyfriend. From the outside of the queer window, society would perceive this character as a normal “straight” girl. Until, you take a closer look, as her family and friends did. This proves that one cannot be pegged as any set sexuality. The evidence is within the person, it has nothing to do with what people do for fun, what they wear, whether they play sports or not, what their diet is, etc. This is why I feel this film is so important for LGBTQ visibility.
I saw this film, shortly after I came out. Living in a small Mormon community and seeing this film really helped me to identify with a lot of the characters. I remember a scene after Megan is kicked out of True Directions and is living with Larry and Lloyd where she says “I need you to show me how to be a lesbian” and Lloyd replies, “There is no one way to be a lesbian” I had only met 3 lesbians at that point in my life and all three of them identified as being butch. This was confliction, because not only was I not attracted to butch girls, I felt like I was butch in some physical aspects, of wanting to fix cars, and build things and do hard labor, “be a hard working man” but in the same respect, I wanted to wear make-up and skirts on occasion and dye my hair super funky and get oodles of tattoos and piercings. This film for me helped me to identify as lesbian and feel comfortable keeping my identity without feeling like anymore of an alien than I already felt at the time.
The film helps to point out the “agreement” we make with ourselves when coming out, and that is such a bold thing to do, because people hate what they fear and they fear what they don’t’ understand. So, when we come out, we make this “unconscious agreement” with ourselves that we are going to love who we love and be exactly who we are without compromise and knowing that we will be picked on, we will be persecuted, we will literally go through seven shades of hell in order to get through the day. We ask ourselves, what is the reward in all of this? I would say, the reward of looking at yourself in the mirror everyday and not hating the person staring back at you for living a lie.
This, I believe is why the very end scene when Megan returns to True Directions to tell Graham how she feels and, essentially comes back to get her, is SO important. It’s not just the end of a love story, that is just the surface. It is two people saying to themselves and society, “I won’t strand for your idea of normality. I love this person, I love myself” and at that point, that kissing scene at the end is so powerful, because it showcases this unspoken “agreement” they have made, that they will love who they love and be exactly who they are. This film is very important for everyone to see at one point in their lives.
This films, helps point out the fact that, as discussed in our group presentations Things like; Sexuality and gender are created by society. The ways they define normal” i.e.; the “Happy couple at home scene” demonstrates how hetero-society has an agenda which Preserves privilege for some. However, we must consider the fact that, although places like True Directions still exist in this country. We are lucky we have the freedom to even have access to these types of movies. Unlike places in Iraq, where 5,000 homosexuals have been executed and homosexuality banned in the constitution.
As cheesy as it may sound, these types of movies help us to create a sense of reality when we are first coming out, re-discovering ourselves. The point of our lives we figure out that we are “Born with the sex, not the gender” as Jan discovers. She may “look“like a boy and still be a girl attracted to boys. There is no set standard on what is, or what is not “normal”
Director, Jamie Babbit, Takes serious issues, like; sexuality, gender-norms, hetero-norms, etc. And makes light of it, while also providing insight to anyone questioning their sexuality, or the sexuality of someone they know. It’s this perfect antidote of comedy and serious issues we deal with on an everyday basis, and the fact that these places still exist. Apparently there is a place Tennessee with a special summer camp called 'Safe place’ for gay teens, where they can learn to act straight. I’ve tried finding out more about this place on the internet, but have been unsuccessful. However, there is a quote in relations to this “straight-camp” on interstateq.com, which states “It is not known what type of effect the ex-gay camp has had on Zach. Before going into the camp Zach wrote about having suicidal feelings in his blog.” The idea of sending a suicidal gay teenager to “straight-camp” as way of solution, reminds me of The Melting pot and Assimilation, which doesn’t seem like the best option.
True Directions prescribes a sort of Homo-environmental setting; for each gender. They are not sharing beds in this film, however the décor and set-up in their rooms create that type of environment, which I would assume is opposite the “direction” a place like this aims for. There is a lot of room for comedy in this film, down to the fake plastic bed sheets, the fake flowers, etc. It creates a kind of parody of these types of places. “It isn’t real, it doesn’t work; everything about these types of places is farce” I really appreciate how they point how “gender-norms” with all blue and pink clothing, bedding, walls, etc in order to classify what is “normal”
The scene where everyone is admitting they are a homosexual proves that anyone can be homosexual; Dolf the wrestler, Clayton the retail guy, Joel the Jew, Megan the Cheerleader. Anyone and everyone can be homosexual it is completely normal. I found it interesting during this scene when Megan is accused of being a homosexual she replies “ I’m not, everyone just thinks I am” this is exactly what I’m talking about, she never really thought about labeling it until confronted with it. She thought everyone had “those type of thoughts” it wasn’t something she put a lot of though into naming it, or labeling it, she felt it was completely normal. Because it is! Society is the only thing that defines what is and is not, “normal”
There is a scene where they are being taught to be gender-conformists; taught to change diapers, to clean, to dress and sit girly, wear dresses as well as the stereo-typing slide-show examples of how to be a good wife for your husband, etc. This really makes you think that if society just left well enough alone, for people to become who and what they wanted, how different a place this we would live in, especially if it were world-wide. The idea of indentifying their “root” is especially ridicules. It’s trying to figure out what made you “abnormal” when there is nothing wrong with you in the first place, which is probably why everyone had such silly excuses on the subject.
I don’t believe this film really has the capacity to trouble gender/sexuality categories. It points out societies idea of hetero-normality’s, dissects them and spits them out exactly as they truly are in every aspect. It is EXACTLY how it feels when you are first coming out, you typically don’t like kissing the opposite sex, you have pictures of the same sex around and kind of go about your life checking people out of the same-sex and you don’t realize any of it means you are “abnormal.”
It is in my opinion one of the best films to watch when you are first coming out of the closet or feel lost, alone and rejected by society and those you love because of who you are/or who you love.
Work Cited
Anonymous, Brandy
http://www.interstateq.com/archives/34/
Nesselson, Lisa
http://www.filmfestivals.com/review/cheerleader/index_us.htm