BUT I'M A CHEERLEADER (1999) 



But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), starring Natasha Lyonne  (Orange is the New Black) and directed by  Jamie Babbit  (Gilmore Girls) is a satirical 90's comedy about Megan, an all- American cheerleader who is sent off to True Directions, a"sexual redirection" camp under the suspicion that she might be a lesbian. Full of admittedly homosexual misfits (angst-filled gothic teens, a gender neutral soft-ball player, a rebellious rock and roller, camp boys and drag queens), the students are subjected to tasks simulating societal gender roles- domesticating the lesbians and toughening up the gay men.

The first Lesbian cult film of its kind, the slapstick humour, hyperbolic representations of archetypical homosexuals, the satirical sets and costuming and pretty mis-en-scenes makes the LGBT rhetoric palatable to a broader audience, which in itself is valuable for raising awareness. But true value in this text is in analysis, we can understand how audiences are protected by a 'safe' representations of the 'deviant' LGBT community- that where their characters are comical and archetypical.

The hyperbolic representations of 'archetypical' homosexuals echoes Judith Butler's (1998) 'queer theory', where she suggests that gender behaviour is 'performative' (Butler 1998). In addition, the choice of ethnic minorities to play the main male roles (e.g. a shy camp Jewish boy,  a loud-and-proud hispanic and the Filipino wresting champion) reflects the power of hegemony when representing the deviant sexual nature the LGBT community in film and media.