Pride Month: “But I’m a Cheerleader” is a Light Movie with a Strong Message
If John Waters were to make a sweet, lighthearted romp poking fun at conversion therapy, it would be But I’m a Cheerleader (2000, Prime Video). The topic is quite serious and dangerous, but the film is firmly tongue-in-cheek. When a movie has RuPaul in a t-shirt proclaiming “Straight is Great” and teaching young boys how to be macho men, you know it’s a good movie.
But I’m a Cheerleader follows our plucky young heroine Megan (Natasha Lyonne, years before she played a husky-voiced lesbian on Orange Is the New Black) as she goes through the motions of being an all-American straight girl in high school. She’s even a school cheerleader with a football player boyfriend and parents who pray over a homemade dinner every night. Megan’s friends and family, however, think she’s a lesbian and they hold an intervention to confront her with the “evidence”: a Melissa Ethridge poster in her room; eating tofu; having cheerleader pictures in her locker instead of boy pictures. She’s a *whispers* homosexual. Megan is forced to attend a conversion therapy camp run by Mary (played pitch-perfectly by Cathy Moriarty) and Mike (RuPaul with facial hair). The film makes zero attempt to hide the fact that camps like these do absolutely nothing to help their “patients,” and in fact, this one particularly seems to be designed to coerce women into relationships with other women, and men with other men. Megan and her fellow teens are subjected to “lessons” on embracing gender stereotypes and forced into performative gender roles, as if being girly and being a lesbian are mutually exclusive. Even more worrisome, they are encouraged to think about sex…a lot. The “steps” of Mary’s program run from admitting you’re a homosexual to simulating heterosexual sex. That’s way more healthy for teens, right?
Some of the teens at the program really seem to want to be straight, and it’s heartbreaking to watch them long for the day when they will finally be “fixed.” However, most of the teens are engaged in some form of playing along solely to make it through the program, and it’s heartbreaking to watch them, too.
Megan’s parents claim to love her and are doing this for her own good, yet they explicitly tell her in no uncertain terms that if she doesn’t get “fixed,” then she has no place at home with them. They tell her that it’s her choice whether to be “normal” or to cut herself off from her family. Megan’s parents, and several others in the film, would rather have no child than a gay child.
The movie’s messages are loud, proud, and clear: you can’t force someone to be something they’re not; gender is performative; there is no such thing as “right” or “wrong” when it comes to sexual orientation.
Megan’s character arc is not straightforward (no pun intended). Despite the fact that she enjoys looking at other women, even fantasizes about them while making out with her boyfriend, she is convinced she’s straight. Her community is so uptight that it never occurs to her she could be anything else. It’s not until she gets to conversion camp that she even entertains the notion that she might not be straight. Once she has that epiphany, she sets herself on a roller coaster of emotions and identities. Can she still be a cheerleader — that hotpot of performative femininity — if she’s a lesbian? In one scene she asks what lesbians even wear and do. Since Mary and others have taught her that there’s only one way to be a heterosexual woman, Megan figures there’s only one way to be a lesbian.
All of which is as ridiculous as it sounds. But I’m a Cheerleader does an outstanding job of parodying these old-fashioned ideas that are, unfortunately, still a big part of our collective ideas around sexual orientation.
Yet the film is still lighthearted, even funny. Shortly after Megan arrives at the conversion camp, we get a montage of Mary showing the girls how to be good wives and mothers, while Mike shows the boys how to be macho men. The girls learn how to vacuum, to diaper a baby, to put on makeup, and even practice making wedding gowns for each other. Taught by RuPaul at his satiric best, the boys have to throw footballs, spit, chop wood, and learn how to fix a car. Throughout all of this, the film winks at the audience with clever puns, well-placed props, and some heavy-duty double-entendres. But I’m a Cheerleader is like one long smirk, and it’s a joy to watch.
Unfortunately, we still live in a world where homosexuality is looked down upon by many, and this has a tragic, sometimes fatal effect on LGBTQIA+ youth. But I’m a Cheerleader won’t change anyone’s minds, but it does provide a welcome laugh at the utter hypocrisy of those who would rather see someone be miserable, rather than let them live their truth.
*Disclaimer: While I am not myself a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I am a second generation ally with many, many friends and immediate family members who are.
