But I'm a Cheerleader

But I’m a Cheerleader stars Natasha Lyonne as Megan, a wholesome, slightly dim, and big-hearted cheerleader. Megan’s friends, parents, and an out-of-drag RuPaul hold an intervention for her lesbianism. Though Megan insists that she’s not a lesbian (“I’m not a pervert. I go to church, I get good grades, I’m a cheerleader!”), they send her to True Directions, a halfway-house for gay kids on the path to heterosexual bliss. Once there, the kids are dressed in baby blue (for boys) and pink (for girls). After Megan has an epiphany about her own homosexuality in a group therapy session, she finds that the other kids are friendly, and just as committed to curing themselves as she is. The only exception is Graham, a surly lesbian played by Clea DuVall, who’s only at True Directions so her rich parents will pay for college. But I’m A Cheerleader is like the world’s funniest women’s studies project, satirizing gender construction and homophobia. The kids are split into groups for lessons on how to properly express their genders, including modeling wedding dresses, changing diapers, and vacuuming for the girls, and chopping wood for the boys. My personal favorite part is a group therapy session where the kids are ordered to find the roots of their homosexuality, which include “My mother got married in pants,” “Too many locker-room showers with the team,” “All-girl boarding school,” and “I was born in France.”

Most of the gay male characters (a teenage wrestler being the one exception) are pretty feminine, but so are most of the girls. Halfway through, there’s an example of how stereotypes are not just limiting, but inaccurate, when Jan, a butch, softball-playing, buzz cut-sporting girl has an epiphany during a group therapy session:

Jan: I’m a heterosexual.

Mike: Not yet, honey, but you’re almost there. And don’t speak out of turn.

Jan: No, no, I’ve never been gay.

(Kids scoff)

Mike: Jan, remember, uh, you molested. Just take a look at yourself.

Jan: I mean, everybody thinks I'm this big dyke because... cause I wear baggy pants, I play softball, and... and I'm not as pretty as other girls but that doesn't make me gay. I mean, I like guys. I can't help it. I just want a big fat wiener up my...

Andre: Amen, sister.

Jan: I quit

(Runs from the room)

Mike: Who the hell is she trying to fool?

This movie is really fun, in a campy, John Waters kind of way. Megan and Graham have good chemistry, and the big dramatic romantic scene involves Megan declaring her love for Graham with a cheer routine. So I give it an A+ as teen movies go.

When I looked up some info about the making of But I’m a Cheerleader (as one does), I read an interview with director Jamie Babbit, where she said that she originally wanted Rosario Dawson to play Megan, but the producers insisted on going with someone who was more “all-American,” which…maybe she and Alice Wu should hang out sometime? I appreciate that sometimes, you have to make sacrifices to get a movie made at all, and Babbit clearly felt bad about it, but when Babbit said she tried to fill the cast with more people of color, I couldn’t help but think that that’s the same kind of the same logic that keeps gay actors busy helping straight girls find love in romantic comedies.

I also highly recommend the documentary on the MPAA, This Picture is Not Yet Rated, in which Babbit appears and explains that she had to cut a masturbation scene by about thirty seconds in order to lose an NC-17 rating. This was the same year that American Pie came out, which taught me that straight boys fucking pies can be seen by 17-year-olds, but you have to be 21 to see a fully-clothed lesbian touch herself, which I actually think would have made a lot of money.