WEEK 7 - Queer Theory (But I'm A Cheerleader)
The "Female Gaze" is when a woman accepts that women can also gain Voyeuristic pleasure from looking at a subjuct, and that film techniques can sometimes be used to position the female and to do so.
a "voyeuristic gaze" is a gaze which objectifies the recipient of the gaze in a non-sexual manner, rather through admiration.
using this knowlege taken from the "Beginners guide to Laura Mulvey" I will argue how the "Female Gaze" is used for "But I'm A Cheerleader".
Megan is a normal everyday teenager, she goes to high school, she's a cheerleader, she has a boyfriend and friends, a loving family except, she has pictures of women in her room and locker, she has "strange" thoughts about women and she hates kissing her boyfriend, eventualy her parents send her to a rehabilitation camp called "true directions" who can "make you strait again"
the audience of the film will watch this and admire Megan for going through what she's been through and coping with it in the most rationalle and mature way she possibly could at her age, and for being true to herself and doing the right thing, people who are in the same position as her will also admire her because they will relate to the film and won't feel as alone anymore.
The Target Audience for "But I'm a Cheerleader" is teenagers who are going through the tuff stage of finding out their sexualtities and try to hide their actual feelings towards the same gender to 'fit in' with sociaties expectations of sexuality, and are also scared of being disowned by their parents and their friends. The reason i think this is because of the way everything is constructed together to show the struggle of megan and her new freinds at "true directions".
The steriotypes which are used in this film are the "gay male" steriotypes, which are usually used in films, the 'how women should act' steriotype and the 'how men should act' steriotype, these steriotypes are used in a humorous way.
The way different characters perform gender are by most of the males at "true directions" acting like a steriotypical female, and most of the females acting like a steriotypical male, the only times these are put intotheir normal areas (for a film) is when the males are doing "man things" and the females are doing "woman things".
The fact that the film is a 15 rating doesn't suprise me nowadays because of how over protective parents can be, adults notice things in films that children don't, hence why they spot something instantly in a film and think, "This is unsuitable for my child to see!" but they don't realise that their child would probably be paying more attention to a silly outfit the character might have on. Considering the film was aimed at teenagers, i think the film should have been a 12 because all in all, their's nothing overley shocking or bad in the film but a few things like over 5 "f**k"s and 3 "b*****d"s could make the rating boards put it higher in the ratings.
I think the film is trying to put a message across that if your gay, you shouldn't let anybody try and change you just to fit in with the rest of the "normal" society, and that even if it seems like your family may disown you for being yourself, it might not even turn out that bad and everything might just carry on as normal, The Director has made this pretty clear throughout the film.
The style of this film was unusual because of the way they made the costumes, music and the way they filmed it to make it look out of the ordinary. I dont think this film is a mainstream film because it's more unique to most films and could be considered for more smaller audiences.
The style of the film helps pull the message accross because of the way the outfits are over the top, the way they make being gay seem more normal and less strange than being strait (which is made to look creepy and over the top), the way they made it seem when megan was kissing her boyfreind was also a way they pulled the message across and the shots of what she was thinking about when she was kissing him (with the cheerleaders).
This film might be considered a queer film for 2 reasons:
1. The way the director has set the costumes and peiced the film together (queer as in odd)
and
2. The fact that the narrative is focused on Megan and showing her path of opening up to being a lesbian (which she doesn't know she is till she goes to "true directions").
although this films aim was to help gay teenagers, i beleive that it's still possible for strait people to watch it and enjoy it aswell, except, they might relate to it differently, for e.g, a gay person who might be unsure weather they're gay or strait might be able to relate to it in some aspects but not all, and a strait person could just watch it for its comedy aspect.
If i was marketing this film, i would promote the Narrative, the Genre and the Stars, the Narrative because it's an important part of film that people need to know about before deciding they want to watch it, Genre because it's also another important thing that people need to know to decide on weather or not they want to watch it, and Stars because people might want to know who the actors are who are in the film.
The "Female Gaze" is when a woman accepts that women can also gain Voyeuristic pleasure from looking at a subjuct, and that film techniques can sometimes be used to position the female and to do so.
a "voyeuristic gaze" is a gaze which objectifies the recipient of the gaze in a non-sexual manner, rather through admiration.
using this knowlege taken from the "Beginners guide to Laura Mulvey" I will argue how the "Female Gaze" is used for "But I'm A Cheerleader".
Megan is a normal everyday teenager, she goes to high school, she's a cheerleader, she has a boyfriend and friends, a loving family except, she has pictures of women in her room and locker, she has "strange" thoughts about women and she hates kissing her boyfriend, eventualy her parents send her to a rehabilitation camp called "true directions" who can "make you strait again"
the audience of the film will watch this and admire Megan for going through what she's been through and coping with it in the most rationalle and mature way she possibly could at her age, and for being true to herself and doing the right thing, people who are in the same position as her will also admire her because they will relate to the film and won't feel as alone anymore.
The Target Audience for "But I'm a Cheerleader" is teenagers who are going through the tuff stage of finding out their sexualtities and try to hide their actual feelings towards the same gender to 'fit in' with sociaties expectations of sexuality, and are also scared of being disowned by their parents and their friends. The reason i think this is because of the way everything is constructed together to show the struggle of megan and her new freinds at "true directions".
The steriotypes which are used in this film are the "gay male" steriotypes, which are usually used in films, the 'how women should act' steriotype and the 'how men should act' steriotype, these steriotypes are used in a humorous way.
The way different characters perform gender are by most of the males at "true directions" acting like a steriotypical female, and most of the females acting like a steriotypical male, the only times these are put intotheir normal areas (for a film) is when the males are doing "man things" and the females are doing "woman things".
The fact that the film is a 15 rating doesn't suprise me nowadays because of how over protective parents can be, adults notice things in films that children don't, hence why they spot something instantly in a film and think, "This is unsuitable for my child to see!" but they don't realise that their child would probably be paying more attention to a silly outfit the character might have on. Considering the film was aimed at teenagers, i think the film should have been a 12 because all in all, their's nothing overley shocking or bad in the film but a few things like over 5 "f**k"s and 3 "b*****d"s could make the rating boards put it higher in the ratings.
I think the film is trying to put a message across that if your gay, you shouldn't let anybody try and change you just to fit in with the rest of the "normal" society, and that even if it seems like your family may disown you for being yourself, it might not even turn out that bad and everything might just carry on as normal, The Director has made this pretty clear throughout the film.
The style of this film was unusual because of the way they made the costumes, music and the way they filmed it to make it look out of the ordinary. I dont think this film is a mainstream film because it's more unique to most films and could be considered for more smaller audiences.
The style of the film helps pull the message accross because of the way the outfits are over the top, the way they make being gay seem more normal and less strange than being strait (which is made to look creepy and over the top), the way they made it seem when megan was kissing her boyfreind was also a way they pulled the message across and the shots of what she was thinking about when she was kissing him (with the cheerleaders).
This film might be considered a queer film for 2 reasons:
1. The way the director has set the costumes and peiced the film together (queer as in odd)
and
2. The fact that the narrative is focused on Megan and showing her path of opening up to being a lesbian (which she doesn't know she is till she goes to "true directions").
although this films aim was to help gay teenagers, i beleive that it's still possible for strait people to watch it and enjoy it aswell, except, they might relate to it differently, for e.g, a gay person who might be unsure weather they're gay or strait might be able to relate to it in some aspects but not all, and a strait person could just watch it for its comedy aspect.
If i was marketing this film, i would promote the Narrative, the Genre and the Stars, the Narrative because it's an important part of film that people need to know about before deciding they want to watch it, Genre because it's also another important thing that people need to know to decide on weather or not they want to watch it, and Stars because people might want to know who the actors are who are in the film.
1 comment:
A really enjoyable post, Claire, looking at lots of aspects of the film. I particularly liked your analysis of the costume and style of the film as being queer as in odd, and I agree with you that the film deliberately mocks what is usually seen as normal. An excellent and thoughtful post.
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