Ah the 90s. The Nintendo 64, dial up Internet, and gay people are still being blamed for the AIDS epidemic. What a time to be alive! Luckily, in the year 2025 homophobia has been solved forever because queer films like But I’m a Cheerleader taught us all how to respect people’s identities.
If only.
Odds are, you have never even heard of But I’m a Cheerleader. Starring Natasha Lyonne and Clea DuVall (names you also might not have heard of), the film cannot be considered much of a success.
Although it did double its shoestring budget of 1 million dollars, the 1999 satirical romcom flopped with critics, hitting only a 43% on Rotten Tomatoes. Amongst younger audiences, this film would probably best be known for RuPaul’s performance as an out-of-drag camp counselor.
And yet, despite all its initial shortcomings, this film holds just as much relevance nearly three decades later. It was a shockingly progressive queer film for its time, unafraid to push its message. Although it would hopefully fly with more people today, it was a bold move to loudly declare in 1999: “BEING GAY ISN’T A CHOICE!”
What even is this movie?
The film stars Megan Bloomfield (Natasha Lyonne), an American highschool student. She lives the ideal suburban life, has a boyfriend she loves(?) and, as the title suggests, cheerleads! One day, her life is thrown into turmoil when her family and friends sit her down and break the news to her: Megan, you’re gay. How do they know it? She’s vegetarian and has a poster of known-queer singer/songwriter Melissa Etheridge on her wall of course! She simply must be gay.
Megan protests, claiming everyone has “those thoughts,” and is shortly shipped off to True Directions, a gay conversion camp. She is determined to prove she’s straight and to follow her Christian upbringing.
There, she bonds with fellow campers against a whimsical yet oppressive backdrop. True Direction campers are forced to go through heternormative actions and fulfill their expected gender roles. Through these activities, including but not limited to vacuuming (for the girls), football (for the boys), and awkward, simulated straight sex, she befriends the initially abrasive Graham Eaton. The film follows their misadventures and satirically-presented abuse during their time at True Directions.
Can Megan and her fellow campers find happiness despite the horrible circumstances? Will they find love? I won’t spoil any of that here, but can confidently say it’s worth a watch if you’re hooked off the premise.
Wow that’s pink!
One way this film sticks out is its aesthetic. Oversaturated would definitely be an understatement, with the amount of blinding blues and pinks plastered all over the set. True Directions is such a fantastic backdrop for this kind of story, because it immediately feels artificial, and that’s the point. The artificiality of the camp is just as fake as the idea that someone can change their sexuality just by vacuuming or throwing around a football.
Interestingly the film’s main antagonist, Mary the camp director, dresses up the camp with all this frivolous color to hide what’s happening in her own life. Although not openly gay herself, that we know of, Mary’s son is very obviously closeted. Instead of addressing what this means to her, she makes him complicit in the conversion of the other campers, including a very gross simulated sex scene.
As a final review of the aesthetic: my goodness, the camp! Babbit manages to not only make the characters gay, but the entire camp itself. For those who might not know, camp is a traditionally queer aesthetic focusing on extreme exaggeration and flamboyancy. With use of extreme colors and outfits, the movie adds an extra level of queerness, subverting the intent of the conversion camp. Camp becomes camp. Genius!
So, what’s the point?
Although often over the top, this satire matters for the broader picture. Our world loves to dress up oppression as hot-button issues. For every one “gay rights are human rights” sign in this world, there are twice as many people clamoring that LGBT+ folks, especially youth, shouldn’t even exist. Many today still firmly believe in the idea of conversion camps, and although luckily outlawed in many states, the practice is still legal not just in parts of the US but worldwide.
Any queer reader of this article obviously knows that you can’t just swap your sexuality on the fly (I mean, Lady Gaga figured that out for all of us in 2011), and yet that fact doesn’t go unopposed by large swaths of our country. It shouldn’t come as a big surprise that this movie wasn’t without controversy considering it took until 2015 for this country to legalize gay marriage federally.
For every one person that saw it as a powerful message, just as many found it to be “heterophobic.” Even still, some pro-queer people didn’t like the idea that it was a satire. Take this review from 2001. The reviewer claims that he’d prefer the actual horrors of the camp rather than a film that makes light of it.
Yes, the director, Jamie Babbit, could have chosen to present these topics as dark as they are. She could have opted for a dry gray or dull brown, with Megan and Graham crying every night because of the very-real abuse they endure. But if that were the case I wouldn’t be here recommending this film. The real world has enough suffering, we don’t always need to see an hour and a half of queer teens being tortured.
Instead, the satire aims to show how ridiculous the idea of conversion is. Even the most staunch traditionalist would have a hard time thinking that learning to vacuum could convert a lesbian.
A message of hope
Although queer media is much more prevalent today than 30 years ago, the use of satire is still very refreshing. It presents a modern day viewer with an alternative way to consume or spread the message to others. Although 2016’s Moonlight and 2019’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire are both fantastic, sometimes it’s nice to let gay people be happy for once!
So should But I’m a Cheerleader be the next movie on your Letterbox Four? Will it change the way you see gay struggles and change you into a different person? Probably not. But what you will find is an ahead-of-its-time gay movie with a lot of heart and a message of hope. And I say that’s more than enough.
But I’m a Cheerleader is available to watch now on Paramount+.
For more info about this movie and other queer films check out: Top Five Movies and TV Shows About Queer Women!
