By Katie Lotz

As a woman who loves mini-skirts, roller skates, and girls, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that “Silk Chiffon” by Muna has been playing on a loop in my brain since it was released by Saddest Factory Records back in September. This song is ridiculously catchy and upbeat; even Phoebe Bridgers’ verse is only mildly sad! Her lyrics about being high and anxious in a CVS are followed by a cute couplet about how the girl smiling at her wants to “try [her] on.” What a dream.

One of my favorite things about this song, however, is the music video that was released shortly afterwards. In a brief three minutes and fifteen seconds, this video aptly samples the 1999 cult classic But I’m a Cheerleader, a satirical rom com that follows a high school cheerleader who is sent by her family and friends to a conversion camp in hopes of “curing her lesbianism.” Of the band’s reasoning to pay homage to But I’m a Cheerleader, lead singer Katie Gavin said, “I think it’s really important for queer people to be our own archivists, and point to these other references that span generations.”

The topic of But I’m a Cheerleader is dark, but director Jamie Babbit manages to make this story funny and heartwarming, without making light of the issues it tackles. Instead of framing the lives of Megan and Graham — the central love interests — and their peers as tragic, Babbit uses humor and a campy aesthetic to frame its social commentary, while still allowing the characters to find love, happiness, and self acceptance.

Clea DuVall in *But I’m A Cheerleader* (1999)

Camp, a theatrical aesthetic that has become a hallmark of queer cinema, plays a huge role in Babbit’s commentary on gender roles and heteronormativity. The set design is over the top and stylized; Megan’s suburban life is cluttered with tacky decor and religious symbols, and awash in muted orange and brown. The drabness of the life that Megan’s loved ones want her to conform to is overwhelmingly palpable. The True Directions facility, by contrast, is engulfed in pink and blue, with the occasional splash of green. The vibrant monochromatic rooms of the facility feel overwhelmingly artificial, emphasizing how contrived expectations of gender and sexuality are. Even the behavior of the characters are overtly satirical; Megan’s parents are horrified that she wants them to eat tofu, and The True Directions counselors instruct the kids in stereotypically gendered activities, such as fixing cars and cleaning. By turning the concept of “normal” on its head and exaggerating it, But I’m a Cheerleader makes the audience rethink the social expectations that we have been conditioned to think of as the default. In the world of this film, the concept of an inherent link between gender and sexuality, the rigidity of a gender binary, and general homophobia, look like exactly what they are: laughable.

Unsurprisingly, But I’m a Cheerleader made waves on the 1999 festival circuit; it was showcased at both the Sundance and Toronto film festivals, and even received a standing ovation at the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. However, the film still struggled to receive the theatrical release that it deserved, having to battle its way down from an NC-17 rating to an R rating, and bouncing between distribution companies before receiving an eight week theatrical release in 115 US theaters.

It feels irritatingly predictable that a queer film from the late nineties was initially given such a mature rating, and had to struggle to obtain an R rating (for context, American Pie was released the same year under an R rating, and received a 25 week release in 2,544 theaters), and yet, that isn’t even the most staggering aspect of the movie’s reception.

But I’m a Cheerleader initially received overwhelmingly negative reviews from mainstream critic platforms, not as opposition to a queer-centered story, but rather the consensus among critics was that this movie was too cutesy for the subject matter, and that it didn’t drive a strong enough message against homophobic ideology. Cynthia Fuchs, in a review for NitrateOnline.com, claimed that "no one who is phobic might recognize himself in the film" and that "the audience who might benefit most from watching it either won't see the film or won't see the point."

This review begs the question, what is “the point” in making a queer coming of age film? Does every onscreen portrayal of a queer experience have to be rooted in changing the minds of people who are hateful and homophobic? Is the “audience who might benefit most from watching it” really a confrontational audience? In contrast, But I’m a Cheerleader received largely positive reviews from smaller, queer-centered reviewing platforms. These reviews acknowledged that the movie was intentionally campy and satirical, but more importantly, queer audiences understood that the objective of this film wasn’t to persuade them. They didn’t watch this teen rom com expecting for it to prove the validity of their identity, rather, they watched it and saw a young romance unfold in the same cheesy, silly formula of countless other movies. It’s fun. It’s cute. It’s heartwarming. Sure, the vibrant color palette of this film serves to highlight the artifice of gender norms, but they’re also just fun to look at.

In a similar fashion, “Silk Chiffon” certainly isn’t a song that is breaking any creative standards; it is poppy and catchy and a little repetitive. But Muna and Brigders don’t pretend that the point of this song is to shatter our views of music as we know it, just as Babbit never claimed that But I’m a Cheerleader was intended to solve global homophobia. These works are fun.

As a large portion of queer history has been marked by fear and violence, that is largely the side of the story that people are encouraged to focus on. While the oppression and devastation that has engulfed the queer community certainly can’t go unacknowledged, is a film that centers gay characters truly a failure if it is not tragic? The idea of cheering about being queer, as Megan does at the end of the film, or that life’s so fun when you’re queer, as Muna and Bridgers assure us on “Silk Chiffon,” are radical expressions of joy. ◆

Life’s So Fun: Queer Joy and 'But I'm A Cheerleader'

By Katie Lotz