"But I'm A Cheerleader" supporter of homosexuality, or steretypes?

In the film "But I'm A Cheerleader" by Jamie Babbit was about the lives of a group of individuals and there struggles to find out what there gender orientation is while having outside forces pulling them in two directions, from the homosexual couple and the parents and camp instructors. This movie was made in 1999 and by the looks of the scene and the people you would have thought it was made sometime in the 50's. To include to that point was something said by Ruth Gregory that i thought was very true "they did this because back then it was thought that men were men back then and woman were woman." This is the era where society was perceived to be perfect and the norm of what the majority views. The concepts that apply to this film is the way they see sexual orientation, heterosexism, and homophobia.

In the film sexual orientation was a big subject in its plot. The story was about a young teenage girl who was thought to be a lesbian by her peers so in order to try to fix what society thought was wrong with her she was sent to a camp called True Direction, which main purpose was to turn homosexual people into straight people in order for what they called to be "normal". The colors that they used in the film were very strong blues and pinks which i believed was used to ingrain in there mind wish gender they belonged to and which one they should act like. This wasn't a good method because i felt like it was too over the top and suffocated the patients in what they thought was the right sexual orientation.

Another way they tryed to make the patients straight were to do stereotypical hobbies that were thought to be the norm in woman and men. This activity's for men were jobs like working on a car, playing football, shooting guns, and chopping wood. For woman they were forced to change babies, vacuum, do there makeup, and try on wedding dresses. As you could tell from the film these tactics weren't something that changed a person they were just ways that made the person be able to discise who they really were inside. I felt that even the camp owner realized that her program wouldn't work either, because she could see it in her son who acted gay. For example when her son was drinking out of a twirling straw and she said "what are you doing take that straw out and chug it like a man. This shows a stereotype that only real men chug there drinks because if not you could be viewed as a homosexual.

The term heterosexism was very prevalent in the film this was established by the parents of the kids and the peers around them. This was viewed because through out the film there wasn't one parent or friend that was supportive of there kid being homosexual. This shows that heterosexuality is viewed as the norm and everything else is the "other" and aren't recognized as humans that don't deserve any rights in America. This is because everyone else who didn't approve of the children's actions were using names like "faggot, gay, freaks, and fruitcakes" These are words used to dehumanize this group of people, in order to have others believe that these groups aren't deserving of to be treated like the norm. Also something that relates with this is homophobia this was shown by the dad of the character of Graham who was so discussed in being there that he couldn't stand being there the whole time because of what he liked to call all the "faggots" in the group meeting. i feel that this was because he was homophobic and didn't even like the fact of being around people who were homosexual and didn't mind expressing his feelings.

So in the end i feel like this movie was in the end a supporter of homosexuality because they finally found out that it was ok to be gay, and had no regarded for what other people thought about there homosexual relationships. This wasn't evident to me to the last scene because during the film it felt like the writers were almost trying to make fun of homosexuality, by the characters and how they made them out to act like. In the end they felt the impact of the moral wrongs that were being placed upon them and rose up against all odds and overcame the norm to be who they were designed to be.