But I'm A Cheerleader (Jamie Babbit, 1999)

Introduction
Today's focus will be discussing on Queer Cinema. It has been in existence for decades but there was no name given to it; hence, it was identified with avant-garde cinema. However, in 1991, Queer Cinema was introduced at Toronto Film Festival. It is a concept that re-examined the image of homosexuality. Queer Cinema films have been re-evaluating the subjectivity, on male gazes and etc.
According to Jung (2018), New Queer Cinema was tied to the AIDs crisis. It is film making which made by and for people who were marginalized (para.1). Also, according to Susan Hayward, Queer Theory is one of the first postmodern theories which emphasize all "non-straight" approaches to our daily lives. This theory reminds people of looking at things with more than one way; thus, sexuality could also be viewed in multiplicity and unfixed. To sum up, this theory's core discussion is based on the dominance and marginalized group in a culture.

Theory Discussion
Same as the other film theory, Queer Theory itself possesses some of the approaches. There are basically four ways used to carry out queer reading of texts. The first method is to conduct through audience reception. This method assess the popular text across the non-straight audience, such as homosexual characters in film. In short, it is homosexual film target on non-straight audience. The second method would be texts that target on straight audience but surprisingly gotten appreciation from the non-straight audiences. Furthermore, the third approach would be the straight-identifying film producers who are concerning with non-normative straightness films. Lastly, the fourth approach is a complicated kind which utters spaces outside gender binaries and sexuality categories. The film But I'm A Cheerleader (1999) is fall under the first approach. Follow by, a few marginal characters' representations will be analyzed.

Synopsis
Megan is a high school senior who takes part in cheerleading and dates a football player, Jared. She does not enjoy kissing him. Her friends and family are suspecting she might be a lesbian, due to her change in dietary and affection towards LGBTQ icon, Melissa Etheridge. She is then sent to True Directions to "cure" her homosexuality. She has to go through five processes in order to graduate her program (Wikipedia, n.d., para.5-7). During her days in the therapy camp, she met Graham, a homo who is comfortable to be non-straight but is afraid of her parents. Both of them develop their relationship from strangers, to acquaintances, and finally lovers. When both of them are busted, Megan is expelled but Graham stays. Lastly, Graham elopes with Megan at her graduation day.

Analysis
There are a few representation that will be discussed in this analysis which include Megan, Graham, Rock, Jan. They are being marginalized in many ways throughout the film, which reflects the reality.


Firstly, Megan is a type of non-straight representation which initially does not realize her own sexual orientation as being non-straight. She upholds strong Christianity principle and therefore, when she is asked whether to have sexual desire on her boyfriend, Jared, she rejects it by claiming how religious she is. Also, her sudden change of dietary to vegetarianism is seemed to be another stereotype of being marginalized by the dominance. When a cocksucker packet is discovered under Graham's bed, everyone's parents are contacted including Megan's. During the conversation, her parents mention that if she is involved in such deviant activity she would not be able to return to home as this is so called "unhealthy lifestyle" from the non-marginalized's viewpoint. Megan turns from being unconscious of her homosexuality to be very firm with it as well as ignore how the others think.


The second representation of marginalized character is Graham. She is the kind of homosexual which is comfortable at being who she is. For Graham, the homosexuality therapy is of no use. Her stance is very clear: being a homosexual you can either fake to become a straight, or to continue living as a homo but to bear with the retribution. However, Graham is afraid of being kicked out of the home and hence, she has to fake it to the end. When the cocksucker packet suspect is on her, she fake it to say she is in love with Joel. Besides, when she is busted having affair with Megan, she even abandons Megan and to pair up with Rock in the simulation sexual intercourse. Being a homosexual, the principle she upholds is "the only trick is not to get caught".

The third representation will be Rock. Rock is Mrs Brown's son which is supposedly to be masculine. However, despite of his manly looking, he is feminine internally. This can be observed through two scenes. The first scene would be when he drinks, he sips through the straw instead of chucking the whole glass of drink. The second scene is when Mrs Brown requests Megan to pair up with Rock in the simulation so that she could be excused from being expelled. When Megan replys "I don't think it will work", the scene cuts to Rock dancing like a sissy when he is mowing. For Rock's case, he is forced to be what the society defines as "norm", but he himself does not actually desire to obey to the normative rules.

For the last representation would be Jan. Jan is a softball player who is almost bald and having moustache. Though she has a male's appearance, but she herself confesses that she is straight. She cries when she say that everyone judges her as a lesbian just because she wears baggy pants and play sports. Besides, she does not have a pretty look just like other girls do. Moreover, she even reveals that she desires to have sex with men. Though she has confessed but Mike, the ex-gay does not believe in her, as he is also stereotypical based on her look. She is the representation which reflects how judgemental the dominating people are when it comes to an individual's appearance.

Despite homosexuality is receiving wider acceptance in recent years; however, in Malaysia's context, it is still a taboo. Since Malaysia is an Islamic country, anything that is related to homosexual is unlawful. These marginalized people are not treated as equal as the heterosexuals in terms of getting married, involving in sexual intercourse and having a family. According to Beh (2018), there are two lesbian Malaysian who attempted to have sex be fined and caned for their unlawful act (para.1). Therefore, be it revealing or hiding as a homosexual, four of the representations in But I'm A Cheerleader (1999) are considered "not moral" in our context.

Conclusion
This film has done a very good job in constructing different representations of marginalized individuals. The concept of having "True Directions" therapeutic camp is a brilliant way of criticizing how the dominating group views the ease of altering an individual's sexual orientation. Though many of them have graduated, but how true would it be to turn one to become a straight from non-straight? The film ends with Megan's parents sharing their homosexual daughter shows how the dominance group starts to accept the marginalized group's value, and to respect their existence.

Reference
Beh, L.Y. (2018). Malaysian women to be caned for 'attempting lesbian sex'. Retrieved from
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malaysia-lgbt-court/malaysian-women-to-be-caned-for-attempting-lesbian-sex-idUSKBN1KZ1JF

Jung, E. A. (2018). A Beginner's Guide to New Queer Cinema. Retrieved from
http://www.vulture.com/article/new-queer-cinema-movies.html

Wikipedia. (n.d.). But I'm A Cheerleader. Retrieved from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/But_I%27m_a_Cheerleader