Not Your Typical RomCom (But I'm a Cheerleader)

Unlike what we’re used to seeing in a romcom, But I’m a Cheerleader is vastly different, because, well, it’s about a homosexual pair and gender identity.  I was surprised to see that this film was released in 1999, but my social expectations for the decade I was born in remain grim from those young years I can’t recall as clearly. But I’m a Cheerleader is a satirical gem of a movie that is refreshingly clear on it’s overarching message, “Don’t be what society wants you to be, only you can be yourself.”

Megan is a high-school cheerleader leading a seemingly normal life. She has a 2-year relationship with a jock boyfriend, a loving and religious mom and dad, and friends that hang out with her- until she arrives home to a “sexual intervention” that reveals she is probably a lesbian and needs help to “find her true path in life as God intended”. Her parents pay for her to be enrolled in a 2-month rehab that will make her into a heterosexual. Everything might’ve gone smoothly—had she not met and fallen for the charmingly devious Graham. Throughout her time at True Intentions, Megan comes to terms with her homosexuality after finding love with Graham. After they have sex, Megan is kicked from the program but Graham stays to please her dad and step-mom. Megan, after having freed herself from the constraints of social construct, rushes in during the “graduation” and has a pleasing happily ever after with Graham as they elope in the back of a pick-up truck driven by their fellow gay runaways, Clayton and Dolph.

Gender roles are extensively explored throughout the movie. Megan is suspected to be homosexual because she is a vegetarian, has pictures of swim-suit women in her locker, has a poster of a woman singer, and lots of, as Mike the interventionalist says, vagina motifs on her furnishings and possessions. The vegetarian bit had me slapping my leg in laughter, because one of the earliest scenes is Megan at the dinner table with her parents and they’re eating meat but her and her dad says, “That’s some beef,” while the camera closes in on Megan starting to chow down into her meatless plate. Beef is a slang word that people use to refer to a penis, so I thought the imagery and the metaphor was brilliant. When Megan kisses her boyfriend it’s disgusting, he himself doesn’t know how to kiss, but she zones out and thinks of the other cheerleaders’ breasts and butts as they kiss to get her through it.

There is a 5-step program for the rehab, much like the 12-step process in alcoholic anonymous. They are 1. Admitting they are homosexual 2: Rediscovering their gender identity 2. Finding the root of their homosexuality 3. Demystifying the other sex and 5. Simulating heterosexual intercourse

The boys and girls are split into groups to rediscover their gender identity. The girls do traditionally feminine tasks such as cleaning and taking care of babies. The cleaning scenes are very sexualized, and funny to watch, as they move the vacuums up and down, back and forth, and scrub the floors which is likened to the boys having to learn traditional masculine roles like chopping wood and fixing cars, in which Mary’s (the woman who runs the program) obviously gay son Rock comes out and tempts the boys and the “ex-gay” counselor Mike with an axe and later on, a chainsaw.

The entire color scheme of the movie is genius, with different shades of pink and blue to represent the two gender roles of females and males. All the males are made to dress in blue, while all the females dress in pink and must wear skirts/ dresses—no pants for the ladies! The entire property of True Intentions is pink and blue, both inwardly and outwardly, which is what Mary wants to be the same for the bodies and minds of her students. The sexual motifs throughout the movie are funny in themselves, like the tree that is essentially a giant cock cutout in the woods , to the “shock” wand the students were given to use when they have inappropriate thoughts being used as a vibrator, to the nude costume they wear in the sexual simulation with fig leaves covering their privates, but the one over the girls vaginas has a flower. There are way too many to list, but I am cracking up thinking about them!

I love how this movie wasn’t the classic rom com of girl meets boy, falls in love, something breaks them apart, then they get back together. The main theme music added so much to the humor with its gentle tinkle like a lullaby, as if being a reminder that we’re all human, we’re all born human, but each and every one of us is our own unique person. Following other romcoms, the main character, Megan, was not in love with Graham from the moment their eyes met. They both didn’t get along at first, which gradually turned into a mutual attraction and their coming out with their feelings when they sneak out (with Megan finally breaking her role-model, good-girl image) to the gay club, Cocksucker. The sex scene was sweet and did follow the standard formula for a romcom with the dim lighting, cutting of moments, and not showing the characters’ entire bodies. The language was PG-13, no heavy swear words, not even a bitch, but the delightful humor was outstanding without all that baggage. I am so incredibly glad I watched this movie, as it speaks so much about our society today and the problems we are still facing with LGBTQ rights and being more accepting of who people are rather than what they are. Although there has been immense progression like with the Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage, society in itself still has a long way to go until the LGBTQ community is fully accepted and seen as more of the norm than an outlier. If you are a looking for a sweet, insanely hilarious romantic comedy to devour in an hour and 25 minutes that isn’t like what you’re used to, I highly suggest preparing your face muscles for lots of laughs and smiles if you decide on But I’m a Cheerleader.