But I'm A Cheerleader Ideological Film Review

2 Pages 621 Words

Ideologies are beliefs that a society holds both knowingly and unknowingly. The film But I’m A Cheerleader portrays the way Christian’s and society look at gay and lesbian activity. In many different areas of today’s society there are stereotypes of gay and lesbian people. The director and storywriter of this movie, a lesbian woman, has decided to portray all of these stereotypes by incorporating them into the plot of the movie. By making the stereotypes into a full length running comedy, light can be shed on the ridiculous nature of the different stereotypes.
The main character, Megan, is portrayed as a young girl by having a boyfriend, being on the cheerleading team, and being exhaustingly sweet and nice. The way that her character is introduced stereotypes the typical female heterosexual of that age group. In one scene Megan is kissing her boyfriend in his car, but at the same time she is having visions of her cheerleading teammate sin sexually suggestive ways. The cuts from the images of her teammates to a third person view of the kissing to show her displeasure with the event that is taking place. Also Megan is shown to have pictures of girls in her locker and Melissa Etheridge poster on her wall. These subtle events give the impression that she is a lesbian based on the stereotypes that society provides. With these different stereotypes set forth in the movie this sets the stage for her family and friends to confront her about her lesbian tendencies. Their way to solve her “problem” is to send her away to corrections camp for homosexuals.
The camp that she is sent to is called True Directions. The name of the camp implies that the program provided by the director will point the attendees in the right direction, the path leading to heterosexuality, with the main slogan being “straight is great.” While attending the camp many stereotypes abound. The participants are required to wear pink for girls and blue for...