Is the "outback" for everyone?
I agree with Robertson's arguement that certain tropes are established in order to solidify the liberatory aspects seen in Priscilla; however the racist and sexist tropes employed in the film led me to feel that the road was not a safe place for homosexuals and that in the end Mitzi and Felicia felt more comfortable at home in the big city, Sydney and therefore were not very liberated on the road. For example, when their bus broke down and they were in the middle of nowhere, Bernadette went searching for help and when she returned in the jeep, the couple in the car was immediately turned off when they saw Mitzi in her stage outfit and the newly painted pink bus. The fact that they painted their bus in the first place was a reason of their unwelcoming in the "outback" of Australia because of the obscenities. I also believe it was quite telling that besides the resort, the only place where Mitzi, Felicia and Bernadette felt welcomed was with the aboriginals - a group of "atypical" people to the mainstream much like the main characters and their nonconformist lifestyles as homosexuals. Although I enjoyed the film overall, I did not think it was liberating as a road film in that the main characters weren't comfortable and seemed unwelcomed/not accepted in the unfamiliar "away from home" road they traveled.