Priscilla Instructions
The road can be conceived as taking us away from home and into the wide open spaces of possibility and often returning us home. Robertson argues in Home and Away that the potentially libratory aspects of the road for masculinities in Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert relies on various racist, sexist
and essentializing tropes of authenticity to position a more authentic, because less fixed, gay identity. In its portrayal of a porous and mobile gay identity, Priscilla relies on contrasting and essentialized stereotypes of woman, immigrant, and native (and outback masculinity)* ---straw men, as it were, set up to frighten away those who venture away from home and into the Australian landscape. Do you agree or disagree? Give examples from the film to support your point of view. Do not repeat what students have already entered in prior blog responses. (*added by Prof Z)