Queens of the Desert
I both disagree and agree with Robertson, in that the film uses both stereotypes to frighten away those who undertake the desert and that it also encourages freedom. For example, after the scene where Mitzi takes some drugs and decides to go have a drink with the men in the desert and ends up almost getting hurt, Bernadette reflects on how the city protects them, because it is more accepting and sheltered than the desert. Here the desert is unwelcoming, harsh, and provides the characters with a reason to feel unaccepted and unwanted. The desert encourages mobility of the men by inforcing stereotypes of people being homophobic outside of the city, and accepting within it.
The desert encourages freedom because of its space. The desert is wide, open, and for the most part uninhabited. You can do anything you want, and almost no one would ever know. Priscilla makes use of this in its many scenes of the men dressed up in full drag and doing things such as painting the bus, riding on top singing opera, or practicing their dances. They only come upon people when they need help or reach a town, which allows the characters to feel free and comfortable with themselves and who they are while in the desert. Also, the people of the desert are not entirely unwelcoming. There are two instances of this: the group of aboriginees hat they meet when the bus breaks down for the first time and they end up performing for them, and Bob, the man with the mail order wife who they enlist to help them the second time the bus breaks down. These people are accepting and welcoming of the men as drag queens, and Bob even begins a relatioship with Bernadette, breaking down the stereotype of people in the desert being unaccepting of differences.