« Identity | Main | Priscilla »

Robertson is half way there

Robertson is right to say that Priscilla, Queen of the Desert portrays various racist, sexist and essentializing tropes of authenticity. For instance, the way that the aboriginals were portrayed as stragglers of society who dwell in the desolute parts of Australia. They are filmed as quite passive subjects as they are depicted as silent, smiling dark figures against a fire. However, I do not believe that Robertson is correct in saying that these tropes were needed in order to position a more authentic gay identity. Instead, I would argue that a scene like the before mentioned depicts one marginilzed group embracing another marginilzed group (the natives cheering on the drag show). Undoubtebly, the film could have done a better job at not using stereotypes of woman, immigrants, and natives (i.e. Bob's wife was shown as a crazy, loose drunk).

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.