Ask the Flying Monkey: Why Is “Steel Magnolias” Fabulous? (Or IS It?)

This week: Does Glee trade in gay clichés? Whatever happened to SNL’s Terry Sweeney? How pro-gay is author Nora Roberts?

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Q: I think Steel Magnolias is so fun to watch. Not just Steel Magnolias. All About Eve, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, and The Women all have a special appeal. I started watching them while I tended bar. I would pluck one into the VCR behind the bar, and the (mostly gay male) customers would love it. I know way too many of the one-liners and great quotes from these movies. Why do so many gay men like these movies? Do we see ourselves as those women? Maybe they were written by gay men, with gay men in mind? Are these gay characters that are replaced with female casting? -- CCWayne

The Steel Magnolias (L to R): Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis,
Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Daryl Hannah, Dolly Parton

A: Before I can answer this question, I have to fess up: I adore every single one of the actresses in Steel Magnolias (except Daryl Hannah, who I am indifferent about; I used to hate Julia Roberts too, but ever since My Best Friend’s Wedding, I’ve slowly been coming around, and she finally won me over completely with the one-two punch of Erin Brockovich and her decision to leave superstardom in order to raise a family).

But I put Steel Magnolias in a different category from those other movies. With its overly sentimental, underlined plot and hack director (Herbert Ross), I think Steel Magnolias, like Mommie Dearest, Roller Boogie, Xanadu, Grease, The Valley of the Dolls, and Showgirls, mostly only really works in a so-bad-it’s-good kind of way (“Shelby, drink your juice!”).

The other films you mentioned – along with Pillow Talk, Moulin Rouge, Girls Will Be Girls, Little Shop of Horrors, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the films of Douglas Sirk, and others – seem much smarter to me, more aware of their camp value, much more conscious of the fact that they’re making wry social commentary. The irony comes built-in; it doesn’t need to be projected on later.

L to R: Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer and Rosalind Russell in The Women

But why are gay and bi men drawn to these movies and to camp in general?

First, let me be very, very clear: not all of us are. My partner doesn’t appreciate or understand camp at all. And for the record, HE’S THE EDITOR OF THIS GAY POP CULTURE WEBSITE!

But I think even he would grant that a lot of gay and bi men do appreciate camp, which I’m defining as an appreciation for consciously or unconsciously exaggerated stories or characters and the ironic statements they are perceived to be making about some aspect of society.

Much smarter writers than I have been befuddled by the association of gay men and camp, but I personally think it has to do with some combination of these factors:

(1) Appreciating camp requires a critical, outsider-y look at your own society, and gay men know what it’s like to be outsiders. We see the creaky seams of our society more clearly than straight people because we’re on the outside looking in, and because, unlike straight people, we have, or had, little vested interest in the status quo.

(2) There didn’t used to be gay characters in movies or on television, so gay culture developed an appreciation for camp as a way to be entertained, to bond together in a coded, hidden away, and to mock and criticize the society that was rejecting us (see #1).

(3) Women have traditionally suffered a prejudice very similar to that of gay and bi men, so in solidarity, we are drawn to powerful female characters and icons, especially ones who are unconventional or subversive, and seem to have succeeded on their own terms or by breaking the rules.

(4) Appreciating camp means being smart, witty, verbal, and creative, and I think gay men are more likely to be all these things than straight people. (Yes, I said it, and I stand by it. But no, I’m not saying that people who don’t appreciate camp can’t be all those things too.)

For the record, many of these movies were written or directed by gay men, but I don’t put much stock in the “these-are-really-surrogate-gay-men” theory. I love most of these movies with a passion, but I don’t see myself in any of these characters.

Okay, I’ll cop to wanting to wanting to kiss Xanadu’s Michael Beck circa 1979, but that’s as far as I’ll go.

The disco hunky Michael Beck

Next Page! Is Glee a gay cliché?