When we watched it in class, it was my second time to see "But I'm a Cheerleader". The first time I watched the movie I was in middle school. A friend and I had gone to the video store to rent some sleepover movies and "But I'm a Cheerleader" looked like a typical teen-age movie on par with other films that would feature a cheerleader. Little did we know that is was about going to straight camp and featured some up close and personal girl on girl love scenes. Admittedly my friend and I were uncomfortable watching some of the really “gay” things going on in the film; it is a bit above thirteen year old heads. I am pretty sure we turned it off about mid-way through the love scene between Megan and Graham. However, I was thinking about this initial viewing experience when we were discussing what we liked and disliked about the film in class. I feel that despite not getting a lot of the suggestions the film was trying to make, as a thirteen year old I still took away that the concept of straight camp was absolutely ridiculous. Even as a younger person, the intensely strict gender roles the campers are trying to be reassigned to are apparent. I feel that watching this film, even at such a young age, reinforced my upbringing and the openness that my parents instilled in me that it is ok for people to be gay. I have openly gay family members, when to a middle school and high school where being gay was not going to get you beat up, and figured out that my favorite thing to do on a Friday night in Oklahoma City was go to the drag show with my best friend and her gay god father. All of this brings me to the point we were getting at in class, which is why does Rhodes not have a visible gay population?
I came from a magnet high school for arts and academics, so it is not a surprise that a person felt comfortable being openly gay if that was who they were. However, when I got to Rhodes I realized that there really weren’t very many openly gay people. I had one good friend my freshman year who was gay and he transferred in part because he felt he lacked a gay community at Rhodes. So my one friend who is gay leaves because he doesn’t feel that Rhodes is a gay friendly college campus. Why doesn’t our school have a “gay community”? In class we discussed thing like geographical region, the Greek system, and other possible reasons why gayness isn’t really allowed at Rhodes. One of the things that I was thinking about I didn’t want to say in class because it could be taken as pretty controversial, but I wanted to put it out there and see if anyone else feels the same way, or disagrees whole heartedly. Having been at Rhodes for four years, I have decided that there is a status associated with being a Rhodes student. There seems to be this mold that we need to fit into and being a homosexual is not a part of it. Because I am not Greek, I do not know how much the Greek system contributes to this, but I feel as if there is a somewhat restricted definition of what Rhodes students should be like. Rather than an explicit thing we can point to, what I am talking about is more of a collective, unspoken sentiment that pervades the student body. There is this status to be obtained, and that status is not conducive to an active gay population. Please comment if you think I am full of it or totally wrong.
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ReplyDeleteLeah, I completely agree with you. There is a certain type of "student" model that Rhodes students have to fit in. Being raised in Memphis, the community around Rhodes sees the Rhodes students to fit in a very specific stereotype that does not involve being homosexual. I agree that there is pressure on our students here to try and fit that "status associated with a Rhodes student", as you said. Also with the size of the campus, it is apparent when someone is different from the status quo for what " Rhodes Students" should be like. If Rhodes students did not have that pressure then maybe more gay students would express that they were gay openly.
ReplyDeleteHaving been at Rhodes for a little bit longer than the average senior, I would say that the atmosphere of accepting gay/lesbian/bisexual members into the Rhodes Community does seem to be growing a little. I remember coming here in 2004, and just noticing how very intensely people felt about not being considered homosexual, at least among the guys. I can remember a friend sitting at his comp in my room, and as another friend came over to talk to him, his mid section happened to be slightly close to the guys' head. The guy immediately started freaking out, almost threatening violence unless he moved. I personally haven't seen things like that happen in the past couple of years, but I'm sure these hings still happen. There are some people who have come "out of the closet" here, but many still feel that because of the circles they are in or because of what others think they are, coming out would not only damage their social lives and any goals they might have but also might actually physically endanger them. I think Rhodes, especially with the safe zones, has been trying to combat this some, but more work needs to be done. I wonder though if the shifting and creating of a open community just requires more and more openly non-heterosexual members to join the campus.
ReplyDeleteI think that the atmosphere is not necessarily hostile, but certainly uncomfortable for GLBT individuals on campus. GLBT individuals are certainly "Othered" on campus by the mere atmosphere of Rhodes. Upper class, white, heterosexual individuals are most prevalent on campus. Anything that deviates from this plastic model, especially sexuality, is bound to feel the tensions of this "Othering."
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