But I'm a Cheerleader is a
1999 satirical romantic comedy film directed by
Jamie Babbit and written by
Brian Wayne Peterson.
Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, an apparently happy
heterosexual high school
cheerleader. However, her friends and family are convinced that she is a
homosexual and arrange an
intervention, sending her to a residential
inpatient reparative therapy camp to cure her
lesbianism. At camp, Megan soon realizes that she is indeed a lesbian and, despite the therapy, gradually comes to embrace this fact. The supporting cast features
Clea DuVall,
Cathy Moriarty,
RuPaul,
Mink Stole and
Bud Cort.
But I'm a Cheerleader was Babbit's first feature film. It was inspired by an article about conversion therapy and her childhood familiarity with rehabilitation programs. She used the story of a young woman finding her sexual identity to explore the
social construction of
gender roles and
heteronormativity. The costume and set design of the film highlighted these themes using artificial textures in intense blues and pinks.