The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert was actually a pretty interesting movie to me. I thought it was interesting to see how Stephan Elliot used the story for the portrayal of masculine and feminine roles within these three characters, Tick, Adam, and Bernadette. The character that stood out the most to me was Adam. He was constantly doing things purposely to incite people to rage. He went too far however with the gang of townsmen. Bernadette had told Adam to stay home because they were in a new town and were trying, for the most part to stay low. Adam decided instead to go out instead and cause of group of townsmen to almost kill him, and would have castrated him, if it wasn't for Bob who stepped in and got them off him, but it was Bernadette who actually fought them in order for the rest to back off. I agree with the reading that this scene was indicative of her using her feminine personality and the strength she's obtained from the years of being ridiculed by a heteronormative society.
Adam tries to be antagonizing again with Bernadette when he purposely dead named her and called her "Ralph." Something like that is really hurtful for trans people, especially when they've committed their life to trying to prove that they're not who everyone else sees. Her male body has nothing to do with her female body now. Tick warned Adam about using the name and told him specifically that it would set her off, but he didn't care. He waited until they were blind drunk to use it as an excuse even though Tick already warned him. Bernadette also didn't care and beat the crap out of him. I thought it was interesting how after, when Tick and Adam were talking about why Adam is the way he is, he told the story about his uncle. I think the stereotyped relationship between kids who are sexually abused and those who turn out to be are gay or queer is used too much in media. It enforces the idea that because of that incredibly wrong traumatic experience, there's something wrong with them. Elliot reversed this instead and had Adam's actions sort of say "this is me because this is me, not because of something that's happened to me." Adam struggles with who he is. His self hatred forces him to do things that cause everyone around him to hate him too.
In the end, Adam seems to have changed after the altercation with the homophobic townsmen. But as soon as he's able to speak again, from a dislocated jaw, he uses this opportunity to try to destroy Tick's sons world. If the son didn't have the type of upbringing he did, then finding out about his father that way could've been detrimental to him, and Adam knew that. It was the child's acceptance of his father so easily that really changed him. It showed Adam that people can accept you, if you're true to yourself because you love yourself, not because you're trying to make others love you.
Hi! Great job on this blog post. Certain parts of the movie were confusing to me, especially with some of the main characters. Your post definitely explained Tick's life and his experience in the movie very thoroughly. You really investigated and highlighted his moments that showed how he was affected by the idea of queerness. This character is a perfect example of queer cinema.
ReplyDeleteHi, I really enjoyed reading your post. Adam was a really interesting character. It was as if it was hard to feel bad for him. It's pretty obvious that the reason that he is the way he is because he's simply insecure about himself. No one would project so much hatred onto other people without having an insane amount of insecurity. But also like I said, even though we know this and we learn a little bit about his past it's still hard to feel bad. You can only blame your own issues on so many things when it ends up hurting other people in the process, it can't always be forgiven.
ReplyDeleteI also think Adam was a pretty interesting character even though his character development was a little different than Tick's and Bernadette's. He seemed already comfortable with his sexuality for the entire movie and it was interesting to see how he went through the arc of just not being antagonistic anymore. I think learning that there are people that are there for him and that will accept him like the incident with the townsmen and Tick's son were nicely developed ways for him to learn this. He didn't have to push people away anymore and he could actually make friends with people.
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