It find it curious and somehow politically correct that a movie that celebrates homosexuality and draws audience sympathy towards the three drag queens, doesn't hesitate to have a racist/sexist portrayal of Cynthia, the Filipino character. Is there some sort of pecking order here?
At the time that the movie was made, the majority of Filippina women in Australia had come in as "mail order brides".
This was a risky business on both sides. Women, wanting a better lifestyle, came to Australia to marry men who they had never met and who were almost always much older than themselves, and who in many cases had not married Australian women for a very good reason: they were a bad marriage prospect. Sometimes they were blokes from remote communities where there were simply not enough women to go round. But others were men who boozed, who couldn't hold a job down, who had antisocial personalities, or who were so unsure of themselves that they had no other way of finding a relationship. Many Filippinas came to Australia and married men who made virtual house slaves of them.
Correspondingly, some men found themselves with "mail order brides" whose main previous employment had been entertaining the US marines and who were in no hurry to give up that lifestyle.
In this instance we see a two-way problem. The Filippina tart has married the older man in the remote location, who couldn't possibly keep her happy. If he had been thirty, with a large prick, and a well-paid job in Sydney, she would have settled down, had three or four kids and worked at the school tuckshop on Wednesdays.
"great minds think differently"
Actually, it's more like this. Many Asian, not just Filipino, women used, and still use, marriage to an Australian man, regardless of who he is and where he lives, as a back door to permanent residency. Once they marry they are then legally entitled to citizenship which enables them to stay in the country.
shareYes, I wrote "wanting a better lifestyle". That is generally what it is about.
However, I must say that I have seen some real success stories of Filippina women who have contented themselves with some older and perhaps not very attractive man, who has then flourished in the caring relationship and turned into a decent husband.
"great minds think differently"
The idea is that Bob made a mistake marrying her. The same mistake could have been made if he married an Australian woman. Do you want films to be all sugar and spice or can reality creep in sometimes? Nobody in the film is a saint.
shareAren't you trying to create too much of a generalization from only one character?
Is there some minimum of positive images required to "counteract" showing one person in a negative light?
a) When was it made clear that Cynthia was Philippine?
b) Where were all the other "mail-order-brides" that were shown so negatively?
c) Where were all the other Philippine people that were shown so negatively?
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I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved.
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Not arguing with the OP's premise, but as to A.) The marriage contract Cynthia shows in the flashback shows her nationality as Filipino. On top of that, the part was played by an actress of Filipina descent, the character had a Spanish last name, implying she was from the Philippines, and (although I know it doesn't necessarily apply to the movie) she was explicitly labeled as being from the Philippines in the stage musical.
shareAnother giveaway is there if the captions are turned on. When Cynthia yells at Bob, the captions describe it:[Scolds in Tagalog].
shareI argue in another Thread i also find it anti- hetrosexual.
As a film student, it always came across to me like some kind of underground Warhol or John Waters type Gay film project that accidently hit the mainstream.
I would still argue that it's your definition of "heterosexual" that's flawed, as the film has plenty of positive hetero characters (and you can see my full response in the other thread).
I also fail to see any stylistic comparison to the defining films of Warhol or John Waters. This is clearly a film meant for a wide audience, given the casting choices, the soundtrack choices, the cinematography, and the lack of sexual/sensual interaction between any of the characters. Perhaps the filmmakers thought a wide audience would have been uneasy seeing gay or transgender characters kiss back in 1994.
wow. I always assumed she was from Thailand
shareI really have never understood the sexism allegations surrounding this movie. Strippers/burlesque dancers exist. Just having one in a movie does not imply anything about women as a whole.
I admit it does bug me when women are used for blatant fanservice, and often contribute nothing else to a movie, but the way Cynthia's character is used is much more clever than that. When they are asked to perform in the backwater town, Tick and co. are nervous that they will be harassed because their act will be shocking to the residents. It builds up to a tense moment with us wondering if something awful is going to happen-- and then Cynthia appears, steals the show COMPLETELY and everyone forgets about the drag queens in the space of a second. After all that worry. And there's a sort of irony in how positively the audience responded to her *very* overt but very straight sexual display, considering they probably thought drag was inappropriate and offensive.
You'll notice I didn't say anything about racism, and that's because I just don't know if her character should be offensive or not. I wasn't aware of any stereotypes of Filipino women when I watched the movie, and I'm not Asian myself so I can't offer a firsthand point of view. I just don't think the movie is *sexist*, or to address someone else's comment, anti-hetero (where did you even get that last idea?).
Dear Safenoe, this movie does not celebrate homosexuality. It is a road movie about drag queens expressing themselves fully. This does not mean this movie is politically correct, or that it should be. Why politicize this movie, why should bother what it says about homosexuality. Just watch it and you will see a movie with real people in it, in contrary to mainstream hollywood movies....
shareYeah I had trouble with this part of the movie too. I get that it's just a a comedy, so exaggerations are to be expected - and it paints other groups in a negative light (country Aussies). But the whole thing with her character left a bad taste in my mouth as soon as she appeared.
It's interesting that, as another person said here, it may be depicting something of a real problem people were facing at the time - but ... I felt like it was the most offensive Asian character since Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's. It's the obsession with ping pong thing, the fact they made her as dumb as a post, the ridiculous exaggerated bad English ("me like!"), the way her husband treats her, and well - everything.
Then again maybe I took it too seriously. My wife (also Asian - Chinese) didn't have a problem with it after all :p