Last Quarter's Blog

Here's a link to the ENGL 110.01: Monsters in Contemporary Culture class blog from the autumn 2010 quarter. You can look over the posts here to get ideas of how you might go about writing your blog entries.

Queering Halloween

"Halloween just happens to be the only day that makes the other 364 bearable. This and the Tony Awards."

-Jack, Will and Grace

Artifact for Discussion (YouTube link): "Anything Can Happen on Halloween"

The above link connects to a brief clip from The Worst Witch, a 1986 made-for-tv movie based on a children's book series of the same name. Though the movie is aimed at the 3-9 year old demographic, as an adult it is impossible to ignore the overtly queer implications of nearly every element of this scene (follow the link in this sentence if you're not sure how/why I'm using the word "queer"). The term "queer" seems appropriate here (rather than "gay," for example) because this performance alludes to a variety of forms of non-heterosexual culture, including (but not limited to) drag performances, gender transgression, and homoeroticism. In this post, I want to draw out three of the elements of this scene that create its meaning as a queer text, and use these features as a starting place to think more broadly about how queerness emerges in children's media in general and in the genre of Halloween films specifically.

1.) Subtext: First of all, this clip is full of subtext that, to a viewer "in the know" with regard to LGBTQ subculture, signals its queerness. Not only is Tim Curry's performance evocative of a drag number (e.g. Harvey Fierstein's Torch Trilogy or Hedwig and the Angry Inch) but also--it's Tim Curry. When The Worst Witch premiered, Curry had recently become famous from his performance as Dr. Frank-n-Furter, the "sweet transvestite from Transexual Transylvania," in Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). So, basically, this is a scene in which a well known gay icon swirls his oversized pink cape around like a ballgown as he announces "It's great to be here ... on this fabulous night." Fabulous, indeed. Fabulous and queer.

2.) Theme of Transformation: Secondly, the lyrics and video of "Anything Can Happen on Halloween" are all about transformation. Halloween is a day for transformation--dressing up in costumes and pretending to be someone else--but this takes on special resonance for certain viewers: for example, a transgender boy or closeted lesbian who feel they must put on a costume and pretend to be someone else every day to fit in. The line "I wouldn't change places with anyone tonight" portrays Halloween as a liberating night, in which every person is free to be who they secretly want to be all year round--or free to experiment with a new identity. This message is most explicit in the line "your dentist could turn into a queen," again a reference subtle enough to avoid censorship but still an undeniably present subtext for the viewer in the know.

3.) The All-Girls' School: Finally, this film takes place at an all-girls' school for witches. Both witchcraft (e.g. Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and all-girls' schools (e.g. Maedchen in Uniform) have a history of being associated with lesbians. By making the one major male character a queer figure, the film preserves the all-girls' school as a space which privileges women's relationships, one of the few places in society in which romance between women is overlooked or even allowed to flourish. Furthermore, if Tim Curry's character were masculine and heterosexual, his song to the girls could come across as "creepy"--he could seem predatory. By making him queer, the film avoids raising this anxiety.

It might seem unusual that a children's film would contain so many queer elements--but, then again, children's media certainly doesn't shy away from heterosexuality. In fact, most children's media, from fairy tales to commercials, contains an explicitly heterosexual, gender-normative message. So it's no weirder for queer messages to emerge as well. The follwing questions attempt to use this analysis of The Worst Witch to look for the ways queerness tends to appear in these texts.

Discussion Questions

1.) In the 1993 film Hocus Pocus, Bette Midler does a performance of "I Put a Spell on You" which, like Tim Curry's performance of "Anything Can Happen on Halloween," is both campy and seductive, and essentially amounts to a coded drag performance. Can you think of any other instances in which such performances occur in Halloween movies--both in those intended for children and in Halloween movies in general? Can we trace a genealogy of such performances? DO you think it is more common for queer characters to play villains (as in HP) or heroes (as in TWW) in children's movies? Is it significant that HP is an American movie produced by Disney while TWW is a British movie produced by the BBC? Is the gender of the protagonist (a boy in HP and a girl in TWW) significant?

2.) Why do you think Halloween is frequently taken up as a site through which queerness can be explored and/or expressed? Can we trace a history or genealogy of the relationship between Halloween and queerness? What is the significance of the fact that The Worst Witch came out during the post-Stonewall era in which queer subculture became significantly more public? Does queer representation on Halloween emerge differently today now that LGBTQ rights are becoming so much more accepted?

3.) Where else have you encountered queer characters and/or a queer sensibility in children's media? In what genres besides Halloween stories does queerness tend to occur? How would you compare this clip to stories intended to teach children acceptance, such as Heather Has Two Mommies? What about stories that are not "about" sexuality but contain explicitly gay characters, such as Dumbledore in Harry Potter?