FILM
The Queer Review
Pink Flamingos (1972) ‘KILL EVERYONE NOW. CONDONE FIRST DEGREE MURDER. ADVOCATE CANNIBALISM. EAT SHIT. FILTH ARE MY POLITICS, FILTH IS MY LIFE.’ Worthless, questionable, unconventional, mildly insane, homosexual; these are some of the definitions of the word ‘queer’ listed by MerriamWebster. John Waters’ Pink Flamingos (1972) is queer in every sense of the word. The film c e n t r e s on queen of counterculture
Divine, who, living under the alias of Babs Johnson, attempts to defend her title of ‘filthiest person alive’. Connie and Raymond Marble (played by Mink Stole and David Lochary respectively), a couple who kidnap and forcibly impregnate women, sell the babies to lesbian couples and use the money to deal heroin to schoolchildren, believe they are worthier of the title. The film contains a number of atrocities, from killing and eating a police officer, to very graphic motherson incest, so much so that the original trailer contained no footage from the film at all. At one point Divine receives a package containing human faeces, which she calls a ‘grossly offensive act’ – ironic, considering it is one of the more pleasant things to take place. Pink Flamingos encompasses a sense of rebellion, of refusing to conform to what is ‘normal’. So, it is no surprise that it turned into a queer cult classic.
JACOB CHAMBERLAIN
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