#mommie dearest 1981

[schlock-luster-video]

On January 26, 1982 Mommie Dearest debuted in Norway.

#mommie dearest #mommie dearest 1981 #frank perry #joan crawford #faye dunaway #comedy drama movies #drama film #biopic #biographical drama #80s movies #1980s film #1980s #cult classic #biographical film #biographical fiction #comedy drama #tnt's monstervision #monstervision #movie art #art #drawing #movie history #pop art #modern art #pop surrealism #cult movies #portrait #cult film #star wars

[pretty-little-fools]

#mommie dearest #faye dunaway #joan crawford #80's #vintage #early 80's #1981

[ky1echristian]

#ky1echristian #movie stills #steve forrest #mommie dearest #1981 #men #80s #film

[depressedraisin]

notes on "mr. snarl"

hello, hello, hello welcome to the mr. snarl is high camp discourse. i've been readin' and thinkin' and drivin' myself nuts over this, so i'll be blabberin' on for a good minute. bear with me.

before we dive into any discussion of camp, we ofcourse need to understand what camp is in the first place. camp as an idea is nearly impossible to neatly put down in a few words or a sentence. it has no definition as of such. camp is loud. camp is ostentatious. camp is exaggerated. camp is 'too much'. camp is gay. camp is ironic. camp is cheeky. drag is camp. marlene dietrich is camp. baroque art is camp. cher is camp. mommie dearest (1981) is camp. the rocky horror picture show (1975) is camp. dostoevsky is camp.

the girlies who get camp get it, those who don't, don't.

however we do have susan sontag's 1964 seminal essay 'notes on "camp"' from where most of our contemporary ideas and understanding of 'camp' comes from. in her essay, sontag noted 58 points on what camp is or might be. for our purposes in this post, we'll go by those. because it is the camp bible of course. and i am a pretentious bitch.

now before we get to the meat of the matter, a quick detour to discuss the many faces of alex turner.

alex's personas have now come to as closely associated to his image as an artist and public figure as blonde wigs are with dolly parton, i suppose. it even has its own section in alex's wiki page. he is one those performers to whom the "eras" concept can truly and perfectly apply. he is a different man on stage with every new album, each 'era' is unique from the other and distinctly defined. a new 'era' for alex is not only a change of a haircut or a new pallette, it is a total revamping of his mannerisms and performance style and public image. be it mr. schwarz (the car era), mark (tbhc era) or oliver tate sr. (early sias era), each one of his personas is another way in which he represents the themes of that album. understanding a persona is integral to understanding the album.

and alex admits to as such. each Performer is a fractured reflection of his own self, and of the album.

but. but. i do not think that he has always made use of the Performer, or atleast, tried to make perceivable distinctions between them. in the first three-four years of his career- during WPSIATWIN and FWN, he presented as just Some Guy. just another normal bloke from sheffield. which, you could argue, was the persona that fit the context of those albums, but i would say that he was probably not putting that much thought into it at the time. it isn't until TAOTU that we see alex using his on-stage fashion to project a certain kind of image that ties in with the music he's playing. (do i think it's miles' handiwork? yes.). the lil suits and ties and beatles-mop cuts, y'know.

the first distinct Performer appears during the Humbug era. the soft-spoken, brooding, fawn-mannered poet who is probably hiding a bagful of secrets and hang-ups behind those layers of brown curls- let's call her him aly. then we have the bright-eyed, puppy-smiled, deep-voiced loverboy of the early SIAS era. i propose to call him oliver tate sr. (after the guy from submarine (2010) obviously). then mr. snarl- we'll get to him later. the loud and theatrical and slutty and deliciously gay EYCTE era persona. then the melancholic space poet mark of TBH&C and finally the suave auteur of The Car- mr. schwarz.

mr. snarl is the one who has garnered the most fascination and endured the most in popular imagination. dare i say, AM-era alex turner is a lowkey late 2010s pop culture icon. it is very easy to understand why- the quiff, the leather jackets, the perpetual sunglasses, the biker boots, the LA drawl tinging his sheffield accent, the devil-may-care wantoness. the girlies on tiktok and pinterest aren't obsessed with him for nothing.

so, what makes mr. snarl camp? what am i yapping on about?

let's get back to sontag.

camp is artificial. camp is ironic. mr. snarl is too. he is a character. he is a mask. *cue the bourne identity and body paint*. 'artificial' does not imply fake or dishonest. we should be careful not to be quick in putting any value judgement onto this artificiality- the aritifice is a quality of camp. you can't appreciate camp, if you snigger at the artificial.

2. camp is character. mr. snarl is a character if there ever was one. extremely defined, visually and behaviourally- you see a performance and can immediately recognise the moment mr. snarl is peeking through. he is also very intensely one thing- very intensely masculine, very intensely rockabilly, very intensely rock god. he is 'instant character' as sontag puts it, which is why perhaps he so immediately and so firmly gripped our collective imagination.

3. camp is exaggerated. camp is style. do i even need to elaborate on this? Ben Beaumont-Thomas of The Guardian said it much better than i could- alex ironically "played with the role" of being a rockstar but simultaneously "can't help but be a real rock star." so, to put it in sontagian terms, he is not a rockstar but a "rock star"

the 2014 brit awards speech is the peak of this ironic, exaggerated performance i think. (i'm still waiting for someone to do a drag performance based on it).

4. but to me, what makes mr. snarl camp is his performance of gender. now let's get one thing clear- camp is not effeminate or queer behaviour. it is the "spirit of extravagance", so any kind of extravagant and ironic presentation of gender can be under the purview of camp.

this performance of gender is not the david bowie or marc bolan or brian molko kind, no. this performance of gender is much subtle, much more nuanced- he wasn't playing around with rigid definitions of gender or crossing gender lines. he wasn't trying to say something with it necessarily. i doubt even, if it was a purposeful thing that he was thinking of back then.

but mr. snarl is a performance of gender. it is a performance of masculinity. and the thing that makes it so very interesting is that it was a cis, straight man doing it.

[if y'all are interested, another interesting example is dolly parton + her persona + her performance of exaggerated femininity. for more on that i'll point you towards be kind rewind's video essay on her.]

mr. snarl was an image of a very certain kind of masculinity. 1950s, elvis presley, rockabilly, greasers, james dean- these are some of the pop culture touchstones that come to mind when we think of mr. snarl. he is also decidedly american. a "fictional character from america" as alex later put it. was this whole persona thing an effort to conquer america then? perhaps...but eh. there is no way i can conclusively say that. it certainly helped that cause. AM the album was very us-american in essence-- it drew from hiphop and r&b after all. the soundscape of the arctic monkeys was very much rooted in its northern british indie roots, and AM was the first one that was clearly not. and mr. snarl was just a visual reflection of that. [for more on how the arctic monkeys conquered the us]

mr. snarl was a certain kind of masculine in a way alex turner personas haven't been previously or since. he has always presented as conventionally masculine. even the humbug persona- him being my girlfriend notwithstanding- is not much different from the aesthetics of say, ray davies or mick jagger or george harrison back in the 60s and 70s. the slightly effeminate dramaticism of eycte is not exactly gender-bending as such.

but mr. snarl was hypermasculine. masculinity has had an interesting place in his lyrics up until they- they are both critical ('brianstorm' 'a certain romance') and fascinated ('jeweller's hand' 'catapult') of more aggressive masculine characteristics. (he does use a lot of very sexual but not necessarily erotic language to describe said masculinity- but that's another can of worms.) mr. snarl was in a way, alex being those characters from those songs he was writing about. mr. snarl also very aggressively straight. straight with a capital s. his songs in AM still had the self-abasing and submissive undertones to the narrator that love songs from humbug and sias, but much toned down. he was out there shouting out his girlfriend on stage. and who can forget the "ladiessssssss!" moment. he had models hanging off him in photoshoots.

you probably saw these photos and thought- "what the fuck?!" with a cackle. that is exactly what makes mr. snarl camp. the irony, the ridiculousness of it all.

5. i don't think alex was trying to be or do camp. camp is best when it is not intentional. i can even confidently wager alex would not take it as a compliment if i showed him this essay. a lot of very "serious" people look down upon camp as something lowbrow and tacky and unserious. but it isn't. i would go ahead and classify mr. snarl under naive camp- he is trying to be straightlaced and serious, but failing grandly, which makes it deliciously camp.

so. mr. snarl was an exaggerated representation of masculinity. in a sense, mr. snarl was basically drag. alex turner being "Alex Turner".

#alex turner #arctic monkeys #the last shadow puppets #camp #susan sontag #i spent wayyyy to much time on this #journal of alex turner studies

[chaos0pikachu]

Hi chaos,

So people on other socials are saying playboyy is camp? I don't quite get that vibe so I'm asking do you? Why?

*cracks neck* okay let's do this; this got wildly long so I'm putting a chunk of it behind a cut b/c unlike some blogs I'm not gonna subject anyone to endless and endless scrolling just b/c I added pictures anyway~~

So people are probably getting this from Den himself:

I talked about camp an itty bitty bit before, specifically I quoted Susan Sontag who was an American academic, novelist and writer mostly known for her essays. You can read more about her here. Specifically I quoted her essay Notes on Camp:

(source)

I really recommend reading the entire essay, it's a bit dated, but Sontag also makes a point that camp changes with the times as well. This essay was written, after all, in 1964, before Hairspray (1988), Batman (1966), Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), or Mommie Dearest (1981) which are considered camp classics now. However there's a lot of good stuff to learn in her essay and she also names a lot of prominent either queer creators - Oscar Wilde, Jean Cocteau - or prominent figures that the queer community sorta like, claimed - Bette Davis, Greta Garbo.

Camp is a concept, it's not a hard and fast rule. Not every film or TV show that gets claimed as camp is intended to be camp - Showgirls and Mommie Dearest are sincere in their intentions, they are not trying to be camp at all, but through sheer accidental glory they stumbled right into the camp valley. Similarly with a film I recently learned about via this amazing essay, Valley of the Dolls which was also sincere in it's depiction of drugs, sex, and show business but just ended up...campy (this is part 2 which is my favorite part but part 1 is great too):

I would also recommend this video by Kennie JD on Showgirls and you get a modern idea of how a non-film critic sees the camp in Showgirls even tho it's not intended as camp (Paul Verhoeven is never going for camp in his films he's often going for satire and yet, alas lol):

Okay so this is getting away from me, the question was "Is Playboyy Camp?"

I would argue, yes but definition but it's more classic definition rather than what people probably associate with "camp" in the modern day. Which is "bad" films, or so-bad-they're-good films, or drag queens - would love to see Zouey in full drag actually - but Rocky Horror isn't a "bad" film, heck Showgirls isn't a "bad" film, neither is But I'm a Cheerleader or Jawbreakers, or many other camp classics. Some are "bad" in that they didn't achieve their intentions - again Mommie Dearest is a great, if unfortunate, example of this actually - but films that intentionally try to be camp tend to fail, like Cat and the Hat starring Jim Carrey. They're to fake, they try to hard.

As Sontag said, camp is both sincere and pure and it is also abstract and highlights aesthetic first and foremost.

Showgirls grabbed people in part b/c it's so so so very over the top; from the acting yes but also the costuming and set design. But I'm a Cheerleader had a way smaller budget, but it's very aesthetics focused:

I've seen people say that Playboyy looks "fake" or "artificial" but so does But I'm a Cheerleader. However artificial is the wrong word, imo, to use here; rather both are camp and surreal. They're going with surrealistic aesthetics to emphasize the emotions of the characters and also, cause gays like color. We love that shit. It stands out. It's fucking fun, it's campy!

I don't think Playboyy is strictly camp but it does take inspiration from camp - it pushes its priorities of the film making to be about the aesthetics rather than emphasizing reality. It's not uninterested in reality - the discussions of sex work in a amoral way (which sidenote I think is a good thing), of sexual desires, the complexities of relationships and boundaries, the acknowledgement of kink etc - but it's uninterested in presenting the world of the show solely through a "realistic" lens visually.

Fantasy is part of the narrative of Playboyy thus that is reflected in the visuals.

BIAC is part satire, which I wouldn't say Playboyy is, since it's not satirizing anything specific - unlike Lovely Writer attempted and didn't accomplish imo doing well from what I watched - it's clear to me that Den is playing a lot with genre. Now how well him and Cheewin the director are accomplishing this, well that's up to individual interpretation.

I can't force people to like Playboyy as much as me - even tho I'm right - b/c I'm not a weirdo and we all like different shit. I do think that Playboyy is using like, actual cinematography however. Like I see that word thrown around a lot and then people provide really like basic examples. Like I'm so sorry but 2Gether's cinematography is basic at best and boring at worst. Two dudes standing in a badly lit room in a mid-shot does not impressive cinematography make - which is fine because a lot of these shows are made on shoestring budgets.

I don't expect Moonlight level cinematography from gmmtv or MeMindY shows. And Playboyy doesn't have that level either it can't it's clearly also made on a small budget.

That said it IS filmed with purpose, and with a specific visual language. Not every shot is great but I do love the sincerity here, it's using color, lighting, and set design with actual thought to enhance the overall aesthetics of the show, enhance the fantasy at play, the camp.

Camp films aren't inherently "bad" films. They make you laugh, scream, and the best ones, actually do say something or spark discussion. Rocky Horror is meaningful to people, But I'm a Cheerleader means something to people, they're both unashamedly queer films that were both kinda bombs - critically and financially - and then slowly gained a cult following b/c they were way ahead of their times.

I get the feeling if camp applies to Playboyy at all it's in that sense, a series that's being pretty harshly maligned and disregarded critically at the moment, but that actually has a ton to say and may end up gaining a following down the line after it's over.

This was like, wildly long and I apologize lol

#playboyy the series #chaos pikachu speaks #chaos pikachu metas #anon asks

[kendalls-roy]

Mommie Dearest (1981)

#filmedit #filmgifs #myellenficent #dailyflicks #userstream #faye dunaway #mommie dearest #movies #mine

[orchidrush]

Mommie Dearest (1981)

#movie #Mommie dearest #joan crawford #fashion #red nails #film #cinemetography #faye dunaway #Hollywood #old hollywod glamour

[noelcowards-addressbook]

Mommie Dearest, 1981

#mommie dearest #gay humor #gay film #camp

[wiishopchanelboots]

The Desperate Man, Gustave Courbet - 1843

Mommie Dearest, Faye Dunaway - 1981

Applause, Lady Gaga - 2013

The Witness, Love Death and Robots - 2019

#is this anything? #something about like... #the messy makeup and the slightly unhinged stare #mommie dearest #lady gaga #applause #artpop #gustave courbet #the witness #love death and robots #idk i couldnt sleep and these images were bouncing around in my mind

[deadpanwalking]

what’s the connection between cashing in your abusive mom chips and joan crawford?

What the fuck are they teaching kids at school these days that they can't recognize a nod to Christina Crawford's 1978 memoir Mommie Dearest and the 1981 biographical film of the same name?

#faye dunaway is embarrassed about her performance but that's documentary footage of cluster b moms on an average tuesday #mommie dearest #medievalyuri #assbox

[tenaflyviper]

Horror Films for Mother's Day!

Psycho (1960)

Strait-Jacket (1964)

The Baby (1973)

Rosemary's Baby (1973)

Frightmare (1974)

The Brood (1979)

Friday the 13th (1980)

Mother's Day (1980)

Flesh Eating Mothers (1988)

Baby Blood (1990)

Mom (1991)

The Unborn (1991)

Dead Alive (1992)

Ed and His Dead Mother (1993)

Serial Mom (1994)

Mommy (1995)

Mommy 2: Mommy's Day (1997)

Cinderella (2006)

Silent Hill (2006)

Inside (2007)

Mother's Day Massacre (2007)

Grace (2009)

The Monitor (2012)

Mother's Day (2012)

Goodnight Mommy (2014)

Mama (2013)

The Babadook (2014)

The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014)

Mother! (2017)

Hereditary (2018)

A Quiet Place (2018)

M.O.M.: Mother of Monsters (2020)

Evil Dead Rise (2023)

Not necessarily horror, but worth mentioning:

Mommie Dearest (1981)

Coraline (2009)

Mother (2009)

[thestobingirlie]

the whole thing about rocky horror being the universal barometer of queerness in st fics is so tired. i would kill for one to mention mommie dearest, what ever happened to baby jane, la cage aux folles, just something else. esp mommie dearest bc it makes the most sense in terms of timeline (released in 1981) and longstanding legacy in drag shows lol.

it’s because it’s the only one they know, and they can’t be arsed to look anything else up lmao.

i think anything that’s gets referenced in every single fic starts to really drag. it’s fun at first, but now it’s like… do we really need this? how relevant is it to the story?

#stranger things #asks #anon

[70s80sandbeyond]

Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford in ''Mommie Dearest'' (1981)

[pinkpinkstarlet]

how tf do people find the wire hanger scene from mommie dearest (1981) funny that shit is terrifying

#why does joan crawford remind me of my own mother im scared #mommie dearest #joan crawford #tw child abuse #tw toxic family #tw abuse #pinkspidey’s rambles

[gilmoregirlscult]

Season 1, Episode 1

"Pilot"

Pop culture references and jokes explained in order of appearance! Follow along as you watch the episode (spoilers!).

The episode opens with There She Goes by The La's. The song is commonly associated with the show.

Joey, the guy hitting on Lorelai says "Just passing through on my way to Hartford" to which she replies “You’re a regular Jack Kerouac”.

Jack Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. His 1957 novel On the Road is based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across the United States. He does not seem to get the joke!

Later, Lorelai pulls a lot of makeup out of her bag and Rory remarks “RuPaul doesn’t need this much makeup”.

RuPaul, of course, being the famous American drag queen who would later go on to produce, host and judge RuPaul's Drag Race.

Macy Gray, is an American R&B and soul singer and actress. The CD they are reffering to is of the album On How Life Is (1999).

The theme song of the show is Where You Lead a song written in 1970 by Carole King with lyricist Toni Stern, introduced on King's iconic 1971 album Tapestry. The version of the song used is a duet with Carole's daughter, Louise Goffin.

The class is reading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a novel by American author Mark Twain published in 1884. It is considered one of the Great American Novels by many.

Rory looks at the plaid skirt her mother gave her and says "I'm gonna be in a Britney Spears video?". Britney Spears wears a schoolgirl uniform in the music video of ...Baby One More Time. The outfit is considered to be one of Spears's most iconic looks as well as amongst the hallmarks of pop culture!

Small line, but Lorelai remarks "There are several chapters from a Stephen King novel I'd reenact before I'd resort to that option", the option being asking her parents for money. Stephen King, nicknamed the "King of Horror" is an American author. The genres of his novels include horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy.

When Dean is standing next to her silent, Rory exclaims "God! You're like Ruth Gordon just standing there with the tannis root. Make a noise". In their first interaction, Dean catches the reference and replies "Rosemary's Baby". Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American psychological horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on Ira Levin's 1967 novel of the same name. The actress Ruth Gordon plays Minnie Castevet.

Moby-Dick is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. Madame Bovary is a novel by French writer Gustave Flaubert, published in 1856.

Lorelai tells Rory “You’ll have to walk faster than that. You’re gonna have to turn into freaking Flo-Jo to get away from me!”

Florence Joyner also known as Flo-Jo, was an American track and field athlete and the fastest recorded woman of all time. She set world records in 1988 for the 100m and 200m. During the late 1980s, she became a popular figure due to both her record-setting athleticism and eclectic personal style.

While they’re in a fight, Lorelai jokes “Aw, you’re not gonna give me the mommy dearest treatment forever, are ya?”

The phrase "mommy dearest" is most commonly associated with the 1981 film Mommie Dearest, which is based on the 1978 autobiography of the same name written by Christina Crawford. The book and film detail Christina's difficult and allegedly abusive relationship with her mother, actress Joan Crawford. Since the film's release, the phrase "mommy dearest" has become a popular way to describe a difficult or controlling mother.

Nick at Nite (stylized as nick@nite) is an American night time programming block broadcast by the American cable channel Nickelodeon.

The episode closes with the song My Little Corner of The World sang by Kit Pongetti.

#gilmore girls #gilmore girls 2000 #rory gilmore #lorelai gilmore #there she goes #jack kerouac #macy gray #books #cd #britney spears #stephen king #pilot #pilot episode #rosemary’s baby #flo-jo #moby dick #mommie dearest #nick@nite #tv show #spoilers #autumn #coffee #Spotify

[m0nstrous-m0thering]

harperrrrr what are some of your favorite hagsploitation movies i see you as their queen i want to get into the genre

Harper’s hot girl Hagsploitation recommendations:

First tier

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962)

Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Strait-Jacket (1964)

Mommie Dearest (1981)

The Fan (1981)

Greta (2018)

Ma (2019)

Second tier

The Nanny (1965)

I Saw What You Did (1965)

Berserk (1967)

Burnt Offerings (1976)