Female Trouble: The Excess of Immorality

  The John Waters underground exploitation satire film Female Trouble is definitely a film that would be hard to make today. From its flagrant use of child abuse to its many sexually deviant scenarios, its definitely of its own time. However between Water’s own self proclaimed trashy cinema, there are underlying themes and messages. Aside from the film’s shoestring budget and intentional camp, the film offers a fairly significant commentary. Throughout the story we see Divine’s “Dawn Davenport” metamorphose from troubled teen to full on monster. The film itself is a meditation on the levels of immoral actions one may take in the search of fame. Now from the beginning we aren't supposed to sympathize with Dawn, as she is painted starkly as a very unlikeable and terrible person. However it is obvious that the road she takes isn't all the fault of her own. Within her microcosm of darkly hilarious enablers, none are darker than the salon owning and self proclaimed artist couple The Dashers. This duo of avant-garde photographers serve as an exaggeration of the art community itself. Personifications of those who push the envelope of art, and delving into those who pursue the extreme for its own sake. The film plays with the pursuit of excess and does a fair job of portraying the consequences that eventually catch up to our lead character. However throughout it all there is an undercurrent of camp. As cited within the text attributing critic Susan Sontag, camp is a feature and aesthetic that has permeated the LGBTQ film canon for years. And as we see with Waters’ catalog, that same assertion reigns true. Camp is an aesthetic that revels in the distasteful and ironic, and for this film it actually helps get the point across. With the exaggeration of roles to near caricatures of people, Waters shows the absolute absurdity of the people this film satirizes. And it truly shows the faults in pursuing fame at the compromise of your moral self.