Mannequin: Deep Thoughts About Hiding Seriously Subversive Messages in Deeply Unserious Movies

Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Podcast

Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response.

Two things I love to do: fight and kiss boys!

This week, Emily revisits another of the silly Pygmalion movies from the Guy girls' childhood: Michael Gottlieb's 1987 film Mannequin, starring Kim Cattrall, Meshach Taylor, and Andrew McCarthy. While the story of an underemployed Philadelphia artist who falls in love with a department store mannequin is as insubstantial as dandelion fluff, the film slipped some delightfully subversive and progressive gay representation into the movie with the character of Hollywood Montrose, played to flamboyant-but-fleshed-out perfection by Meshach Taylor. Not only is this one of the few movies of the era to allow a gay character to have a romantic and sexual life (off-screen, unfortunately), but Gottlieb's script allows Hollywood to be a hero, friend, and integral part of the plot of the film. Additionally, the scene where Hollywood holds off the police-coded bad guys using a firehose is both hilarious and historically powerful, making it even more impactful by being included in an unserious romcom.

Be careful! If you stand very still while you listen, someone might think you're a mannequin.

Mentioned in this episode:

Hollywood Montrose: Mannequin's Gay Hero

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mannequin-1987

This episode was edited by Resonate Recordings.

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls

We're having a party, please come! A Zoom happy hour, Tue, 11/18, 7:30 ET / 6:30 CT. (THERE WILL BE PRESENTS!) So get ready to pour your favorite beverage, overthink some Thanksgiving-themed pop culture, laugh, and feel a little bit smarter.

It’s free, but please register at guygirlsmedia.com/happyhour, so we can share the zoom info with you! (Also, who doesn’t like knowing who’s coming to their party?)

We are Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our family as the Guy Girls.

We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com

We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, and analyzing pop culture for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, and whatever else we find.

We are on socials! Find us on Facebook at fb.com/dtasspodcast and on Insta at instagram.com/guygirlsmedia. You can also email us at guygirlsmedia at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you!

챕터

1. Introduction to Mannequin's Lasting Appeal (00:00:00)

2. Plot Overview of the 1987 Film (00:11:15)

3. Hollywood Montrose: Subversive LGBTQ+ Character (00:28:44)

4. Fire Hose Scene's Civil Rights Symbolism (00:43:13)

5. Emmy's Agency: Beyond Born Sexy Yesterday (00:45:23)

6. Final Thoughts and Episode Closing (00:51:33)