the crew’s favorite cinematic mothers • Journal • A Magazine • , Life in canada

For the majority of the runtime of John Waters’ Female Trouble, Dawn Davenport (played with gusto by Divine), is increasingly at her wits end in her attempts to parent her daughter Taffy (Waters regular Mink Stole). She forbids her from going to school, won’t allow her to have friends over the house and, most importantly, will not allow any rhymes to be sung in the home. At one point, in an attempt to articulate her challenges as a mother, Dawn exclaims, “I’ve done everything a mother can do: I’ve locked her in her room, I’ve beat her with the car aerial. Nothing changes her. It’s hard being a loving mother!” We have no choice but to believe her. JL

Edith Massey often plays authority figures in John Waters movies, flipping square morality on its head. My favorite is in Female Trouble, co-starring Massey as Aunt Ida, the disappointed aunt-in-law of bad gal Dawn Davenport. Aunt Ida isn’t upset that her nephew Gater (Michael Potter) married a criminal, however. She’s worried about Gater’s heterosexuality. In a satirical reversal, Aunt Ida asks Gater if he’s met any “nice queer boys” at the hair salon where he works, telling him that she’d be “so proud” if he divorced Dawn and got himself a boyfriend. If he doesn’t go gay, “I’d worry you’d work in an office, have children, celebrate wedding anniversaries,” she says—a fate worse than death in Waters’ world. KR