Using theory and practical illustrations, analyse the religious and spiritual motifs and ideas within The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Hedwig and the Angry Inch
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Sharman 1975) and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Mitchell 2001) both contain religion and spirituality in relation to homosexuality. Rocky Horror created in the Seventies, only a year after homosexuality was de-listed as a mental disorder and it reflects this in its often blasphemous satire. However, Hedwig, made only three decades later shows the effect of globalisation, technology and greater rights for homosexuals in its shift in views on religion from Rocky Horror.
Rocky Horror tells the story of two clean cut kids, Brad and Janet whose car breaks down. They seek refuge in a castle owned by the “sweet transvestite from Transsexual Transylvania” Frank-N-Furter with his creation Rocky and servants Riff-Raff and Columbia. Frank-N-Furter corrupts Brad and Janet into his world of sexual deviance. It is a parody of the 1950's B grade science fiction and horror films evoking camp and queer sensibilities. Hedwig and the Angry Inch is referred to as Rocky Horror for the late nineties (Davies 183) both in its status as a rock musical with a cult following and being self representational of homosexuality, written, staring and catering to people from the gay community. It too involves the story of a transsexual but in a more sympathetic and realistic light. Hedwig is the lead protagonist who had a sex change from Hansel to allow her to marry a soldier and leave East Berlin. The operation was botched leaving her with the aforementioned angry inch. In America her husband leaves her and she seeks refuge in rock music and the search for her other half which she thinks she has found in Tommy until he steals her songs to become a famous rock star solo.
“The media construct for us a definition if what race is, what meaning the imagery of race carries and what the 'problem race' is understood to be” (Hall 273). Homosexuality is no different having been ignored, persecuted, ridiculed and misunderstood for hundreds of years in the media. As with other media forms, the film industry has always been controlled by the dominant straight stance that use it to create anxiety, xenophobia and stereotypes as protective mechanisms against the minority race. The infamous Hays Code censored films according to Catholic moralities with strict policies on the portrayal of homosexuality in film. The churches official stance that homosexuality is a sin prevented it from ever being presented as viable or encouraged in any way. The “image of the homosexual was as a victimiser rather than victim, the shadowy psychopath, cold-hearted villain or perverted killer... gay characters found their natural comeuppance via bullets, fire or suicide” (Davies 19). Media coverage of homosexuals began to change as the Stonewall riots and other breakthroughs in the fight for equal rights received greater attention. The late sixties also saw the breakdown of the Hays Code and gave the gay community the opportunity to portray themselves, working to utilise “visual self-representation as a mode of empowerment, political assertion, and cultural revival in the face of Western cultural and economic imperialism” (Evans 310). Rocky Horror certainly acts as resistance identity as it tries to subvert the ideologies of homosexuality that were created by these religious censors and contains subtle blasphemy to comment on this and the exclusion of gays from religious institution.
In response to years of representation as the dark villain stereotype, Rocky Horror satirises this by creating a exaggerated caricature in the character Frank-N-Furter. He is a transsexual transvestite who seduces both female and male characters, murders and holds a cannibalistic dinner party. This mocks the previous moral code (based on teachings in the Catholic religion) that worked to alienate homosexuals in society and certainly at the end when the audience finds that Frank is literally an alien. Riff-Raff kills Frank, as in all movies the gay movie villains must find punishment. Frank has been seen to corrupted others, seducing Janet and Brad, making her sexually promiscuous and Brad questioning his sexuality. Dr Scott justifies his end by saying “society must be protected.” It evokes the use of media (in this case mainly 1950's B grade horror films) used to implement moral codes. Those who do bad must be punished so that society will not follow their ways.
This act of dying for the sins of others turns Frank into a Christ like figure. The opening credits see bright red lips fade into the Denton church Episcopalian church cross. Frank later recreates this image in his pool as he floats on a circle shaped life boy and lays his arms out to produce a cross with his body (Knapp 248). The image at the bottom of the pool is Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam with Frank floating between the hands of God and Eve, posing himself to be somewhere between mortal and immortal. The pool is also the scene for an o
rgiastic sequence between where Brad, Janet, Rocky and Columbia give themselves over to “absolute pleasure” and “swim in warm water of sins of the flesh” as Frank preaches they do (Weinstock 60). This evokes the religious act of baptisms and christenings where sins are washed away except in this case Frank is leading them into to sin and cleansing them of their former life of good. He has recreated Janet and Brad into wild, untamed things with a God like power.
The song 'I Can Make You A Man' contains references to the creation story from Genesis in which God made the Earth in seven days. Frank sings “in just seven days, I can make you a man.” It also evokes tropes of religious expression, a 'man' sung as a near homophone of amen. There is certain blasphemy in presenting a transsexual character such as Frank as a God-like figure with “his mastery of life itself – creating Rocky and manipulating, seducing and physically controlling other characters” (Knapp 247).
There are two marriages portrayed in the film, one at the very beginning which Brad and Janet attend and the 'marriage' between Rocky and Frank, both work to critique the institution. In the Seventies, marriage was a more religious institution performed in a church under God rather than the social union or legal contract it is considered today. The first wedding is held in a church and questions the desirability of such a union, especially for women. The bride changes from Betty Munroe, suggestive of famous sexual icons Betty Paige and Marilyn Monroe, to Betty Hapschatt. This “seems to imply not only that Betty's individual identity has been effaced through marriage but that her 'happiness' has been 'shattered' or perhaps even 'shat upon'” (Weinstock 54). Death is presented in correlation with marriage, Brad proposing to Janet in the church graveyard and the church simply turning the wedding flowers around to reveal a sombre arrangement for a funeral. Rocky's 'marriage' to Frank takes place only minutes after Frank kills Eddie, further cementing the correlation between death and marriage as Frank and Rocky themselves die hours later. This marriage between two men (an unrealistic concept in the Seventies) works as a warped parody of the first wedding. Mendelsssohn's wedding march played on the electric guitar as they walk to their bridal suite (Weinstock 55). It appears a Juvenal satire on marriage, the religious institution excludes homosexuals and so they mock it.
By 2001, the year Hedwig and the Angry Inch was made, gay marriage had been legalised in several countries and civil partnerships recognised across the globe and presented frequently and fairly in the media. It would seem homosexuals had made their peace with the institution of marriage as it is not ridiculed in Hedwig, indeed she is treated less poorly by her husband than by Tommy who she does not marry. Many changes in fact had occurred within the almost three decades that separate Hedwig from Rocky Horror, one of which was faster globalisation and technology.
“One reason for the popularity of the DVD format lies in its capacity to support specialised or niche interest in particular types of cinema” (Verhoeven 172). The gay community no longer had to rely on what their local cinema would allow to be shown. Foreign films gained a greater audience as homosexuals of each country could purchase it. The creation of VHS and later DVD allowed films depicting homosexuality (some previously banned) to be better distributed and more widely available. With this wider range of images, people had a better understanding of the gay community and thus were no longer easily taken in by the prevailing straight media and religious moral stereotypes of the past.
Rocky Horror deals with the well known institutionalised religions of that time yet Hedwig ranges across different cultures. “There is a contagious quality about culture because direct borrowing of cultural traits is extremely common. The more opportunity a society gets to know another society, the more transformation it undergoes... Once an individual or institution accepts something new, it gets diffused” (Ambirajan 2144). The mix of cultures can be seen in Hedwig as she listens to US forces radio in East Berlin, travels to America, starts a band with Korean army wives and marries a Slovakian. Part of people's culture is their religion and the wide range of religions that can be practised in a single country today is far greater. Homosexuals can look to other religions that better accept them than the Christian, Catholic or Jewish stable religions in American during the seventies. Celebrities have brought into focus different beliefs, more seriously in cases such as Richard Gere's Buddhism. Hedwig can be seen to be based more on spirituality than any fundamentalist view of religion.
The song 'The Origin of Love' (
This creation myth (specifically Christian) is outlined in Hedwig's relationship with Tommy. Tommy seems to be the other half from which Hedwig was 'created' or split from in 'The Origin of Love' myth. Tommy talks about the Christian creation story and then asks “Hedwig would you give me the apple?” Hedwig acts as an Eve figure, she teaches him of rock and gives him the rock name Tommy Gnosis, the Greek word for knowledge. In one scene, Hedwig holds up a hand mirror to show Tommy his reflection. 
The mirror is held up over half of Hedwig's face but Tommy's face reflected in the mirror completes the picture of a full face. Tommy is seen as a part of Hedwig, his other half. Hedwig is also presented as an Adam type, giving a piece of himself to the man who asked him to get the surgery leaving herself with the aforementioned angry inch.
While part of Frank's God like status is in his Dr Frankenstein like power to create life, Hedwig is closer to that of Dr Frankenstein's creature. The song 'Exquisite Corpse' identifies him as being 'all sown up, a random pattern with a needle and thread.' He is referring to the surgery that created him as neither male nor female. The creature of Dr Frankenstein is “often seen as Christ-like, born without original sin and martyred to humanity's imperfections” (Knapp 264).
Hedwig, like Frank, is seen as a Christ figure, “her story lies close to that of Christ, who abjectness transmuted into the universal and all-encompassing” (Knapp 259). At the end of the film, Hedwig gives up her divahood and joins the audience, similar to Christ's renunciation of divinity to become human (Knapp 262). When performing a song, Hedwig wipes her face on a 
towel and throws it to Tommy who opens it to see a clear imprint of her face from the make up on it, similar to Jesus' shroud of Turin. This portrayal differs from Frank's as it is not trying to be blasphemous; Hedwig is a victim not the victimiser that Frank is.
Hedwig's personal stance on religion is made clear. Tommy asks her if she has accepted Jesus Christ as her lord and saviour to which she replies “No but I'm a fan of his work.” From the blasphemous mockery of religion in Rocky Horror, the stance from the gay community has changed to a more peaceful acceptance. Most of the moral teachings of religions do have worth and the iconography is powerful in telling any story.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Hedwig and the Angry Inch are both self representational films of homosexuality and the depiction of religion and spirituality in these two films reflect the gay community’s changing feelings across the three decades. “Media organisations support or resist hegemonic pressures differentially; some work ‘within the system’ to further worthwhile aims, while others struggle against hegemonic coercion in an effort to expose that coercion and foster alternative power structures” (Evans 309). It can be seen that Rocky Horror is the latter, made a few years after the Stonewall riots and reflect this feeling of rebellion, embracing the chance to represent themselves in a media free from censorship. The depictions of religion act as a bitter critique of the institutionalised religions of American society in the Seventies which excluded and persecuted them. A deviant character is alluded to Christ and God and marriage presented as unnatural and the end of life for women. Globalisation and technology then allowed greater distribution of different images, brought gay communities across the world together, allowed queer cinema to thrive and gave many the opportunity to learn of other religions that were less discriminatory of homosexuality. Thus in Hedwig, spirituality across different cultures is used to normalise the main character's sexuality. It furthers worthwhile aims without alienating the hegemonic coercion audiences may have. While Hedwig is, like Frank, presented as Christ-like, it is for the audience to gain a better understanding of the character and shows how conciliatory the gay community has become of religion that it can accept their iconography.
Works Cited
Ambirajan, S. “Globalisation, Media and Culture” Economic and Political Weekly. 35. 25 June 2000: 2141-2147. JSTOR. Web. 21 October 2010.
Davies, Steven Paul. Out at the Movies: A History of Gay Cinema. London: Kamera Books, 2008. Print.
Evans, M. R. “Hegemony and Discourse: Negotiating cultural relationships through media
Production” Journalism. 3. 309. 2002: 309-329. SAGE. Web. 21 October 2010.
Hall s. “Racist Ideologies and the Media” Media studies: A Reader. New York: New York University Press. Print.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Dir John Cameron Mitchell. Reel Productions, 2001.
Knapp, Raymond. The American Musical: Performance and Identity. USA: Princeton University Press. 2006. Print.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Dir Jim Sharman. 20th Century Fox, 1975.
Verhoeven, Deb. “Film and Video.” The Media and Communications in Australia. Ed Stuart cunningham and Graeme Turner. Australia: Allen and Unwin, 2006. 154-174. Print.
Weinstock, Jeffery. Cultographies:The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Great Britain: Wallflower Press. 2007. Print.
