While I was late to the John Waters party, I’m fully immersed in the John Waters multiverse of trashness now. When I watched the original Hairspray movie for the first time shortly after moving to Baltimore in early 2021, I was star struck and overjoyed by the concept of the Hefty Hideaway. Mr.Pinky’s Hefty Hideaway is a brightly colored store with an overly welcoming, eccentric owner that Tracy and her mom get sponsorship from for the Corny Collins Show. From the donuts served up in store to the pink snowball desserts stacked in a tower for Tracy to eat while promoting the shop on the live show—there is something precious and exciting about the concept of a retail store created just for plus-size teens and women in Baltimore.
I love when camp and comedy goes so far that it circles back around to being revolutionary to the subject it’s speaking on, I see that in so many themes in Hairspray, including the off-beat representation of plus-size fashion. If I had to describe John Waters’ portrayal of plus-size characters in his films, I would say it’s a glowing example of what I call, camp with care. I would put John Waters on a Mt Rushmore of artists and directors who practice camp with care in their work, alongside Director Greg Araki and Comedian/Actress Megan Stalter.
“The fat girl wins in my movies, she never does in real life. I get along with women, a lot of my crews are women but the people that don’t win in real life win in my movies. There are no losers in a John Waters movie.”
– John Waters
Susan Sontag, who popularized the term in the mainstream media and philosophized in her book, Notes on Camp, stated that camp is not gender or sexuality specific, Sontag argued, but the aesthetic had been embraced by the LGBTQ community as a way to “neutralize moral indignation” by promoting a playful approach to that which others took seriously. Sontag did not coin the term, as queer people have been using and exploring the concept of camp long before her book was published in 1964 (even dating back to the Victorian era). There is something weirdly magical about seeing a plus size teen icon like Tracy Turnblad wear a cascading pink satin dress with cockroaches displayed all over it to celebrate her achievement as Miss Teenage Hairspray 1962.
Mr.Pinky’s Hefty Hideaway as seen in the 1988 film, Hairspray by John Waters.
Photo Credit: Flickr
As a plus-size person who has navigated bullying and harassment, I personally loved seeing fat jokes being turned on their head and taken wildly over the top in Hairspray. There was care in the crass delivery of the line, “Now I’ve got nothin’ but hampers of ironing to do… and my diet pill is wearing off!” from Edna Turnblad, showing the ridiculousness of vintage diet fads that still dominate and shapeshift to match the culture today.
Tracy Turnblad showing off her Hefty Hideaway frock during an ad break on the Corny Collins Show.
Photo Credit: Flickr
Seeing a plus-size lead character like Tracy have a positive storyline that included romance, fashion, and community while celebrating her size healed something in the young version of myself who still glimmers inside me. When I walk along The Avenue in Hampden, where the store and salon showcased in Hairspray are located in the film, I can’t help but wonder how cool it would be to have a modern Hefty Hideaway take up shop today.
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