This September, the Academy Museum opened its John Waters retrospective entitled “John Waters: Pope of Trash,” shortly followed by Waters’ induction into the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The exhibit includes the glasses Mink Stole wore in Pink Flamingos (1972), costumes by Van Smith and a reproduction of the trailer Babs Johnson lives in in Pink Flamingos (1972). The world is experiencing a Waters revival and it’s about damn time. In the post-Trump era of cancel culture, and an increasing amount of anti-LGBT laws being passed in the US; Waters’ work is as relevant as ever.

It’s not uncommon in 2023 to hear people remark, “You could NEVER make that movie today!” usually in reference to the male-driven comedies of the 1970s, yet even today there remains no shortage of male-driven comedies that punch down at trans women, gay men and people of color. I attended the Academy Museum’s screening of Pink Flamingos, as part of the exhibition’s public programming. Though a long-time Waters fan, this was my first time seeing the film, which is still rather hard to find even in the era of streaming services. You could not make Pink Flamingos now, because there are several laws that would prohibit the film from being funded, made and distributed. The film notably features its starlet, Divine, eating fresh dog shit, a chicken being crushed to death during sex, and a scene in which a mother, played by Divine, performs fellatio on her son played by Danny Mills. Made prior to the culture wars of the 1980s, Pink Flamingos—against all odds—became an arthouse success through word of mouth, a cult following of fellow outsiders and independent media publications declaring the film a “must-see”.

“John Waters: Pope of Trash,” installation view, 2023. Photo: Charles White, JW Pictures. © Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

The beauty of Waters’ obscenities came not because the subjects of his films were the joke, but because those disgusted by his actors were the ones being mocked. The intended queer perverted audience understood the satire of lines of dialogue such as: “As you know, we run a baby ring. Oh, it’s really a very simple process. […] We sell the babies to lesbian couples and then we invest the money in various businesses around town.” These lines play into the image of what conservatives think homosexuals do for fun—which is obviously selling stolen babies to lesbian couples.

This very year, the state of Maryland decriminalized sodomy even though same-sex marriages were declared legal in all 50 states in 2015. While the left is constantly being pointed at and accused of canceling and censoring people, the right wants to end sex education in schools, ban drag shows and disallow teachers from naming their sexual orientation in the classroom. Yet while Waters has made some of the most offensive films of all time, his work remains relevant and important to those who know how to take a joke and whose voices have yet to be centered by mainstream media—the gays and girls who don’t look like Troye Sivan and Kim Petras.

Filth politics have never been more necessary and Waters’ work remains as hilarious and revolutionary as ever.