Power Suits

Everyone loves a woman in uniform (even Iron Maiden had a song by that name), but until Austin filmmaker Mocha Jean Herrup finished her documentary on queer uniform fetishists the Dyke Uniform Corps, few films had addressed the subject head on. By turns playful, hilarious, and intellectually stimulating, A Few Good Dykes follows Herrup's involvement with this sartorially inclined outfit and ends up revealing as much about society's love of a sharp-dressed dyke as it does about the DUC.

"I was the first accepted recruit to the Dyke Uniform Corps, actually," says Herrup. "I had always had fantasies about boot camp and things like that, but once I grew up and became a conscious adult I realized I never wanted to join the military. But you've got to admit, it's really hot."

Enter the DUC, which offers all of the thrills of uniform play with none of the bloody rigors of actual military service. Uniform fetishes cut across all known gender boundary lines, in effect blurring them, linking Joe Straight to Jane Queer in ways the two might never have imagined.

But why uniforms specifically?

Herrup: "I think for sure it has to do with power. There's something a little scary about it, too, in that part of it has to do with looking the same as others. It has the same sort of larger-than-oneself feeling that you get at concerts or huge political rallies, where many otherwise individual persons are suddenly all of the same mind. The uniform is literally a thread of all that, and I tried to exploit that in the film and show how even the most radical gender-queer and artistic people are attracted to this sort of loss of individuality. There's something in human nature that's attracted to that seed of fascism."

Heady words for one of the most entertaining queer documentaries yet made, but Herrup also notes that DUC members are only allowed to wear law enforcement or U.S. military uniforms (thereby disallowing all that pesky, albeit cannily designed, National Socialist regalia).

So, no Canadian Mounties?

"No," chuckles Herrup. "And I was kind of bummed about that. But I pushed it to the limit when I convinced them that one of my accepted uniforms could be a United States representative on a United Nations peacekeeping force."

We always thought those baby-blue UN uniforms were particularly striking. Now we know why.

A Few Good Dykes screens as part of the Lone Star States program at the Alamo, 3/12, 9:45pm (the world premiere); at the Dobie, 3/18, noon; and at the Alamo, 3/20, 8pm.