video, 1997, 19 min

A whisky-swilling, chain smoking dyke tries out for the University of Texas pom pom squad. In her words, "I don't want to stand on the sidelines doing nothing, I want to stand on the sidelines doing something!"

...In fact, a thematic thread coursing through nearly all the shorts is the filmmakers' critique of established power structures. The most hilarious and endearing of those critiques is Mocha Jean Herrup and Joanna Ingalls' "POM." Ingalls plays a lovable little cretin who convinces herself that she would be one among equals in UT's cheerleading squad, full of buxom blonds and Baptists. Thankfully, Ingalls is neither.

Perhaps the best, and certainly the funniest of the shorter films is POM, a video documentary by Mocha Jean Herrup about Joanna Ingalls' efforts tomake the University of Texas Pom Pom squad. With her stringy, two-tone hair, slacker clothes and average body, not to mention her ironic savvy, Ingalls is an anti-cheerleader in the midst of the teased-hair, hardbodied clones who serve as her competition. In between telling Herrup that she'd like to quit smoking and that she's maybe not the best athlete, Ingalls is confronted by a series of women so oblivious to the realities of body image and the way women are commodified, that they actually believe that "good attitude" is the secret to success, but that it wouldn't hurt if they lost five pounds either.

• TODAY, I BECOME A MAN
• A FEW GOOD DYKES
• LESBIANFILM
• THE LANCEBIAN
• POM
• Beer Commercial