Poster Posting: Kinky Boots

How do you sell a movie about transvestites to middle America? From the looks of the poster for Kinky Boots, you dodge that nugget of information like the draft.

In the film, Joel Edgerton (that's him in the middle) plays Charlie, who finds his family's shoe factory in danger of closing. A chance encounter with a drag queen named Lola (Chiwetel Ejiofor) gives him inspiration: create lavish boots in the style of the deodorant Secret: strong enough for a man, made for a woman (or a man who wants to be a woman). With Lola's help, Charlie creates a line of boots for the modern cross dresser on the go.

You can see one of the boots in all its glory on the poster. What you cannot see is the gender of the person wearing the boot. Could be a man, I suppose, but it could just as easily be a woman. And indeed, if you knew nothing about Kinky Boots and casually walked past the poster, you might guess it's about women getting all sexed up and going out on the town. You would be incorrect, but that's a very reasonable assumption. One, I'd argue, Miramax is not adverse to you making.

The appearance of Ejiofor on the poster is interesting too. Take a look at him there on the right. Then take a look at how he appears most of the time in the film:



Sensing a difference?

To be fair, Ejiofor does appear in men's clothing in some scenes — I'll be generous and estimate maybe 40% of the time. But even when he's wearing sweaters and slacks instead of frocks and skirts, he's still explicitly feminized, and accessorized with painted nails, earrings, and sparkly lip gloss. He never appears in the film in a suit. He never appears in the film in such a masculine outfit, period.

I'm not saying the poster is ducking the film's themes, but — okay, well, yeah, I am saying that. In the picture I posted here, you can see that it's Ejiofor's character who's wearing those boots. The film teaches us to be proud of who we are, and not to hide the things that make us different from others. Ironically, the film's poster does the exact opposite.