While it’s corny by design, Hairspray also aims to get at something truthful, about the various kinds of prejudice weighing down the city circa 1963, and how youthful optimism and music made a difference, if only in the lives of those kids craving some kind of diverse, progressive community.If I'm not mistaken, Murray is close to my age (near 40), so I expect the normal Gen-X level of irony, all the more so when discussing Waters.
This interpretation is colored with the Millennial think-happy-thoughts vision that made the recent musical reboot far removed from the original.
Waters shares with Morrissey a perspective of being empathetic without being sympathetic. They understand their characters' desires and actions but don't necessarily agree with them, all the while generally liking them. I'm having a hard time thinking of straight artists that did the same but the point-of-view doesn't seem inherently gay, even though it's a major element of camp.
It seems to me that Hairspray is a continuation of this attitude. Pink Flamingos was about the triumphs of an insane-but-principled woman aspiring to be the Filthiest Person Alive; Hairspray is about the triumphs of a silly little fat girl in the mid-60s.
In the film, Tracy usurps the snobby rival who is the most popular girl in Baltimore. She snags the city's most eligible young bachelor. She earns the respect of her parents. She becomes a style-setter and she changes the world for the better. And she does it by dancing and being her wonderful self.
Waters likes Tracy and, like a fairy godmother, waves a wand to make all her dreams come true. But he hints at his feelings for how valuable her goals are. Tracy's rise as Baltimore's princess for the masses is shown by making her the spokesmodel for a ladies big-and-fat store. When she introduces Baltimore to her new dance, she's wearing a dress patterned with cockroaches. When she visits the record store where black teens dance, everyone is grinding against one another in an overtly sexual manner. What Tracy thinks are the greatest things in the world are at best pointless and usually grubby.
That's what makes Waters' work so much fun to watch. He's saying, "Isn't this girl cute? She's so sweet and doesn't even care that she's fat. Oh, look, she's got a boyfriend now--he's gorgeous! Look how happy she is!"
Contrast Waters' attitude with that of Todd Solondz. In Welcome to the Dollhouse, he focuses on a girl only a bit younger than Tracy. Maybe Solondz doesn't actively dislike Dawn but he definitely has no illusions as to who she is. His story shows bluntly what happens to girls like that. He doesn't make her dreams come true--in fact, he dashes them, as when her hated sister was kidnapped, only to be treated like a princess during and after the abduction. Solondz takes a loser and shows just how badly she loses. Waters takes a loser and makes her queen for a day.
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