"The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert went further than any of these in attacking the Crocodile Dundee mythology of the essentially harmless heterosexual outback male. These same types of men, usually depicted in bars in Priscilla, can be suspicious, violent, vulgar and extremely intolerant, especially when confronted with alternative definitions of masculinity." Paul Byrnes - Sydney Morning Herald film critic

Directed by Stephan Elliot, Priscilla was created as a homosexual "antidote" to Paul Hogan's Crocodile Dundee. It follows the story of Terence Stamp; an aging transsexual, with bitter views and a sarcastic sense of humour. Terrance and his fellow performers are en route to the show of their lifetime across the desert land. In the process, they bring some sophistication to the backwater that is outback Australia.

Priscilla's humour, plot and direction all revolve around correcting the positive stereotypes of Crocodile Dundee. Whereas Crocodile showed the outback as home to good natured larrikins, Priscilla showed the outback as inhabited by homophobic and unsophisticated rednecks. Not surprisingly, Priscilla’s humour is neither witty, clever, nor insightful. Instead, it is sarcastic, insulting and vulgar. In one scene, a transvestite explains how he went to the toilet after his ABBA idol. He was elated to find some faeces left behind, and quickly scoped it up to keep as a memento that he now proudly shows to people.

As well differing in their senses of humour, Crocodile Dundee and Priscilla also differed in regards to their depictions of Aborigines. In Crocodile Dundee, Aborigines were portrayed as people to be respected. Mick Dundee joins them in a corroboree, and incorporates Aboriginal culture into his daily life. Furthermore, Aborigines make jokes about city stereotypes that Aborigines don't know how to use a camera or live in fear about a camera taking their spirit away. On the other hand, Priscilla showed Aborigines as social outcasts on the same level as homosexuals. Whereas Dundee dressed himself up as an Aborigine, Priscilla dressed the Aborigines up as drag-queens. A subtle difference in depiction, but one that told a great deal about how the respective writers and directors ranked Aborigines in status, as well as how that status could be exploited to endear the audience to the characters. Mick Dundee gains status by becoming Aboriginal. The gays gain status when Aborigines let themselves be depicted as transvestites.

Crocodile Dundee (1986)- Status by becoming Aboriginal

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) - Status by assimilating Aborigines

Aborigines were not the only non-whites that Elliot defined in negative ways. The wife of one of the outback characters is a Filipino sex maniac. A flashback shows her seducing the character in order to get a free-ticket to Australia. In one of the movie's extreme scenes, she enters the bar to interupt the drag queen's performance. She then does a striptease that involves shooting ping-pong balls out of her vagina. Possibly, Elliot's intention was to portray the outback men as racist and sexist for putting a lewed sex display above a cultured performance. The main problem with such an explanation is that Elliot showed the woman as the initiator of both the scam marriage and the ping pong display. In Elliot's depiction, it is not the men with the problem, it is the manipulative, vulgar and sex crazed Asian female.

Aside from the fact that it is the Asian woman who is most demeaned, the scene is both sexist and racist as it is completely detached from reality. The Phillipines is a strong Christian society, and sex displays are definately not celebrated in the country. Admittedly, a tiny percentage of Asian women do perform sex shows for men at bars throughout Australasia. While these women show a happy face to the public, privately they are often slaves, or forced into prostitution to survive. Their life is anything but the orgasmic experience shown in the movie. By trying to make a "joke" about it, Elliot trivialised their experiences.

While Elliot may have his outback stereotypes, the fact that he made such a vulgar and racist scene is perhaps more of a reflection upon the cultural norms of gay society than that of outback Australia. Outback Australia, like almost all rural societies around the world, is conservative. In a sense, Elliot was accusing the outback male of a crime that he was personally committing.

Mining towns can be an exception to the conservative rule because they are inhabited almost solely by men who are disconnected from their families. Generally speaking, when groups of men get together, be they soldiers, miners or homosexuals, in an environment detached from women and families, they become vulgar. Ironically, these mining towns have at times been quite open to transexuals as the miners tend to be completely open to everything and anything.

While Priscilla was promoted as a comedy, it was very political, and others used it for political objectives. This was seen during the Closing Ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. As a tribute to Sydney's homosexual community, a Priscilla bus was paraded around the stadium accompanied by several drag queens wearing big wigs. Although it is not known what percentage of Australian society are transvestites, considering that roughly 2-4 per cent of Australians are gay males, perhaps a crocodile wrestler is a more accurate representation of Australia.

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