Zsazsa Zaturnnah
Gay Power in Cartoon
Basically a spoof of the Filipino superheroine Darna, herself patterned – err, created – by Mars Ravelo in 1950 after DC’s Wonder Woman, Zsazsa Zaturnnah is, in so many ways, the typical Clark Kent turns Superman two-faced superhero story.  The twist, in this case, comes in the person of Ada, the mortal alter-ego, who is flamboyantly gay (well, not as gay as the sidekick Darna’s-Ding-of-the-story Didi, but a parlorista, all the same).

Conceived, drew and published by Carlo Vergara (One Night in Purgatory), the storyline of Zsazsa is simple enough:  A mysterious stone (read: big stone, not like Darna’s pebble) falls from the heavens, giving salon owner Ada the ability to transform into Zsazsa (after swallowing the big stone, of course, a la Darna), a superwoman as strong as can be, and, to boot, beautiful as can be.

Named after (in Vergara’s words) “semi-seen as a gay icon” Zsa-Zsa Padilla, everything about Zsazsa is Filipino camp: from Maricel Soriano’s mataray (sharp, bitchy) approaches to Sharon Cuneta’s killer tweetums one-liners, and from Nora Aunor’s distinct low-voiced acting style to Vilma Santos’ similarly distinct always-harried method.  Throw in some of the fighting scenes between Zhang Ziyi versus Michelle Yeoh in Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, as well as classic Cherrie Gil, just to be sure.

A twist interestingly brought about by the gay to female persona of Zsazsa is Ada’s love for Dodong, the baryo hunk, who fell for Zsazsa – not that this should be an issue in the country’s context, where men can do it with boys and girls and still remain men (in fact, even enhance their masculinity for managing to be attractive to both sexes).

The kontrabida comes in the person of Queen Femina Suarestellar Baroux, who, with her Amazonistas, want to take over the world to rid it of men (the men of their kind once controlled the women in their planet but they managed to overthrow them) – though, of course, typical of Filipino superhero narrative, there are also the zombies to contend with (don’t ask how or why they awakened from their “deep sleep”, in the Philippines, they always just do to wreak havoc to the living), and a giant frog from nowhere.

As is expected, in the end, good triumphs over evil (with Ada, not Zsazsa, even winning Dodong), with Ada and Didi, Dodong in tow, moving to Manila to look for greener pastures (a sentiment most Filipinos, irrespective of gender, share).  Expect, of course, bigger challenges for Zsazsa while also there.

While largely (especially by the heterosexual community) perceived as a side-splittingly funny impression of the gay community, Zsazsa has also been censured (many in the political wing of the gay community) as merely promoting the stereotypes that members of the community want to change.  But Vergara says, “I have always been against the way homosexuals have been portrayed – as the sidekick, as the butt of jokes, and we all know that.  But a stereotype wouldn’t be a stereotype if it didn’t exist.  The stereotype exists, it’s real.  What I attempted to do with Zsazsa is take the stereotype and do something with it.  There must be more to the stereotype; there must be more meat in there… (so that) we don’t laugh at (the Zsazsa characters), but laugh with them.  And that’s what I wanted to achieve, to give them three dimensions so that you’ll want to care for them, that you’ll want to see more of them.”

At the end of the day, Zsazsa, thus far, remains the only non-sidekick parlorista character in Filipino, providing a step forward, at least, for the community, whether the step is wanted or not.

Already, there are two comic books of Zsazsa Zaturnnah, as well as a musical from Tanghalang Pilipino, the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ resident theater company.