Role Models

John Waters’s Role Models is less a conventional memoir than a curated tour through the gallery of his mind, using the portraits of others to paint his own. The book operates on the premise that we are the sum of our obsessions, and Waters’s are gloriously perverse. He constructs a self-portrait through intimate, often hilarious profiles of the figures—famous, unknown, criminal, and surprisingly square—who shaped his singular sensibility and taught him his brand of neurotic happiness.

The profiles range from the legendary, like Tennessee Williams and Little Richard, to the obscure, such as Esther Martin, proprietor of Baltimore’s most terrifying bar, or Bobby Garcia, auteur of gay Marines pornography. Waters dissects his adolescent fascination with the Manson family and his admiration for the atheist firebrand Madalyn Murray O’Hair with the same deadpan sincerity. Each chapter is an exercise in aesthetic and moral archaeology, digging into what these extreme personalities revealed to him about art, rebellion, and the boundaries of taste.

Through these encounters, Waters articulates a coherent, if radical, philosophy of art and life. He argues for the transformative power of embracing the taboo, finding the sublime in the ridiculous, and recognizing that the most authentic truths are often housed in fiction and fringe behavior. The book is a masterclass in how to build a creative identity from the cultural detritus that polite society rejects.

Role Models ultimately serves as an intellectual bildungsroman for the misfit. Its target audience is anyone who has ever felt out of step with the mainstream, offering not just validation but a blueprint for constructing a meaningful, joyful life from the raw materials of one’s own peculiar inspirations. It solidifies Waters’s legacy not merely as a filmmaker but as a profound and witty cultural critic who redefines what—and who—is worthy of our admiration.

The consensus celebrates Waters's uniquely perverse and hilarious intellect, with readers admiring his fearless honesty and the book's role as a key to understanding his artistic mind. The primary critique centers on the esoteric nature of some role models, which can feel alienating or self-indulgent to those less immersed in his particular cultural orbit. While not for the easily offended, it is widely deemed essential for fans and a compelling case study in identity formation for the creatively inclined.