In spite of those scathing, now-tone-deaf reviews, But I’m a Cheerleader was ahead of its time, and has since become required viewing in the canon of LGBTQ+ movies. And even then, the film was a lot more tame than Babbit had originally envisioned. In 2014, the director told HuffPost that she had to cut two scenes in order to avoid an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, which would have severely restricted her intended audience: teenage girls. The first, a scene showing Megan masturbating, was simply shortened. The second, which included an allusion to Megan and Graham having oral sex, was cut entirely, a decision that Babbitt called sexist, especially given the fact that a similar joke involving men was deemed acceptable. “It was really very sexist — it was homophobic, yes, but it was also more just about that it was women,” she told HuffPost . “[MPAA officials] were very uncomfortable with a woman masturbating, with a woman saying she’s going to go down on another woman.”