Group sponsors talk by Barnard prof

The name Judy Garland brings to mind images of Dorothy, an innocent gingham-clad girl from The Wizard of Oz who goes somewhere over the rainbow. But as Tuesday night's lecture at the Annenberg School for Communication proved -- we are definitely not in Kansas anymore. Ann Pelligrini, a professor of Women's Studies at Barnard College, talked of gender identities and sexual relations in her program, "Judy Garland's Body -- Passionate Attachments Out of Order." Brought to campus as the Lesbian and Gay Academic Union of Philadelphia's last speaker of the year, Pelligrini began her presentation with a projected picture of Garland and her daughter, actress and singer Liza Minelli. She warmed the crowd up by jokingly referring to her own homosexuality. "My then [high school] boyfriend did not turn out to be a gay man -- but I did," Pelligrini joked. She then rhetorically asked the audience how her fondness of Judy Garland equates her with gay men. Exploring the persona of Garland, Pelligrini discussed the "gay male cult" that traditionally follows the late star and, therefore, how "an authentic relationship to Garland is barred to the lesbian." Drawing parallels to her own lifelong fascination with the actress, and examining how Garland herself epitomizes the struggle for identity, Pelligrini called Garland "a highly theatricalized presentation of self." The lecture was accompanied by slides of Garland and video clips of some of her most famous roles from all stages of her career -- from the pert child star to the grossly overweight, drug-addicted and troubled woman in the months preceding her death. Pelligrini drew on her own vocal talent as she launched into a few bars of music intermittently throughout her talk, which drew about 20 students and local residents. "Part of the appeal of Judy Garland was the shattering of the fa_ade of the girl next door," Pelligrini said. Indeed, she went on to discuss the implications of Garland's not-quite-right brand of femininity. She described the starlet's body as "disorderly" and recapped MGM's attempt to mold and shape her image into an "acceptable" one through the use of barbiturates and diet pills. "She was doing a femininity excessive to itself," Pelligrini said. The lecture series, which has been in existence for 17 years, seeks to "introduce Penn and the Philadelphia community to scholarship in gay studies," said Robert Schoenberg, director of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Center. "There are many who are interested in gay people and their lives from an academic standpoint." Schoenberg added. Upcoming Lesbian and Gay Academic Union events include a lecture on the nature of bisexuality on January 27, and a joint discussion with the Institute of Contemporary Art on the presence of homosexuality in the arts.