Movie Review: Fried Green Tomatoes

Podcast: Coming Soon

---

Welcome folks! I’m Jessie  and this is the podcast of the Pittsburgh LQBT+ Community Museum.

Today we're diving into one of the most beloved Southern novels of the twentieth century: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg. While many people know the story from the 1991 film adaptation just Fried Green Tomatoes, the original 1987 novel offers a richer—and much queerer—portrait of love, family, and community.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café is a Novel by Fannie Flagg , the book would later get a screen adaptation released in 1991 directed by Jon Avnet and starring  Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker and Cicely Tyson. Overall the story highlights female friendship and southern community during the early 20^th century. 

The strong female characters and their even stronger bond is what has caused so many to remember both movie and novel. Its plot shifts between two stories, that of Evelyn Couch who befriends Ninny Threadgoode, a resident at her mother’s-in-law nursing home and the residents of Whistle Stop Alambama.  During one of many disastrous visits. Evelyn meets Ninny who shares the stories of her youth at Whistle Stop in 1927 and the tale of Idgie and Ruth Set around the early 1900s. Through these stories Evelyn grows froma timid housewife to an independent pseudofeminist.

Now the stories Ninny tells are enthralling, the book is so dramatic. Theres’s murder, death and maiming by train; the Ku Klux Klan, domestic violence, and cancer. (let these also be your content warnings for the book.) Everything that makes a good southern gothic tale  besides a ghost is in this story. I cannot recommend this enough.

I want to be clear this isn’t a full review of either the book or movie, there are hundreds of good reads reviews and articles that compare the two. Today instead I want to stay home in on the relationship between two of the main characters, Idgie and Ruth. These two are what most historians would call just really close friends or roommates. And while Fannie Flag has openly said she did not write these characters as lovers they very much read as two queer coded characters spending their lives together. Flag also does not mind that these characters are interpreted as lesbians or queer and I would hope so as she wrote two women as life partners who build a home and business while raising a child with a sense of loyalty and love that transcends friendship. That very much gives romantic.

To give the quick story of these two. Idgie or Imogene Threadgoode meets Ruth Jamison when Idgie’s older brother Buddy is courting Ruth. I’ll delve more into the significance of Buddy and Idgie later. But for now it’s important to note that Buddy was close to both women in their youth and each were heavily impacted by his violent death. (spoiler alert for a book that’s been out for 40 ish years). After Buddy’s death these two don’t interact for years.  The two eventually meet again when Ruth comes to live with the Threadgoodes to teach Vacation Bible School one summer. Idgie has since become a recluse, living in the woods around her family property. While Ruth is initially disgusted with how brash and masculine Idgie acts, the two eventually become close and bond. The set off point is Idgie dragging Ruth along for a night of train hopping that leaves Idgie with a spained ankle and Ruth with a new voracity for life. In both book and movie it’s obvious Idgie is enamored by Ruth. While she initially teases her, she spends the whole summer trying to get her attention and ignores the advances of multiple men in favor of Ruth’s company.

Ruth eventually goes on to marry a man named Frank and becomes pregnant. While Ruth claims their marriage is happy, she loses touch with Idgie soon after the wedding. Both because of Frank’s eventual abuse and control and Idgie’s refusal to go to the wedding. After Ruth’s mother’s dead she writes to Idgie, resulting in Idgie staging a rescue.  She bring Ruth back to Alamamba so they can begin their life together. The Threadgoodes give the girls money so they can open the Whistle Stop Café, a small restaurant near the train tracks that is open to all, and raise Ruth’s son Buddy Jr. Now after this is a whole lot of stories but what you need to know is Frank, Ruth’s husband comes looking for her and their son. This results in his murder and a trial that puts both Idgie and the Whistle Stop’s cook, Big George in the hot seat. I won’t tell you what happened to Frank or the result of the trial just  know Idgie and Ruth’s story does not stop here. Soon after the trail Ruth is diagnosed with cancer and dies. The train eventually stops coming through Whistle Stop, the café closes, and the town slowly dies.

It is so good and a story that is both heartwarming and tragic. Through it all there are these tidbits of queerness sprinkled throughout, and I want to go through them and see how the book and movie differs:

1.       Idgie’s Gender Expression is vital to her character.

Today, I think any character made with Idgie’s characteristics would be identified  queer coded and gender non confirming. Both in the book and movie she is considered a tomboy. Going as far to almost ruin her older sister’s wedding because she refuses to wear a dress. Her relationship with Buddy is pivotal in this way as he is the only one who lets her wear boy clothes, play on the train tracks and climb trees with him. His loss impacts her greatly as to her he was the only one who understood this “true side” of her personality. It is implied in the books that she wears his clothes as she grows up and, in the movie, besides the court scene, there is almost no scene of her in a dress or skirt. These are things that we associate with a queer woman who doesn’t fit into society.  It is obvious that in both book and movie Idgie is seemingly promiscuous while living her wildlife. However, movie leaves out a fade-to-black sex scene with Idgie and another woman. I would say maybe the replacement of this is a food fight that happens in the movie between Idgie and Ruth that was described as a love scene within the cast commentary. The movie also does not foray into how enamored Idgie was with Ruth. The movie shows Idgie looking at Buddy and Ruth walking together while in the book Idigie’s mother addresses her sibling at the wedding  with “Your sister has a crush, and I don’t want anyone to laugh at her.” Idgie is blatantly described as being “in love,”. Idgie also has all the hallmarks of being very masculine. She gambles, drinks, and gets into fights which initially scares Ruth but eventually becomes something they bond over. Over the course of the story Ruth picks up Idgie’s habits this is shown in the movie by Ruth wearing more masculine clothing the farther she is away from Frank.

2.       To build off this, Ruth’s compulsory heterosexuality against Idgie’s attention initially creates an interesting dynamic.

Modern readers often interpret Ruth's story through the lens of compulsory heterosexuality—the social expectation that women should marry men regardless of their true desires. Ruth grows up in the American South in the early 20^th century. While Idgie came from a wealthy family Ruth did not so marriage to man was very important for her. Many readers interpret Ruth's marriage as something she entered because it was what society expected, not because it reflected her deepest emotional or romantic attachments. During the summer the two spend together there is an evening where both get drunk and are sitting by a lake. Ruth admits to Idgie that she is going to go home and “marry the correct man”. In the movie this is coupled with a longing gaze to Idgie from Ruth. In the novel, her adoration for Idgie is evident through physical contact. Ruth initiates kissing, cuddling and other more domestic affection. The two go on to share a bed when they run their restaurant. She is adamant that Idgie is Buddy Jr’s parent and the narrative emphasis that Idgie is the person Ruth loves the most. Even in the court scene she exclaims that she left her husband not because he was beating her, but because she loves Idgie more than anything.

Adding to the comphet interpretation  Ruth often falls into the more subdued partner role that is expected of a woman in a relationship even with Idgie. She eventually does break into a more independent role once Frank begins threatening the two women and Buddy Jr. Ruth is shown to be the more emphatic, nurturing and emotional of the two. Painting her in a feminine role while Idgie remains more masculine. Something common for the depiction of queer relationships particularly in the 80s and 90s.

3.       Domestic Partnership

Finally I feel we should touch on the domestic partnership between these two and the idea of found family. As a disclaimer platonic love is equally as important as romantic love and I am in no way insinuating that if you read these characters as best friends with no romantic feelings, you’re valid. None of the things I am about to say mean that these situations cannot happen platonically. Additionally, queer platonic relationships exist and look very similar, however given the context and time this was written Idgie and Ruth seemingly have a romantic relationship. Rather than centering dramatic declarations of love as seen in other love stories, Flagg focuses on the quiet moments: preparing meals, raising a child, supporting one another through hardship, and building a shared life. These ordinary acts become extraordinary because they portray queer love as stable, nurturing, and deeply rooted in everyday life. If these two characters were instead a man and a woman, they immediately would be interpreted as a couple or deeply in love with one another.  Even in Ruth’s death the two are left alone by their friends and son so Idgie can say goodbye. While many historic queers love stories are defined by tragedy this one is no different. However, overall  Idgie and Ruth’s story is characterized as stable and while not understood by everyone around them, it was respected. The sheer act of both being heads of the home raising a child together solidifies this relationship. While the movie did dumb down a lot of the clearer queer text this aspect is not lost from page to screen.

Despire being well loved Many readers of the book complain that the film is too subdued. Reader’s often say the very blatant lesbian relationship of Idgie and Ruth is turned to subtext. I think context is very important here. Fannie Flagg again did not write these characters as queer but did pull from many companion letters from this time period for this relationship. Additionally, large film studios we’re not willing to show an outward queer relationship due to fear of pushback. Finally, while Idgie and Ruth’s story is compelling, they aren’t the main characters; the titles are reserved for Ninny and Evelyn whose relationship is more about independence and friendship which the film focuses on.  The film still emphasized the character’s relationship with lingering eye contact, affection, and emotional devotion that felt like the novel.

One reason the novel continues to resonate is its celebration of chosen family. The café becomes more than a restaurant. It is a gathering place where neighbors support one another, travelers find hospitality, and people who exist on the margins discover belonging.

Idgie and Ruth create a family that challenges traditional definitions. Their household demonstrates that love, care, and commitment form the foundation of family. This message remains especially meaningful for many LGBTQ+ readers, who have long relied on chosen families for support and acceptance. More than thirty years after its publication, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe continues to find new readers and the movie continues as one of the must-see films.

For queer readers, Idgie and Ruth offered something that was still relatively rare in mainstream fiction during the 1980s: a relationship that was not defined solely by tragedy, but by decades of partnership, resilience, and joy. It is a reminder that queer people have always existed in a variety of places, times and different ways.

That was the review of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by the Holiday Pride, thank you for listening and thank you for sticking around.