The author with Paul Reubens; photo by Evan A.

Why Pee-Wee Herman Mattered to So Many of Us

Lauren Modery
3 min readAug 1, 2023

--

Pee-wee Herman was our first introduction to gender fluidity and social nonconformity.

With the news of Paul Reubens passing, I’ve seen several online comments from millennials and Gen Xers about the impact his famous character, Pee-wee Herman, had on their lives. This often happens when someone of note passes away, but this one seemed to hit a little different.

--

--

Lauren Modery

Freelance writer; film Loves Her Gun premiered @ SXSW ‘13; used to be a Hollywood assistant; rail enthusiast; check out my dumb blog, hipstercrite.com