Am I becoming a Republican, because I am thinking this politically correctness may be getting a little crazy? We first covered this Zoolander 2 controversy on November 20th (zoolander-2-facing-transphobia-claims-lgbt-activists), but it seems it has escalated.
It’s not set to hit screens for another three months, but Zoolander 2 already finding itself embroiled in controversy over Benedict Cumberbatch’s portrayal of a gender-ambiguous model.
A petition calling for a boycott of the follow-up to Ben Stiller’s 2001 comedy classic has already amassed over 10,000 signatures, after campaigners took issue with a scene from the trailer in which the model is questioned about his or her genitalia.
The clip in sees Ben Stiller’s character Derek Zoolander ask: “Are you a male or female model?”
When Cumberbatch’s character replies: “All is all,” Owen Wilson’s Hanson adds: “I think he’s asking do you have a hotdog or a bun?”
Trans activists have denounced the portrayal as a “cartoonish mockery of trans people” and called on people to boycott the film entirely.
The petition’s founder, Sarah Rose, writes: “Cumberbatch’s character is clearly portrayed as an over-the-top, cartoonish mockery of androgyne/trans/non-binary individuals.
“This is the modern equivalent of using blackface to represent a minority.”
She added: “If the producers and screenwriters of Zoolander wanted to provide social commentary on the presence of trans/androgyne individuals in the fashion industry, they could have approached models like Andreja Pejić to be in the film.
“By hiring a cis actor to play a non-binary individual in a clearly negative way, the film endorses harmful and dangerous perceptions of the queer community at large.”
The movie’s producers and Cumberbatch himself are yet to comment on the controversy. – attitude.co.uk
Nope, I'm not trans-anything so my argument will most likely be considered null and void. If you think that, then there is no reason to read on. You are right, you will always be right, and I will be wrong since I have not lived the T in the LGBT.
Do we see the modeling industry calling for a boycott of this second installment of a series with its main plot is anything that can revolve around models being completely stupid? Are they saved because they do have some models acting in the movie as models?
Do we see straight people boycotting "How I Met Your Mother?" How dare they have a gay actor playing the ultimate example of a stereotypical pig of a man? Should Neil Patrick Harris be ashamed of himself for playing such a role. It demoralized men and they should have had a real heterosexual male play that role.
WTF is Nick Jonas doing? We need to be boycotting Scream Queens and Kingdom. He's a straight man playing a gay / questioning male respectively. Did they ask Adam Lambert first? I am sure there are some gay boxers out there that could have slid into Kingdom.
I so wanted to boycott Miss Congeniality 2 for it's portrayal of gay men as sissy hair dressers / stylists. Come on Diedrich Bader. That was too much! What did he say about his role?
With his drag role in Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, Diedrich
Bader believes he has reached the final frontier."A straight guy playing a gay man is the last black-face routine in
Hollywood. There was a time white actors played Asians, Mexicans, Native Americans and even African Americans, but that's taboo these days," says Bader, who plays Sandra Bullock's gay fashion designer in Miss Congeniality 2."I felt as long as I was doing less than Sean Hayes does weekly on Will and
Grace, I would be safe."It's not Bader's first foray into screen drag. In 1993's The Beverly Hillbillies, Bader, 38, played Jethro and Jethrene Bodine.
"The big difference is that this time I had my body waxed. The not being
waxed was part of the joke with Jethrene," says Bader, whose wife gave birth
to the couple's first child earlier this year. – groups.google.com
Wait, Eric McCormack, Will of "Will and Grace" wasn't a real life gay? How many butt jokes and sexual innuendos were on that show? How campy was he at times? That show should have been off the air after the pilot if we followed the same mentality. Or should we have laughed along with the show, but if straight friends laughed at gay jokes, we should have scorned them for doing so?
Let's not get started on Glee. Stupid cheerleaders, dumb jocks, straights playing gay / lesbian, and a kid in a wheelchair that wasn't even handicapped in real life! The physically capable community should have been all over that. You have a chorus of 100 trans individuals appear on the show, but when it came to the wheelchair bound student, you couldn't find anyone?
Did the trans community boycott Hedwig on Broadway? How many cis / straight men played that role in the past year?
The Big Gay Sketch Show was one of my favorite shows on television. It's where I was introduced to Kate McKinnon who is now on fire on Saturday Night Live. One of my favorite characters she created on that show was Fitzwilliam, a young boy who yearns to have a vagina.
Was this too much? A lesbian comically using the plight of a young boy wanting to be a girl? Or was it okay since it was all in the LGBT wheelhouse?
Making fun of and portraying are definitely two different things, but there are other actors that are HIV positive that could have taken over the roles in Dallas Buyer's Club, but they went and gave awards out for that movie, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Matthew McConaughey and Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role Jared Leto. Where was the boycott for that?
The roles played by Benedict Cumberbatch (Zoolander 2) and Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl) will be two very different portrayals of LGBT individuals. I intend to see both. But both are straight actors, so does this mean a boycott should be called for both movies?
Knowing the first Zoolander, I will most likely end up eating my words. I am sure they will take it way too far and when I say "it", I mean everything. There are probably 100 more tasteless jokes involving Benedict's character that we have not seen yet. There are most likely 1,000 times more jokes about models being morons, too.
And should we join in with our T members of our LGBT community. If they say it is wrong, then it is wrong. Is it like sexual harassment, like we all learned about at work? Just because we do not find something sexually harassing, doesn't mean someone else may not find it so, doesn't mean it is right. Do we say yes, if you say it is offensive and wrong, then it is?
Will you go see Zoolander 2? What do you think of the previews so far? Will it lead you to boycott?
I am so disappointed in
I am so disappointed in McKinnon. Her Fitzwilliam sketch is so ugly, and there's so much contempt & cruelty towards trans women in it. I'm disappointed in this article's author, as well, since he seems to think that the anguish of trans women can be portrayed "comically" and is his "favorite". How is this level of callousness possible?
I completely agree!! The
I completely agree!! The first Zoolanded used crude humor to the extreme and thats why we loved it. I understand how the sort of jokes used in the trailer could offend trans people if it were directed towards them in the real world, BUT GIVE ME A FREAKING BREAK PEOPLE!!! this is a movie, and not the real world!! It is a film aimed to be entertaining, while using crude, sick, and probably inappropriate jokes to get a laugh out of it's audience. I don't remember drag queens boycotting "To wong foo, thanks for everything, Julie Newmar" or "Priscilla queen of the desert" at the times of their release or anytime after. Both movies with leads all of which were straight men, and both movies to this day are looked at as cult classics, which I believe helped many generations after their release with a slight knowledge and acceptance toward those groups. I'm not saying that the trans community should be grateful that a blockbuster film is being bold enough to even have such a character in the film, or that they should embrace it at all. Just take a chill pill and at least wait till the movie comes out before you have a hissy fit!… that is all! 🙂