I just went and rewatched both of them, the bar scene and the later one at a party.
They could be worse. Dundee is shown as more shocked than angry or hate filled. The crowd is shitty but not violent, and nobody was offering any hate towards the ostensibly trans/gay character, “only” bigotry of a non violent nature. So it isn’t as bad as it could be. But it’s still pretty gods damn bad.
Thing is, it’s like Hogan himself said, the character is groping two people. The entire thing is misogynist, and regardless of any debate about whether or not the person in the bar scene was intended to be trans, or a gay man in drag (which used to be a fairly heated debate topic among the drag queens I know), what matters is that they’re treated horribly. So is the woman in the later scene.
I mean, that’s assault. Period. No debate about it, the character felt free to grab two people’s genitals. Like, hello, ever think of just asking? The person in the bar scene flees while everyone is laughing at the assault, ostracized and ridiculed just for being themselves. It’s a lesser form of bigotry than violent attack, but it sure ain’t how we’re supposed to treat each other.
The movie is better without those scenes. Any time the movie would come up in conversation with my gay friends, it was directly cited as a reason they didn’t like it. It’s just shitty behavior from someone we should otherwise be rooting for. Dundee being so casually willing to grope someone, for any reason, ruins the entire point of the character. That it’s either homophobic or transphobic (depending on who you ask, and it doesn’t really matter for this issue) makes it all worse, but just being willing to grab anyone’s genitals is such a shitty thing to do that it breaks immersion.
So, goodbye and good riddance to shit that should have been cut out before the film ever hit theaters the first time.
I’m fine with the cut. Glad even.
I just went and rewatched both of them, the bar scene and the later one at a party.
They could be worse. Dundee is shown as more shocked than angry or hate filled. The crowd is shitty but not violent, and nobody was offering any hate towards the ostensibly trans/gay character, “only” bigotry of a non violent nature. So it isn’t as bad as it could be. But it’s still pretty gods damn bad.
Thing is, it’s like Hogan himself said, the character is groping two people. The entire thing is misogynist, and regardless of any debate about whether or not the person in the bar scene was intended to be trans, or a gay man in drag (which used to be a fairly heated debate topic among the drag queens I know), what matters is that they’re treated horribly. So is the woman in the later scene.
I mean, that’s assault. Period. No debate about it, the character felt free to grab two people’s genitals. Like, hello, ever think of just asking? The person in the bar scene flees while everyone is laughing at the assault, ostracized and ridiculed just for being themselves. It’s a lesser form of bigotry than violent attack, but it sure ain’t how we’re supposed to treat each other.
The movie is better without those scenes. Any time the movie would come up in conversation with my gay friends, it was directly cited as a reason they didn’t like it. It’s just shitty behavior from someone we should otherwise be rooting for. Dundee being so casually willing to grope someone, for any reason, ruins the entire point of the character. That it’s either homophobic or transphobic (depending on who you ask, and it doesn’t really matter for this issue) makes it all worse, but just being willing to grab anyone’s genitals is such a shitty thing to do that it breaks immersion.
So, goodbye and good riddance to shit that should have been cut out before the film ever hit theaters the first time.