‘Fire Island’ movie: Alison Bechdel reacts to Hanna Rosin’s criticism – USA TODAY
Writer Hanna Rosin has come under fire for her criticism of the Hulu film “Fire Island,” thanks to a now-infamous tweet.
“Fire Island,” starring Joel Kim Booster, Bowen Yang and Margaret Cho, centers on a group of queer best friends vacationing in Fire Island Pines, a gay-friendly hamlet in New York. Rosin, author and editorial director for audio at New York Magazine, chided the film’s female representation on Twitter Monday, writing that the LGBTQ rom-com gets “an F- on the Bechdel test in a whole new way.”
“Do we just ignore the drab lesbian stereotypes bc cute gay Asian boys? Is this revenge for all those years of the gay boy best friend?” wrote Rosin in the now-deleted tweet.
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The Bechdel test is “a set of criteria used as a test to evaluate a work of fiction, such as a film, on the basis of its inclusion and representation of female characters.”
Alison Bechdel, the originator of the Bechdel test, shared her support for “Fire Island” Tuesday night.
“Okay, I just added a corollary to the Bechdel test: Two men talking to each other about the female protagonist of an Alice Munro story in a screenplay structured on a Jane Austen novel = pass. #FireIsland #BechdelTest,” the cartoonist said on Twitter.
More Twitter users quickly fired back at Rosin’s tweet, taking issue with her criticism of the film.
“you don’t have to tweet everything you think,” writer Esther Tseng replied. “you can instead think about the ways in which you center yourself in situations because you feel entitlement and examine how you can become a better person.”
Actor and singer-songwriter Simon Curtis, who is gay, called Rosin’s tweet “egregiously cruel” and “out of touch.”
“how do you think a gay Asian ‘boy’ in the US feels having literally never EVER seen themselves in a movie?” Curtis wrote. “Are you really that self absorbed, so unable to step outside of yourself for one moment, that you can’t see that maybe it’s not *supposed* to be about you?”
Twitter user @Michelle_BYoung pointed out Rosin’s misguided use of the Bechdel Test to criticize “Fire Island.”
“It makes sense to apply the Bechdel test to blockbusters & movies that are supposed to be for EVERYBODY to point out how women get the short end of the stick,” the user wrote. “It’s foolhardy to apply it to a movie like this or ‘A Soldier’s Story’ that’s telling a specific story about Men of color.”
The user added: “U doing this about a movie centering Asian gay men isn’t some exercise in FEMINISM. Asian men are not OVER YOU in the patriarchy ((especially) not gay men). This is YOU PUNCHING DOWN as a (white woman) demanding to be centered in even THEIR RARELY TOLD STORIES.”
In a follow-up Twitter thread Tuesday, Rosin apologized for the tweet and explained she deleted it after realizing its “offensive” nature.
“My tweet was careless and thoughtless,” Rosin wrote. “The movie was telling a story about queer AAPI men, whose experiences don’t show up enough in movies or anywhere else.”
Rosin continued: “What I had to say was beside the point, not to mention a buzzkill on a fun summer movie. It’s a cliche but the fact that I didn’t see it coming means I have a lot to learn. The last thing I want to do is pit members of my community against each other. I sincerely apologize to those who were hurt by my words.”
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