Hanna Rosin, a writer, apologized for a tweet she sent that criticised Hulu’s Fire Island for not adequately representing women.
Andrew Ahn directs “Fire Island”, which follows two gay Asian men (comedians Joel Kim Booster, and Bowen Yang) as they travel to Long Island’s iconic LGBTQ beach haven.
This movie is a modern queer take on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”. It also stars Conrad Ricamora and Matt Rogers and Tomas Matos. Torian Miller is also in the film. Margaret Cho plays the role of the lesbian owner at the Fire Island house where the friend group stays. Rosin seemed to be unhappy with Cho’s character and the absence of female characters in general.
Rosin tweeted Monday, “#FireIslandMovie gets a F- on the Bechdel Test in a whole new manner,” in a now-deleted Tweet. Do we ignore lesbian stereotypes because of the cute gay Asian boys? This is a retribution for the years that gay boys were best friends.
Rosin received backlash on Twitter.
Some platform members criticized her for including a lot of female representations in a film that was about the relationships between queer men.
“Can we not do that, please?” One person tweeted. “This movie features many queer Asian men, who are greatly underrepresented in media, and shown only as stereotypical, flat supporting characters when sporadically presented — as complex, nuanced leads.”
Others laughed about the Bechdel failure.
Grindr’s official Twitter account wrote that they were “exhausted” in a tweet. “I stayed up all night studying for my bechdel exam”
Another joker tweeted, “Gay male couples don’t pass the bechdel and are intrinsically sexist.”
Cho replied to the tweet by saying that he didn’t know he was drab. I don’t identify with drab. B—- I’m fab!”
Rosin, who is also the editorial Director for Audio at New York Magazine, apologized to Twitter after she was publicly scolded via Twitter. She attached a screenshot from her original tweet.
Rosin tweeted, “I deleted an offensive tweet that many of your rightly pointed out,” “I have read all your replies and I understand you. My tweet was careless, and I didn’t think about it. Truly. “The movie told a story about queer AAPI males, whose stories don’t appear enough in movies and elsewhere.”
She said, “What I had the nerve to say was irrelevant to the point. It’s a buzzkill in a summer movie.” Although it’s cliché, the fact that I didn’t see it coming shows how much I still have to learn.
Rosin had apologized and Alison Bechdel issued her final verdict.
Bechdel tweeted Tuesday night, “Okay. I just added a corrollary to the Bechdel Test.” “Two men talking about the female protagonist in an Alice Munro story in screenplay based on Jane Austen novels = pass.”
