Does 'Fire Island' Fail the Bechdel Test? Twitter Furiously Debates
It's a movie about gay men written and directed by an Asian-American man and starring Asian-American male actors in the lead roles amongst an ethnically diverse cast. Given the singularity of these details, it can only be the new Hulu rom-com "Fire Island" from filmmaker Joel Kim Booster, a movie that's been greeted with enthusiasm by its target audience.
But, reports say, "Fire Island" has also drawn criticism for supposedly failing the Bechdel test, a metric invented by out lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechdel to assess works based on, among other criteria, whether female characters talk with each other about something other than men.
The film "is a modern, queer rewrite of Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice,'" Newsweek said, "starring Bowen Yang as the lead alongside Conrad Ricamora, Matt Rogers, Tomas Matos and Torian Miller."
"Margaret Cho also plays a housemother on the vacation," the article noted.
Apparently, it was Cho's role that drew the condemnation of New York Magazine's Hanna Rosin, a writer who has also been a podcast co-host for NPR.
"So @hulu #FireIslandMovie gets an F- on the Bechdel test in a whole new way," Rosin sent out in a June 6 tweet. "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?"
The tweet prompted a barrage of pushback.
"Sordid Lives" actor and producer Emerson Collins was one notable commentator, replying:
The podcast Las Culturistas, which is co-hosted by Yang, also weighed in:
But perhaps the most piquant (or, possibly, piqued) pushback came from Margaret Cho herself:
The question of how well "Fire Island" fulfills the requirements of the Bechdel Test aside, the film has also received some criticism from within the gay community for its supposed reliance on ripped male physiques — even as Joel Kim Booster's screenplay builds in pointed observations about various forms of racial and body-focused discrimination in the gay world.
The Daily Beast writer Adam Manno, in an essay on the movie, wrote that "Booster delivers a painfully accurate account of gay taxonomy," disclosing that while viewing the film he "sometimes found myself wincing, imagining what I'd feel — or how I imagine I'd be treated — in such a crowded and horny environment as a fat gay man of color myself."
The article mentioned how the movie calls out the discriminatory dating app phrase that many of us have seen before: "No fats, no femmes, no Asians."
And yet, the Daily Beast piece noted, Booster himself plays a character who sports "glistening biceps." Throughout the film he also appears shirtless, showing off six-pack abs; the article noted how cast member Torian Miller, "a plus-size Black comic, is largely sidelined in favor of his thinner co-stars." In a recurring joke, another "ripped" and "shirtless" character treats the protagonists and their friends "coldly."
"The movie does little to move past established standards for what a gay body worthy of love and attention looks like," the Beast said.