this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
109 points (100.0% liked)
askchapo
23089 readers
198 users here now
Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.
Rules:
-
Posts must ask a question.
-
If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.
-
Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.
-
Try [email protected] if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I absolutely love the movie hackers but it has a surprisingly homophobic/transphobic scene considering how queer coded many of the main characters are. Maybe to appease the censors. It was the 90s after all.
It also packs a lot of patriarchy and misogyny despite also making Acid Burn the most bad-ass character.
Both the music and the aesthetics of that movie are great (including the clueless "hacking" visualizations, reminded me of Gibson's books)
It's been a while since I've seen it, what was the transphobic scene ? mostly I remember like half the good guys being, indeed, surprisingly queer coded for the times
spoilers and description of transphobia ahead
The scene I’m thinking about is during the prank war on agent Gill, when Zero Cool (Dade) puts an ad in the classifieds with Gill’s home phone number. The ad if I remember correctly, says cross dressers and transvestites welcome, and then the movie cuts to him going through his voicemails which consist of nasty sexual messages. My issue with it is that the only explicit portrayal of queer people is of them sexually harassing someone over the phone as a joke. Also for the misogyny, the party scene at Acid Burn’s place consisted of way too much time ogling the women, and Lord Nikon was made such a creep which wasn’t necessary. Actually come to think of it, they’re supposed to be in high school which means the camera was literally ogling girls from the male gaze. Unfortunately though I’d still have to say that for the time it was a very good movie. Stuff like that seems super common in older movies.Oooh I just rewatched the scene in question and you're right; on both counts, too (the latter bothers me even more than the phone calls, because the former at least is like 20 seconds). And yeah, for the times I think it was ahead despite problematic moments
Yeah I still love it as much as those parts suck. It’s the only movie that scratches the specific itch I get once in a while.