John Hughes is not aging well

[Kyle]

Particularly because he's dead. But also, his movies aren't aging well. I'm looking for John Hughes gifs to put in the unkillable thread, and I'm finding so much stuff that's racist, sexist, creepy and-- seriously-- rapey. Case in point:

This scene from Breakfast Club- what you don't see is what's happening under the desk:



Or this gem:



Or anything with this character:



Or this:



Or this:



Or Ducky being awarded a rando hot girl as a prize at the end of his movie:



And is it Hughes' fault that he cast this creep?

[Phoebe]

I completely understand how people can read this differently, but I think Long Duk Dong is the hero of the entire movie, and not by accident, but because his character serves to systematically reveal all of the stupidity and superficiality and flaws of American culture, and the absolute best scene and highlight of the entire movie is his drunk scene. There's no comparison; it's the pinnacle of the narrative. So I don't know if John Hughes really meant all of it to be subversive in that way but I think LDD, he's a hero and a character designed to show what's wrong with everybody else.
The movie is full of casual racism and ethnic slurs that seem to be put there deliberately to highlight how much that's a normal part of the culture, because it's meant to show how awful the characters who are saying these things are, but we all recognize this casual demeaning behavior as completely normal. It's one of those movies I think of when white people my age express mystification that there could have been anything racist about their childhoods. Like they insist that they've never heard or seen anything racist and don't have a racist bone in their body, yet they were so completely enmeshed in this.

[Mike]

Yes, but he is also a gross Chinese stereotype with an exaggerated accent, and a cartoonish idiocy about how the world works. He's bad for all the reasons Apu was bad... after this movie how many Asian American teenagers had to suffer through being called Dong all the time while also being pelted with racist quotes from this movie? Apu was a complex and intelligent character, but none of that mattered because much of the funny was based on Hank Azaria's representation of the accent. So all sorts of brown people in this country has to suffer through the constant refrain of "Hey Apu," and "Thank you. Come again." I can guarantee that no Asians at the time (or ever) sent Hughes their profuse thanks for using Asian representation to undermine the hypocrisy and ludicrousness of American culture. You can call it subversive, but the INTENT of the character was a Chinese clown to make the audience laugh at him because of his name, his naivete, and his accent.

[Kyle]

This is a link to a good NPR article on it.

[Phoebe]

I hear it and can see why people read it this way - maybe this was even Hughes' intent to make him ridiculous, I don't know. I just don't feel it at all because for me the reason the character works so well - and is in fact the actual hero of the show - is that in the midst of this mess of uptight, social rank obsessed American teenagers, this is the ONLY guy actually enjoying himself, having a blast, living his rock and roll American life, being awesome. This is the guy you'd want to hang out with or be, out of all these people. I feel like we are never asked by the movie to laugh AT him but always WITH him - he's hilarious not because the character is presented as ridiculous but because the character himself is funny in a cool way. His scenes reveal all the bizarre and bad behavior of the Americans around him, including Sam - she's so wound up and anxious about her social status that she can't even deal with him as a human being rather than another embarrassing annoyance put upon her by her family. To me that first gong sound is all about her reaction, not him - that's how SHE sees him, even though he's a freaking riot - the audience immediately sees that he's living the double life of "polite exchange student/wild party animal" and I think we're supposed to identity fully on his side. I mean, he's "the man" - even Jake, the supposedly perfectly cool love object, is depressed and striking out at his efforts to contact Sam while Long Duk Dong is actually having fun (and apparently a happy sexual encounter) with his new girlfriend. The idea that he is "feminized" in these girlfriend scenes seems exactly the opposite of reality to me - if anything, it's sexist precisely because he's the only one man enough to notice that the girl with the large, ah, bosom is desirable. Classic trope where the tall, athletic girl with the terrible braces headgear is being mocked and overlooked by the other kids even though physically she's completely hot - the exchange student gets it, however, and has no fear whatsoever about seizing the moment! The fact that the sexy girlfriend line was used as a racist insult or taunt is so disgusting and stupid - I can't blame the movie for that, though. If his accent was being mocked that would be one thing, but like, the pinnacle of the movie is when he says AUTOMOBILE and it has to be in an accent. He is playing these people and we are all here for it cheering him on - that's just how I've always seen the character.