Critics are arguing over whether the queer rom-com passes the iconic test — and whether it even matters.
who takes issue with a good thing. And thus, we ended up with an egregious tweet by media personality Hanna Rosin, calling out Ahn and Booster’s film for failing to meet the requirements set by the popular Bechdel Test.
“So @hulu #FireIslandMovie gets an F- on the Bechdel test in a whole new way,” the Editorial Director for’s podcast wrote in a since-deleted tweet earlier this week. “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?”
Naturally, the response to Rosin’s tweet was swift and vicious, with many people calling the writer out for her bad-faith application of this particular test onto a film that doesn’t really call for it.cartoonist Alison Bechdel shows two women talking to each other about a potential trip to a movie theater. When one is asked whether she’d want to see something, the other woman responds, “I only go to a movie if it satisfies three basic requirements.
And in a very small certain way, Rosin has a warped point. As a movie about gay men, there are not many women in it , and there aren’t any scenes between them talking about things besides men . So, maybe— and more specifically, gaymen, a community that has historically never held a fair share of the Hollywood spotlight. Furthermore, it takes place on an island widely known as a safe space for gay men…precisely because the island is full of only gay men.