Reflection 4: That's Totally Gay, Dude—Politically Incorrect '80s Cinema

The Eighties can count some of the most respected films ever produced among its own. From Raging Bull to Ghandi to Driving Miss Daisy, dozens of ‘80s films reached new cinematic heights. However, another legacy of the decade was its penchant for highly racist, sexist, and homophobic film depictions. Eighties films routinely (and unapologetically) portrayed broadly stereotypical characters. Thus, ‘80s films regularly presented Asians as “others” (Sixteen Candles), a woman’s body as not her own (Weird Science), and homosexuals as laughable caricatures (Mannequin). Eighties films were not concerned with accurate portrayals of, say, Latinos or immigrants or the disabled, but with “shorthand” representations that audiences could quickly refer to for a laugh or a cry. Today, the country’s changed demographics, and even “political correctness,” help keep many of these negative portrayals at bay. While we certainly have our own social challenges in 2016, much of what we saw in the ‘80s would be unacceptable today. If we view films as a reflection of the times that produced them, then what do the movies of the '80s say about that decade? Likewise, what do today’s somewhat more sanitized representations say about our own time?

Choose at least two of the following in your discussion:

• "Way Too Many ’80s Movies Treat Rape as a Punchline" (Vocativ)
• "What's So 'Cringeworthy' about Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles?" (NPR) 
• "Sixteen Candles is Sexist and Racist—and Needs to be Retired" (New York Post)
• "When Your Favorite Childhood Films are a Little More Homophobic Than You Remembered" (Huffington Post)
• "Soul Man, the Forgotten Blackface Comedy" (The Unwatchables)
• "Sixteen Candles and Soul Man Named Among 50 Most Racist Movies of All Time" (Tampa Bay Times)

Requirements:

• MLA Style
• Two pages in length
• Works cited page

Due: Th 10.13