Zoolander 2 slammed over ‘awful, unfunny’ Benedict Cumberbatch trans joke
A new trailer for Zoolander 2 features Benedict Cumberbatch’s new androgynous, gender-fluid character being mocked.
The sequel to the Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson film, which is set for release in February, debuted a new trailer this week.
The clip features Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch as All, a new supermodel whose gender is unclear, referencing the trend of androgynous models in high fashion.
However, some have criticized the way the film appears to handle the scenario, with Zoolander and Hansel asking: “Do you have a hot dog or a bun?”
A writer on feminist site Jezebel slammed the film for using a “shitty trans joke”, noting: “Some of what we’ve been given here is exhausting: some not very chic jokes about androgyny in modelling and a f**ked up line about whether said androgynous model (Benedict Cumberbatch) has a dick, showing that the writer (Justin Theroux?!?!?!) is familiar enough with the industry to know it’s becoming more open to models of all genders but not familiar enough to know that a cheap joke about an ostensibly trans or gender fluid person’s genitalia is retrograde b**chassness.
“Not funny, you cishet f**kboys.”
Back in the real modelling world, supermodel Andreja Pejic came out as trans last year – and her mainstream acceptance has been followed with the growing use of androgyny and trans models across the fashion world.
Pejic made history as the first out trans model to be profiled by Vogue – while a growing number of female models are modelling in menswear collections and vice versa.
Watch the trailer below:
