Writer Hanna Rosin apologized after a now-deleted tweet of hers criticized Hulu's "Fire Island" for failing to adequately represent women.
"Fire Island," directed by Andrew Ahn, focuses on two gay Asian men (comedians Joel Kim Booster and Bowen Yang) and their group of queer friends as they travel to the iconic LGBTQ beach haven just off the coast of Long Island in New York.
The movie is a queer modern take on Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" that also features cast members Conrad Ricamora, Matt Rogers, Tomas Matos and Torian Miller. Margaret Cho also stars in the film as the lesbian owner of the Fire Island house the friend group stays at. Rosin appeared to take issue with Cho's character, and the lack of female characters overall.
"#FireIslandMovie gets an F- on the Bechdel test in a whole new way," Rosin wrote in a now-deleted tweet on Monday. "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?"
On Twitter, Rosin was met with backlash.
Some on the platform called her out for using a measure of female representation in a film about relationships between queer men.
"Can we not do this, please?" one person tweeted. "This movie features several queer Asian men — who are vastly underrepresented in media and shown only as flat, stereotypical, supporting characters when sporadically present — as complex and nuanced leads."
Several others joked about failing the Bechdel test.
"exhausted," the official Twitter account of Grindr, an LGBTQ dating app, wrote in a tweet. "I was up all night studying for the bechdel test"
Another person jokingly tweeted: "gay male couples do not pass the bechdel test and are inherently sexist"
Even Cho responded to the tweet, saying: “I didn’t realize I was drab. I don’t identify as drab. B---- I’m fab!”
A day after being publicly scolded on Twitter, Rosin — who is also the editorial director for audio at New York Magazine — apologized on Twitter, attaching a screenshot of her original tweet.
"I deleted a tweet that many of you rightly pointed out was offensive," Rosin wrote in her series of tweets. "I’ve read your responses and I hear you. My tweet was careless and thoughtless. Truly. The movie was telling a story about queer AAPI men, whose experiences don’t show up enough in movies or anywhere else"
She continued: "What I had to say was beside the point, not to mention a buzzkill on a fun summer movie. It’s a cliche but the fact that I didn’t see it coming means I have a lot to learn."
A few hours after Rosin apologized, Alison Bechdel herself issued the final verdict on the test that she created.
"Okay, I just added a corollary to the Bechdel test," Bechdel tweeted on Tuesday evening. "Two men talking to each other about the female protagonist of an Alice Munro story in a screenplay structured on a Jane Austen novel = pass."
In response, the official Twitter account of "Fire Island" had only two words to share: "WE PASSED!!!!!"
