Is Hangover II transphobic? (spoilers inside)?

Please note that my response contains movie spoilers. On the way home from seeing the movie last night, I told my husband I’d post a question on Fluther to see the reaction to the movie from my more liberal leaning cyber peeps. I think the movie was extremely funny; but was for a mature audience who is aware it contains lots of blue humor. I’m curious also about the reaction of PETA and other animal rights activists to the monkey smoking scenes.

I don’t see how it can represent anything “phobic” when the premise is a bunch of doped up hetrosexual men end up in a strip joint in Bangkok and one of the fellows has sex with a man. I thought it was hilarious. The male stripper’s reaction and dialogue is very funny. Raunchy and blue. But transphobic? No.

@bkcunningham If I understand the argument correctly, I think some people are seeing it as transphobic because the trans person is being used for a laugh and because Stu is grossed out at what transpired. Like, ewwww, transperson=disgusting!

He had sex up the buttocks with a man. Nothing wrong with being grossed out about that if it isn’t your thing. It would be like me doing the lickety split. It aint my thing. It would be like someone who prefers men, having sex with a woman when they were completely drugged and out of it and being grossed out by the action after the fact. I can’t wrap my head around how that is insulting. There were sooo many more things to be offended by in the movie than that scene. It was taking Stu’s actions in the first movie a step further. Pushing the envelope for the sake of the second movie.

@bkcunningham I completely agree with you. I was just trying to figure out if I’m insensitive because I’ve read so many comments about how offensive the scene was.

Here’s another thing to consider. The transwoman was an actual transwoman, Yasmin Lee. She obviously didn’t have any problems with playing the part. Do people up in arms about this scene have problems with Lee or her other roles? I’m sure she’s laughing all the way to the bank.

It is not, for the reasons @bkcunningham explained. There’s a difference between accepting someone’s lifestyle, and accepting their semen up your anus.

Also, on a side note, I find it interesting that on the site where people were offended, they were choosing to make it about transphobia rather than the fact that a man too inebriated to give consent by US terms had anal sex (some could say was raped) with another person’s penis (I’m not sure how to use pronouns in the case of a transgendered person).Anyway, glad to know I’m not completely insensitive.

I think those kind of people were seeking to be offended. The only thing I interpreted was that Stu was panicking that once again his blackedout antics have caused him to completely throw away his sense of morality, cheat on his s/o again, and do things he never thought he’d imagine doing. He freaked out more about the tattoo than he did about the ladyboy I think. And then later on in the movie when he decides to give up the marriage, he mentions he has a weakness for prostitutes and only that, the whole sex with a transgendered person thing wasn’t brought up nowhere nearly as much as you’d expect it to for a movie like that especially one that takes place in Thailand where this sort of thing isn’t as taboo as in the west.

Sensitivity is nice and all, but why are these people who are that sensitive going to movies like this that are known for being pretty raunchy?

@sinscriven A lot of them said they didn’t even see the movie because they didn’t want to give their money to something they heard would offend them.
I totally agree that the face tat was a bigger deal to Stu & Co. Even after the encounter with thr prostitute, one of the guys even said it’s not that big a deal.
I think some people view any situation with a minority population that’s played for comic effect as ____-phobic.

Of course it is. It’s also laced with a million stereotypes. Like any dumbass comedy, it caters to LCD (the lowest common denominator in the masses). Why, did you expect it to be somehow a move of substance?

Plenty of people find anal sex to be unappealing. How is that a phobia?

@josie Oh yea, just a simple dislike of anal sex, nothing more…that’s not a phobia..what did it have to do with trans folks? you let me know, ‘cause I didn’t see the movie, it looked so stupid.

The first one was pretty funny. I bet this one is too, trans folks or not. I hpoe “Mr. Chow” is in this one.

Oh, he’s in the movie @josie. Hilarious. I repeat, it is really blue comedy. I’m sure you knew that already. My husband and I both thought it was better than the first movie and we laughed our butts off at the first one.

@bkcunningham
Excellent!

The plot of that one scene @Simone_De_Beauvoir was, using a series of funny “clues”, the men went into the strip club to discover one more step of what they had done the night before during their drug induced memory loss unintentional bachelor party. As they are talking to this beautiful stripper to find out what happened, she reveals in a slow and seductive manner how she had sex with one of the characters (the man who is in Bangkok to get married). The plot goes on to another comedic twist when she explains how they had sex and the men see her penis. Too funny.

Doesn’t sound transphobic. It’s a silly situation.

I’m a girl but I can tell you if I were a straight guy, I’d be pretty mortified to find out that a girl that I’m into/intending to have sex with was really a man. It throws you for a loop. Is that “transphobic”? Should a man NOT be weirded out by that and if he is, does that make him “transphobic”.

It’s ridiculous. I know someone trans. It’s like he dresses up as a girl, straight guys flirt with him at a party, and then he gets offended when they don’t “react well” when he tells them that he’s a male. WELL WHAT DID YOU EXPECT? Shoulda been open from the beginning so no one gets disappointed.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir So, basically, you haven’t seen the movie and you didn’t know what the scene was about, but you can tells us categorically that the movie is indeed transphobic? Yeah, that’s not exactly a solid argument.

Which is not to say that the movie is not quite simply moronic.

That’s what makes “it” so funny.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir I wasn’t expecting highbrow, substantive comedy by any means, but I can be entertained by silliness. And it turns out you haven’t even seen the movie? You’re entitled to your opinions, of course, but saying “of course it is” when you haven’t seen the movie and aren’t even aware of what the scene entails is pretty judgmental and ridiculous.
@seekingwolf Some people on the other site are calling any negative reaction to homosexual sex (not just by watching it or hearing about it, but having it done to them) by a person who identifies as straight as homophobic or transphobic. I think they’re looking for a reason to be offended, personally.

Yeah sure sounds like it. Awfully silly if you ask me. They make it sound like it’s bad to have a personal preference for heterosexual sex.

This sort of nonsense is why I’ve been secretly bi since I was 14. All of my experience with women in the past was done in secret and it’s something that very few people know about me. No way in heck do I want to associate myself with the more vocal side of the GLBT crowd.

@bob_ My love, I don’t have to see that movie – I saw multiple previews and I can tell that the entire movie is much of the same idiocy. Getting a laugh out of a trans person revealing their penis is very cliche and whether or not you think it’s silly, it is part of what makes our society transphobic.