Before it even hit theaters this past February, Zoolander 2 came under fire from LGBT protesters who felt the film's portrayal of non-binary gender issues was not a laughing matter. Well, those concerns have been raised again, as a college campus recently canceled a screening of the Ben Stiller movie, citing an email that brought those claims to the forefront once again.
This news came from The College Fix, which broke the story of how Claremont McKenna College removed Zoolander 2 from their campus film series just days before it was scheduled to show the film. As if this decision wasn't controversial enough, the film chosen to replace the fashion-based comedy was Deadpool, which prompted some students to question how showing the Ryan Reynolds raunch-fest was a more sensitive option than the PG-13 satire.
Naturally, the concerns over Zoolander 2's humor more than likely sprouted from the sequence where Benedict Cumberbatch's character, All, is questioned by Derek Zoolander and Hansel about his/her gender orientation. After all, these were the concerns previously raised before the film's February release, and considering no other claims have been leveled against the material up until this incident, it's not a stretch for these new claims would come from the same content. Though it should also be noted that these concerns were made by the student programming board. The same student programming board that decided Deadpool was a fitting substitute.
Considering Deadpool has tons of off-color material that could be seen as offensive, such as Wade Wilson being ravaged by a dildo on National Women's Day or Deadpool's prom sex joke involving Teenage Negasonic Warhead, it's a surprise that the student programming board of Claremont McKenna College would allow such a swap to take place. It's to be assumed that the board watched and vetted both films with as much attention to content paid to their respective comedic content. With that in mind, it doesn't look good when a firm compliment of jokes involving feminism and teen sex are seen as a safer bet when compared to Zoolander 2 asking an androgynous model whether they have "a hot dog or a bun."
No matter how you look at the situation, the decision of Claremont McKenna College's student programming board is ultimately their decision to make. As clear cut as the situation above may seem to an outside observer, only the student programming board would be qualified to know their peer's reactions to whatever film would be shown. Though if you'd like to judge for yourself, you can watch Deadpool on Digital HD on April 26th, and Zoolander 2 heading to Blu-ray and DVD on May 24th.
