Petition Launched Calling For Boycott of 'Transphobic' Zoolander 2

A petition has been launched condemning ‘Zoolander 2’ for being transphobic and calling for the movie to be boycotted.

The ire has been caused by Benedict Cumberbatch’s character, as unveiled in the first trailer for the sequel, released last week.

It featured a barely recognisable Cumberbatch playing an androgynous model called All.

During the snippet, Owen Wilson’s character Hansel asks whether the model has 'a hot dog or a bun’.

In the online petition, creator Sarah Rose writes: “Cumberbatch’s character is clearly portrayed as an over-the-top, cartoonish mockery of androgyne/trans/non-binary individuals.

“This is the modern equivalent of using blackface to represent a minority.

“If the producers and screenwriters of Zoolander wanted to provide social commentary on the presence of trans/androgyne individuals in the fashion industry, they could have approached models like Andreja Pejic to be in the film.

“By hiring a cis actor [meaning a person who is happy living with their birth gender] to play a non-binary individual in a clearly negative way, they film endorses harmful and dangerous perceptions of the queer community at large.

“Tell Paramount Pictures, Ben Stiller, and Benedict Cumberbatch that mocking transgender/androgyne/gender fluid individuals is not okay - sign this petition to pledge to boycott the film!”

At the time of writing, the petition had received nearly all of its 9000 signature target from supporters all around the world.

So far neither Stiller nor Paramount Pictures has commented on the petition.

'Zoolander 2’ is out on February 12.

Read more
Biggest flops of 2015
10 things you never knew about Toy Story

Image credits: Paramount Pictures