Okay, so were the 80s were even more homophobic than I'd thought?

I was born in the early 90s, so I missed out on the apparently magical time that was the 80s (it seems like a lot of pop culture now is nostalgic for that decade). However, I do know that HIV / AIDS was a huge (and for way too long, poorly-researched) issue back then, and that the victims of the disease were often ignorantly categorized as gay, heroin-addicted, or black (with some overlap) - but heavy emphasis on the first category. But from what I know of the 80s - and even before and afterward, really - most of the ire directed at "the gays" particularly singled out gay and bisexual men (and you had it even worse if you were a gay man of color). It would seem that people didn't mind lesbians as much. Pop culture - particularly the straight men / characters in it - often fetishizes lesbian relationships, viewing them as "hot."

"So what does any of this have to do with Lethal Weapon?" you might ask.

I bring this up because I watched the movie tonight, after I hadn't seen it for a while. First time I'd watched it was in my teens, and I usually put it on at least once a year. It's a good background movie. Anyway, this time... a line jumped out at me.

When Murtaugh and Riggs are at the shooting range, hashing out whether Dixie could've killed Amanda Hunsaker, Murtaugh says something to the effect of, "So up till now we've assumed that the person in bed with Amanda the night she jumped was a man, but suppose it was a woman?" Then Riggs replies, "Okay. disgusting, but okay."

Ummmm... wtf was this line doing in the movie? It's said so nonchalantly that I never noticed till tonight, but now I'm surprised I could've missed something so pointlessly hateful. Because seriously, what was the purpose of Riggs randomly calling two women in bed together "disgusting"? To show that Riggs strongly disliked (to put it mildly) lesbians? What's the point of having Riggs strongly dislike lesbians? How does that have any meaningful effect on his character or the plot?

All a line like that did was serve to alienate potential members of the audience. I'm a straight woman, but after hearing that line I tried to imagine what how I would've felt if I were a lesbian or bisexual woman in the theater when this movie came out. How I would've felt by a soon-to-be beloved action hero randomly calling me disgusting.

I can't be the only person to be shocked by how hateful and out-of-place this line is.



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