John Hughes & His Most Problematic Movies: Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, & More!

What a Creep

What a Creep
Some of the Creepiest Plots to John Hughes Films
Season 28, Episode 1

John Hughes accomplished the remarkable feat of being a quintessential Baby Boomer while still resonating with Generation X and Millennials through his films. Movies—such as 16 Candles, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Pretty in Pink, and She’s Having a Baby—became essential viewing for generations that felt overlooked by mainstream media. He genuinely seemed like “one of us.”
However, when we examine his work through a modern lens, it is difficult to overlook an alarming pattern of racism, homophobia, white privilege, and sexism, as well as some questionable behavior exhibited by the male leads in his films from the 1980s and 1990s. Some of his movies also reveal a rather creepy element when viewed today.

Sources for this episode:

• New Yorker essay by Molly Ringwald, 2018
• Cracked
• The Franklin Post
• Splice Today
• Far Out Magazine
• The Daily Beast
• Looper
• Hollywood Elsewhere
• Ranker
• Vanity Fair
• YouTube Shrink Tank
• Literate Ape
• Elle Australia
• Screen Rant
• Medium
• Bustle

Trigger warning: Sexual Assault, Grooming, Sexism, Racism, Ableism, and Homophobia

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