Another Gay Slur Controversy: Aniston Uses “F-Word” in ‘Horrible Bosses’

Charlie Day and Jennifer Aniston in Horrible Bosses

The dust has nearly settled on the colloquial use of “gay” in The Dilemma, but with this weekend’s raunchy comedy Horrible Bosses opening, a new gay slur controversy has emerged. Apparently, Jennifer Aniston’s “maneater” character uses the term “faggot” in the film, drawing ire from Daily Beast columnist Ramin Setoodeh. Setoodeh’s article describes recent history of the use of the word in popular media, but be warned - does include a third act spoiler.

At least Setoodeh got the writers of the film to comment, and their rationale for the use of the word seems reasonable to me.

“She is a horrible person, so I think when it is coming out of her mouth, it is understandably offensive,” says John Francis Daley, the former star of Freaks and Geeks, who co-wrote Horrible Bosses.

His writing partner, Jonathan Goldstein, said: “It’s indefensible. I think part of the challenge is to, in a fairly short amount of time, get these guys to a place where an audience can empathize….To shorthand that, we tried to think: what are the most offensive things they can say? Using a word like that I think is one of them. It says this woman is irredeemable.”

Comments in the article that because the word is uttered by “America’s Sweetheart” Jennifer Aniston seem to not ring true to me. I believe audiences can more than able separate the actions of an actress’s past roles with that of her current one. It is clear the character is not meant to be played as sympathetic, and in one irony the fact that the woman sexually assaults her employee barely gets a mention in the article. That aspect of the role clearly seems to me to be much more serious.

Horrible Bosses opens on Friday after some midnight plays on Thursday night.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 6th, 2011 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Horrible Bosses, Jennifer Aniston. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.