Molly Ringwald says her films with John Hughes were creepy, inappropriate

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In an essay she wrote for The New Yorker, published Friday, Ringwald says she began reexamining her films and relationship with Hughes with a newly critical eye after watching The Breakfast Club with her 10-year old daughter. In one particular scene in the film, Judd Nelson's John Bender peeks under her character's skirt, with the camera briefly focusing on her underwear. (Ringwald, who was only a teenager when that film was made, reveals that an older actress was used for the underwear close-up.)

“I kept thinking about that scene,” Ringwald writes. “I thought about it again this past fall, after a number of women came forward with sexual-assault accusations against the producer Harvey Weinstein, and the #MeToo movement gathered steam. If attitudes toward female subjugation are systemic, and I believe that they are, it stands to reason that the art we consume and sanction plays some part in reinforcing those same attitudes.”

“What’s more, as I can see now, Bender sexually harasses Claire throughout the film,” Ringwald argues. “When he’s not sexualizing her, he takes out his rage on her with vicious contempt, calling her 'pathetic,' mocking her as 'Queenie.' It’s rejection that inspires his vitriol. Claire acts dismissively toward him. … He never apologizes for any of it, but, nevertheless, he gets the girl in the end.”

Ringwald also adds, “Back then, I was only vaguely aware of how inappropriate much of John’s writing was, given my limited experience and what was considered normal at the time. I was well into my thirties before I stopped considering verbally abusive men more interesting than the nice ones."

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