'Austin Powers' Isn't as Problematic as You Remember

On the 20th anniversary of 'Austin Powers,' is it possible that the horny spy isn't as sexist as we remember?

Austin Powers
Warner Bros.

Image via Warner Bros.

Austin Powers

Like many ‘90s kids, I was frothing at the mouth to see Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery around its early May 1997 release. So desperate was I to be the first of my friends to watch what I had ginned up in my mind as the pinnacle of comedy that I resorted to lies like “he kills like 30 guys and has sex with like 10 girls” as schoolyard proof that 10-year-old me had beheld the raunchy PG-13 movie.

For the uninitiated, Austin Powers is a comedy wherein a horny British spy of the swinging 60’s is cryogenically frozen and subsequently thawed in 1997 to stop supervillain, Dr. Evil, from destroying the world. Much of the humor comes from Powers, now a fish out of water in the less-than-groovy ‘90s, battling changes in technology and social mores as doggedly as his arch-nemesis.

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I don’t remember my initial thoughts once I finally did see it—presumably via a parental pleading episode at Blockbuster months later—but after repeat viewings, the film’s sequels, and a lifetime of forming and modifying my own core beliefs, Austin Powers was essentially shoved into to a section of my mental filing cabinet reserved for positive pop culture memories that might be ruined with a second look. A second watch, read, or listen with my older, more refined palate would likely reveal that the source material was shitty all along so why ruin a good thing? But with Austin Powers turning 20 this month, I figured why not roll the dice and use the occasion to give it another look-see? There was still a chance that one of us had aged gracefully. 

The AP DVD I’d owned back in the early aughts was long gone because lol @ physical media, so I hunted down one of the movie’s scant few working streams and settled in for just under 90 minutes of comedy nostalgia.

Once the credits rolled, I was finally able to un-tense myself. As I’d predicted, the laughs were few and far between. The body fluid and cheekily-covered sex organ jokes really didn’t stand the test of time. Amazingly, however, contradicting every spotty memory I had about the film, Austin Powers, both man and movie, were shockingly non-problematic.

What do you think of when you think of Austin Powers, the character whose catchphrase— repeated ad nauseum in both the film series and by its fans—was “do I make you horny?” He absolutely IS that doofy James Bond parody with the libido dialed up to 11 from your memory. Unlike Bond, however, Austin’s movie refuses to let him get away with such nonsense. His comely partner, Vanessa Kensignton, played by Elizabeth Hurley, tells him to knock the unwanted advances shit off mere minutes after they meet, whereas Bond girls are Svengali’d into tolerating it or playing along after a moment of prolonged eye contact with James.

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Furthermore, at the peak of his horniness in the movie, Austin breaks from his spy inspo by refusing the advances of an intoxicated Vanessa. Keep in mind, this was in 1997. The conversation around consent was nothing like it is today where intoxicated sex guidelines are being taught on every freshman dorm floor. The film made little ado about the line, neither soapboxing a teachable moment nor dressing down Ian Fleming and the Broccolis for Bond’s sorta-rapey history. It was just a little character fleshing-out that said “hey, non-consensual sex just ain’t Austin’s bag, baby.”

After that moment, I started seeing Austin’s other cinematic sexcapade moments through a different lens. The women he was shagging or lecherously photographing a la Terry Richardson were actually the instigators in the scenarios, throwing themselves at him for the opportunity.

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Sure, thematically, there is something latently worrisome about his persistent sexual advances eventually chipping away at Vanessa’s resistance. And the entire scene of Austin punching a woman he believes to be a male assassin only to learn she was merely an “ugly, mannish woman” shows how far we’ve aged out of punching down bully comedy. But, hey, at least Random Task, the Odd Job spoof goon made it out without a racially charged zing lobbed his way. 

Actually, with regards to ethnicity, the movie’s worst crime was just a sake/suck-y homonym double entendre and, as no Asian cast members were forced to perform it, it’s more of a lazy joke misdemeanor than racism felony.

If you’re not in a state of arrested development, don’t go into another viewing of Austin Powers expecting a repeat of the laugh fest of your less refined, comedically-formative years. But I doubt you’ll leave that revisit ready to pillory director Jay Roach and writer and star Mike Meyers for their treatment of women.

The huge caveat to this is that there very well may be some other overarching misogyny or sexism contained in the film that, as a man, I simply cannot pick up on in the way a woman could. I’m a guy watching a sex-centric farce saying “looks fine to me.” It’d be weird to not have reservations about that stance. In my attempt at vetting this opinion, when I asked the women in my circle of friends, family, and colleagues if I was maybe sticking my neck out and Austin was indeed problematic, none of them had watched the movie recently enough to weigh in and give their blessing and they weren’t exactly champing at the bit to do so either. 

So, I write this fully ready to eat my words should a more informed perspective emerge. Because while the character of Austin Powers may be primarily concerned with whether or not he arouses you, I, on the other hand—an intellectual, if you will—am more concerned with a different question: Do I make you think, baby? 

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