In my previous Dune article, I questioned whether Baron Harkonnen needs to be gay, as the novel portrayal is deeply rooted in Frank Herbert’s homophobia. Subsequently, previous cinematic versions have been equally offensive and problematic, with Villeneuve explicitly removing the homophobic caricature. However, homosexuality is inherently part of Dune and cannot be ignored even in the new reboot. In the first film, there are subtextual glimpses of homoeroticism, mainly in the death scene of Leto Atreides, who is sprawled out naked in front of Baron Harkonnen. However, this is a minor instance in the two-and-a-half-hour film. Imagine my surprise when watching Dune: Part Two and seeing the new portrayal of Feyd Rautha (played by Austin Butler). He has this unique eroticism that is linked to his villainy. Butler’s new incarnation of Feyd is intriguing, especially since he seems to embody the psychotic queerness that was missing from the Baron as his heir apparent. Butler purposefully mimics Stellan Skarsgard’s characteristic of the Baron for his role as Feyd-Rautha. The characters both have similar tendencies towards sadism, both killing many of their female servants and lusting for power over other men. This toxic masculinity is often read as homoerotic in fandom spaces. This intrigue towards hyper-masculinity as homoerotic is something Marilyn Frye posits in her book The Politics of Reality.

“To say that straight men are heterosexual is only to say that they engage in sex (fucking exclusively with the other sex, i.e., women). All or almost all of that which pertains to love, most straight men reserve exclusively for other men. […] Heterosexual male culture is homoerotic; it is man-loving." (Frye).

This ideology is the crux of fandom shipping, as most popular fandom pairings are reserved for white, thin, youthful men who canonically have romantic relationships with women.

However, with the removal of the homosexuality of the Baron, it is thrust onto Feyd-Rautha. Instead of backlash, it is met with praise by the fandom and upheld as a positive compared to the book representation of the Baron. However, though not as egregious as the novelization, it is not much different. Queerness is still being viewed as dangerous and linked to violence. Even when queerness is projected onto Paul, our protagonist, it is through his turn towards violence. The only difference is the bodies of the characters portrayed. In an article for the Daily Beast, Kaiya Shunyata writes about the queerness demonstrated in the Dune franchise, stating,

“From uncle-kissing villains to Paul’s affinity for unintentionally seducing older men, Dune and Dune: Part Two become a sci-fi world where queerness is palpable. Here, men look at each other as if they want to consume each other, gazes unwavering even in the midst of a fight. It’s undeniably a choice Villeneuve made, and one that opens this series up to a queer reading devoid of the original homophobia that plagued Herbert’s work. Thankfully, Dune: Part Two forces the series’ queerness to come to light more organically, in turn reinventing the original text along the way” (Shunyata).

The issue surrounding this embracing of certain queerness and ignoring the problematic representation is rooted in fatphobia. What makes the baron disgusting is not just his perverse homosexuality but the perversion of his body. His grotesque fat body and, in Lynch’s version, diseased appearance lend themselves to his monstrosity. Giving these queer characteristics to the younger and hotter Harkonnen makes these actions more palatable to audiences, even when they are the same actions.

I do not think the problem should be boiled down to good and bad representation. The issue is the ignorance of harmful tropes just because a more attractive actor is portraying them. Fandom does uphold bigoted views, as many marginalized fans are aware of, both in scholarly and mainstream spaces. You can think Feyd-Rautha is queer, but it is not the revolutionary act you hope it is.

Work Cited:

Frye, Marilyn. Politics of reality: Essays in feminist theory. Crossing Press, 1983.

Shunyata, Kaiya. “‘Dune: Part Two’ Rewrote Its Homophobic Source Material Into Queer Cinema.” Daily Beast, https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/dune-part-2-rewrote-frank-herberts-homophobic-novels-into-queer-cinema#:~:text=While%20the%20queer%20leanings%20of%20Baron%20Valdimir%20Harkonnen%20are%20undeniably.