American Psycho director Mary Harron is marking her film’s 25th anniversary by reminding toxic male fans that the story of Patrick Bateman is actually a satire of Wall Street bro culture and 80s consumerism dreamed up by a gay man.

In an interview with Letterboxd, Harron said she has always been “mystified” by men who see the film’s titular serial killer (played by Christian Bale) as a role model. Letterboxd’s Mia Lee Vicino cites a 2022 GQ story about “sigma males” on TikTok who idolize Bateman’s stringent workout and skincare regimen, designer suits, hustle mindset, and misogyny.

Harron, who adapted the film’s screenplay from out author Bret Easton Ellis’s controversial 1991 novel along with out actress and writer Guinevere Turner, said those guys are missing the point of both her film and its source material.

“It was very clear to me and Guinevere, who is gay, that we saw it as a gay man’s satire on masculinity,” the I Shot Andy Warhol director said. “[Ellis’s] being gay allowed him to see the homoerotic rituals among these alpha males, which is also true in sports, and it’s true in Wall Street, and all these things where men are prizing their extreme competition and their ‘elevating their prowess’ kind of thing. There’s something very, very gay about the way they’re fetishizing looks, and the gym.”

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