By Staff Writer (media@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Nov 23, 2015 04:23 AM EST

An actor and the comedy film he stars in is getting backlash over a cartoonish character portrayal. Perhaps the critics forgot the film is a tongue-in-cheek, humorous take on the modeling industry?

LGBTQ advocates are calling for a boycott of the upcoming "Zoolander" sequel as it reportedly portrayed androgynous, transgender, and non-binary individuals in bad taste.

"The controversy surrounds an androgynous supermodel played by British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, named All," The Hollywood Reporter noted.

"In the trailer, Ben Stiller questions, 'Are you like, a male model or a female model?'" the entertainment news source went on. "Owen Wilson's character then asks the model, 'Do you have a hot dog or a bun?'"

Cumberbatch's character merely responded to the questions with "oops" while daintily covering his mouth with a hand in apparent shyness.

An LGBTQ activist has since launched an online petition to protest the said portrayal. The petition has already gained nearly 6,000 signatures.

"Cumberbatch's character is clearly portrayed as an over-the-top, cartoonish mockery of androgyne/trans/non-binary individuals," activist Sarah Rose said, as noted by Entertainment Weekly. "This is the modern equivalent of using blackface to represent a minority."

"Like any rational person, I think there's a place for discourse and humor in society," she went on, "but the last thing the transgender community needs at this moment is another harmful, cartoonish portrayal of our lives."

She went on to say that hiring a straight actor to portray a "non-binary" person in a rather negative light encourages "harmful and dangerous perceptions" of the gender minority.

"If the producers and screenwriters of Zoolander wanted to provide social commentary on the presence of trans/androgyne individuals in the fashion industry, they could have approached models like Andreja Pejic to be in the film," she said further, as quoted by The Independent.

Pejic is considered one of the world's foremost androgynous male models before undergoing sex reassignment surgery in 2014.

Paramount Pictures has not yet responded to requests for comment on this petition.

Some, however, had said that Cumberbatch's portrayal is not transphobic but a rather foolish one, as noted by MailOnline.

"Zoolander 2" arrives 15 years after the original film's release and features new faces, such as Penelope Cruz and Kristen Wiig. An old nemesis, played by Will Ferrell, gives the protagonists, played by Stiller and Wilson, cause to team up and save the day once more.

"'Zoolander 2' revolves around the washed-out Derek Zoolander and Hansel McDonald rejoining the world of high fashion to track down the person assassinating the world's most beautiful people," MailOnline said.

The film will arrive in theaters on February 12, 2016.

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