During the 80s there was still a widely-held view that male actors who frocked up automatically deserved an Academy Award. Similarly, straight male actors playing gay men was also perceived as some huge acting challenge worthy of an Oscar. Of course, there were no such plaudits for the much more common practice of gay actors playing heterosexual roles.

And so it was when Tootsie was released in 1982, much was made of Dustin Hoffman’s many hours in make-up to effect his transition to Dorothy Michaels. And he was nominated for an Oscar.

Tootsie is a very funny movie that does much with its exploration of gender roles; for example, the lead character Michael Dorsey is, at various points in the movie, suspected of being both a gay man and a lesbian even though he is actually straight. Looking back at it three decades on, the sexual politics do seem a bit blatant – as well as patronising: after all, it seems that it is necessary for a straight man to tell us about the disempowerment of women at home and in the workplace.

But, as clunky as it might be, its heart was in the right place. The following clip ‘Gender and Equality in Tootsie’ is an interesting compilation of the key ‘sexual politics moments’ in the movie: