MOLLY Ringwald, star of the 1980s cult high school drama The Breakfast Club says she fears the movie encouraged sexual harassment.

Writing in the New Yorker, Ringwald said she was troubled by a number of scenes in the 1985 coming-of-age drama.

Ringwald said she re-evaluated the film after watching it with her 10-year old daughter and in the wake of the Me Too movement against sexual harassment. The film became an instant hit among teens in the 80s and made an international anthem of the Simple Minds song Don't You (Forget About Me).

"At one point in the film, the bad-boy character, John Bender, ducks under the table where my character, Claire, is sitting, to hide from a teacher,” Ringwald, 50, writes.

"While there, he takes the opportunity to peek under Claire's skirt and, though the audience doesn't see, it is implied that he touches her inappropriately.

She added: "What's more, as I can see now, Bender sexually harasses Claire throughout the film. When he's not sexualising her, he takes out his rage on her with vicious contempt, calling her 'pathetic,' mocking her as 'Queenie.' It's rejection that inspires his vitriol."

Despite this behaviour, the film sees Bender "get the girl in the end", writes the actor who is currently starring in the US TV series Riverdale.

“I kept thinking about that scene. I thought about it again this past fall, after a number of women came forward with sexual-assault accusations against the producer Harvey Weinstein, and the #MeToo movement gathered steam”

Weinstein has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by multiple women. The allegations against him led to a wave of women coming forward to complain of sexual abuse in the film industry.

Ringwald was initially concerned about showing her daughter the film after she asked to watch it but says she “hadn't anticipated that it would ultimately be most troubling to me."

The Breakfast Club was a critical and commercial success. It tells the story of five misfit students who are forced to spend Saturday in detention together.

It was one of three of director John Hughes’ films that Ringwald appeared in, along with Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink.

Hughes died in 2009 at the age of 59 and while Ringwald pays tribute to his “cultural impact”, she also adds that she has since re-examined the role his movies have played and “what they might mean now”.

“It's hard for me to understand how John was able to write with so much sensitivity, and also have such a glaring blind spot,” she writes.

Ringwald’s piece was widely praised on social media for its honesty and sensitivity.

Writer Mark Harris said: "This piece by @MollyRingwald is one of the most insightful and honest pieces of cultural criticism I've read in ages, and a model of how to discuss movies within the context of when they were made without excusing their faults and failings."

America's National Public Radio host Lind Holmes called it a “a very fine contribution to the ongoing conversation about how we reconcile things we have affection for with context we know is important.”

However, some people commented that the examination of films produced in a different era is going too far.

Author and radio host Carol Roth tweeted: “My initial reaction to the Molly Ringwald / John Hughes think piece is that we need to stop putting everything & everyone under a microscope. Under a microscope, it is impossible to escape even the most minute flaws, as they are blown out of proportion."

JOHN HUGHES: A LIFE IN FILM

John Hughes was the bard of 1980s teen life. His career as a director, writer and producer stretched from 1982 to 2008, shortly before his death, aged 59.

Beyond The Breakfast Club, Hughes directed many eighties classics. These included Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, a fourth wall breaking film about a maverick teen ditching school to hang out in his friend's dad's Ferrari

Hughes also made Sixteen Candles, which follows a teenage girl whose family forget her sixteenth birthday amidst turbulent times in her love life.

Pretty in Pink, another Huges hit, tells the story about a socially outcast teen dealing with dating outside of her social class.

Other than his directorial hits, Hughes is known for writing films like the Home Alone series, Uncle Buck and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, among many others.