In the words of Sheryl Crow’s “Soak Up The Sun”: I’m gonna tell everyone to lighten up.
Seriously. There’s a lot of hate that’s gone around for the Ghostbusters reboot, long before the movie was released in theaters, with the first trailer at one point being labeled the “most disliked movie trailer in YouTube history.” And while the trailers really weren’t as well made as they could have been (and neither was the 1984 Ghostbusters trailer; I did a comparison here), a lot of the hate seems to be about the fact that the Ghostbusters, this time around, are women.
The new Ghostbusters movie itself really isn’t bad. The humor is on-point, it’s consistently funny all the way through, the cast gels nicely, and they bring their own playful style to the film rather than attempting to mimic the cast of the original movies. So why have people gone into this movie wanting to dislike it?
Complaints about the movie not featuring the original cast would have some merit if most of the original cast didn’t participate in some way. It’s been known that Bill Murray was holding back for many years from doing a Ghostbusters 3, yet he’s here. Dan Aykroyd is here. Ernie Hudson is here. So is Annie Potts. So is Sigourney Weaver. They’ve all given this reboot their blessing by being in it. If the original cast is all okay with it, then why are some fans so upset about it?
Negative comments I’ve seen tend to say something to the effect of, ‘I’m sure the feminists are happy now.’ These types of comments stress that we’re living in a time now when feminists are taking over and pushing men aside. We see more movies with women at the forefront. We see Marvel comic book characters, the male versions, taking a break to allow female versions of those classic characters to take on those superhero roles, with a female Thor introduced some time ago and a black woman recently charged with slipping on the Iron Man armor in place of Tony Stark.
And to this, threatened males scream out in horror, cursing the feminists for “forcing” all of these companies to start featuring women in their sacred entertainment properties. Apparently, it’s okay when men have the power and are in control, pushing aside women, but disrupt the status quo in the slightest way by giving women some power and suddenly the world is being brought to an end at the hands of those damn “feminazis” and the “social justice warriors.” Damn them all and their damn desires for social justice and equality.
But really, considering the fact that for all of these decades, women have basically been able to only watch men in those lead roles, isn’t the gentlemanly thing for men to do now is to step aside and let women have a crack at those lead roles? Wouldn’t that be kind of, sort of, maybe a fair thing to do? Don’t fathers want their daughters to grow up seeing that women are just as capable as men?
Personally, I had no problem watching women not being objectified as they take on the roles of the Ghostbusters, with Chris Hemsworth – a muscular man’s man – being the ditzy, eye-candy secretary. Not only is Chris a wonderful comedic actor, but he shows how secure he is in his manhood by taking on such a role, a role that a woman would normally fill for a movie featuring men, a role that men typically have no problem with as long as a woman is in it.
And that’s really what I think we’re dealing with here when we see so much hate being shot out at a movie reversing the gender roles: insecurity.
Why can’t women be in the lead roles normally associated with men? Why can’t men be in the supportive roles normally associated with women? With how many decades have gone by with women supporting men in various forms of entertainment, what’s so wrong with turning the tables and having men support women for awhile, or at least in a more equal ratio? After all, it’s only entertainment. So lighten up a little bit, guys. Girls just wanna have fun. 🙂
By the way, if you want to see a cool role reversal, focus your eyes on the below video featuring Pauline saving Mario from Donkey Kong. This is a marvelous gift that a father made for his daughter.
Whatever I Feels Like Writing 
I don’t get this hate we seem to get before a movie even comes out. I got into a conservation with someone the other day, who posted a meme about how the “original” Ghostbusters were the ONLY Ghostbusters. As I pointed out to them though, this new Ghostbusters will probably open the doors to a whole new generation of Ghostbuster lovers, it might even be the first Ghostbusters that they’ve seen.
It’s kind of like with Suicide Squad, I have no interest in seeing it because that’s not “my” Harley Quinn, but I’m not going to tell people not to see it.
Exactly. I think this is a symptom of people pre-judging something and then sticking with that and defending their position simply because they want that pre-judgment to be right. So they get caught up in trying to be right rather than keeping an open mind and seeing if they really like something or not.
By the way, I agree on Harley Quinn. I’m still going to see Suicide Squad, though. I’m curious enough about the movie to give it a look.
Thank you for the comment. It’s appreciated. 🙂