Hey, fellow male Ghostbuster fans. I wanna talk.
But let’s first recap.
So, I’m also quite the Ghostbusters fan. I saw the first two films probably about ten times each, owned the toys, watched the TV shows. A few years ago, I rewatched both and bought the video game (which was scripted by Aykroyd and Ramis, serving as the official third part of the Gozer trilogy).
In other words, I’m a really big fan of this franchise.
I was really excited about a third film. Then Murray showed hesitation. Then Ramis died. Then we heard rumours that it would star only women. And then, yesterday, it was kinda-sorta confirmed.
Melissa McCarthy, who was already in talks for one of the leads, has signed on for the Paul Feig-directed reboot, and Sony is now negotiating with Kristen Wiig as well as Saturday Night Live players Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Negotiations are ongoing, but the quartet are expected to sign on as the specter-seeking, poltergeist-punishing, phantom-phollowing foursome in the reboot, which is eyeing a summer shoot in New York.
Of course, you may notice an issue that always upsets the internet: Women. Yeah. Women and their… existence. The Internet and humanity doesn’t seem particularly happy.
Amy O’Connor, from The Daily Edge, noticed some not very friendly responses. (I’ve blocked out the users’ names for ethical reasons.)
Of course, a person’s weight and your opinion about their looks determines the brilliance of an entire film and performance.
Importantly, brave men pointed out the biological fact – sorry “fact” – that women aren’t funny. I think all those hormones and barefoot kitchen walking from sandwich making gets in the way? I’m not sure.
(HT Amy O’Connor for getting these)
So, men. Men who have an “issue” with women being Ghostbusters… the new Ghostbusters. I have some questions and points.
1. What do you mean by “ruining” your childhood?
I still have moments of nostalgia; the video game in particular uses the same soundtrack, ghosts and, of course, original cast. It felt wonderful. Better yet, I got to watch the first two films in kinda HD. They’ve made my childhood better! Those things still exist.
I’m not sure how you think reboots or new films in a franchise works, but just because this is being made differently to the previous one, doesn’t make those films or memories disappear. If you truly loved and adored your time with Ghostbusters, how can anyone take that away from you?
tbh if a movie is an integral part of your childhood and you grew up to become a manbaby, i'd argue that is a great reason to destroy it
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) January 28, 2015
mic drop pic.twitter.com/p0VMS7r5bj
— Angelina L.B. (@albinwonderland) January 30, 2015
2. You’re sooooo not sexist, but…
Have you looked at that cast? Seriously: look at it. Those are some of the most talented, funny people in Hollywood. Ask yourself, if they’d chosen funny – or “funny” – white dudes, would you be kicking up as much of a fuss? Oh, oh, yeah: I know. You’re not sexist, you’ve got a loving wife, you adore your mother, etc. You just don’t think any of those four women are funny – even though professional casting, directors, scripters, and, er, millions of fans disagree.
But think deeply about your visceral reaction and why you think “women aren’t as funny as men”. Do you have any good, scientific justification for that?
One of the most brilliant men I ever read, who changed my life, tried to drown his readership in words in an attempt to justify this sexist view – and it only confirmed that he was a sexist, except a sexist who could waste my time. If he can’t do it, I’m not sure you can.
Being a good person to the women in your life doesn’t make you immune to sexism, only blind to it. Don’t pretend this is anything other than a lame attempt to gatekeep women. At least have the decency to be honest about you just not liking, just being uncomfortable, with the fact it’s women. I respect that more than nitpicking, boring “she’s just not as funny as… <insert boring white male comedian #4,533>”.
And finally…
3. It’s 2015.
The men who react like this to an all-female Ghostbusters look exactly the same as as a Saudi man reacting to a woman driving. It’s foolish, it’s gross, it’s unhelpful: it does nothing for us as men, conveys a horrid attitude to women and contributes to a system beautifully designed to tell women the world lives under a sign of “No Girls Allowed”.
I don’t and don’t want to live under that sign. I’m tired of signs telling me which kinds of people are and aren’t allowed. I lived in that kind of country, literally. We abandoned that in the early 90’s. Come on men, we can do better.
One of the things ruining childhoods isn’t an all-female Ghostbusters; it’s whiny men’s refusal to grow the fuck up.
Bonus:
@tauriqmoosa parts of the script have leaked and it's already every man's nightmare. pic.twitter.com/2PMrp6qy2z
— Kieran Pegler (@kieranpegler) January 28, 2015
I am really happy Kate McKinnon is a part of this. As far as I’m concerned, she’s one of the bright spots in the current SNL cast and it’s great that she’s getting a major role in a major movie.
I also hope that Leslie Jones’ role is a significant improvement over Ernie Hudson’s in the original. He did well with what screen time he had, but it wasn’t the meatiest of roles.
I’m not really interested in the remake, but that ‘script’ by Kieran Peler is hilarious! Well played.
I wonder if they thought the original make stars were all attractive, or if that only matters for women
“Ruining classic movies.” Why, it’s as if these four women are being digitally inserted and overdubbed into all copies of the original film, which will never, ever be seen in its original form again. Not even in your childhood memories. LOL.
Why, it’s as if these four women are being digitally inserted and overdubbed into all copies of the original film, which will never, ever be seen in its original form again.
That’s the same technology the gays used to ruin straight marriage, I bet.
People who are going to suck on a franchise’s tailpipe lose their right to complain; basically what they are saying is that they are predisposed to like a certain kind of thing and they’ll be happy if you shovel more of it (good or bad) their way. Way to exercise your ability to choose!!!!!!
Why not wait till the movie comes out, read some reviews and tap some word of mouth and see if people who share similar tastes to yourself like it? That makes you immune to such complaints and it even immunizes you against unethical game journalism. It also gives you the option, if a studio produces something you don’t like, of punishing the studio by waiting until it comes out on netflix and then the studio makes nothing and eventually stops producing stuff you don’t like. Be the invisibul hand of teh markkit!!
Only complaint is with Wiig. Wrong woman. Maya Rudolph or Cecily Strong if they wanted an SNL member.
If someone less recent, then Bette Midler.
Doncha know? Women aren’t visual, until we look at jerks then we’re all visual, or unless we’re stomping on Nice Guys(tm). Or something.
So yea, only matters for women.
If you were a child when the original came out in 1984, then you must be at least in your late 30s, and you really should have learned how to take turns by now.
Tauriq:
I think they’re worried that this movie will retcon their childhood…as if Superboy punched reality and changed their youth.
That’s about as serious as I take the cries of “Mah poor childhood!!!”
When I saw the cast I almost shouted Yes! out loud.
I thought “cool” when they said there might be an all female cast and Megan McCarthy might be in it. But with the other 3 I can’t imagine it being anything other than awesome, as long as those 4 get creative license to do their thing. I am really looking forward to it.
What I can’t really think of is 4 male comics I’d be as excited about seeing, actually after 10 minutes I came up with 4 from the BBC (Mitchel & Webb, O’Dowd & Ayoade from the IT Crowd). But yeah that is not gonna happen.
I was really hoping for Mindy Kaling; perhaps she’s too busy with The Mindy Project. However, the only name I recognize from the cast is Kristen Wiig, and Googling her, I don’t actually recognize her at all, so I’m completely unfamiliar with any of the cast (I stopped watching SNL over a decade ago). I hope they’re all great!
Still, it is a notably White cast for a story set in a minority-White city like New York, which is unfortunate given the many well-known female comedic actors of color. The representation of White ethnicities isn’t even great – around a quarter of the White population in NYC is ethnically Jewish (mainly Ashkenazi), but none of the cast is (as far as I can tell from some light Googling), and this is despite an overrepresentation of Jews in popular media and especially comedy. I realize I’m getting fairly specific here, and clearly the best option is to select people who can fill the roles well, but until/unless we start prioritizing realistic representation in our fiction, we’re not going to make as much cultural progress on racism as we could. All casting decisions are conscious choices made by human agents. Were Wanda Sykes and Sarah Silverman not available (I especially think Sykes would be an awesome Ghostbuster)? How about Maya Rudolph, as shripathikamath suggested? Were they just too expensive for a film that’s inevitably a somewhat risky financial bet given the inevitably misogynist backlash? Were they worried about compounding the misogynist backlash with a racist one? If only McCarthy has signed on, maybe the other roles will change, but it sounds like the preference is still for an unrealistically White cast, and that’s a problem even as making all of the leads women is a move forward.
What is all this “women aren’t funny” shit about? Yes, sexism and misogyny, obviously, but it’s such a specific thing and repeated so often as if they have an ideological commitment not to male superiority in general but exclusive male comic talent in particular.
Listen to Margaret Cho describe a night of binge drinking (and the morning after)and keep a straight face. Joan Rivers was a legendary entertainer. I could go on and on with examples, but I’m tired and would have to look up the spelling of some of the names.
My dream team additions would be Jessica Williams and Ali Wong as the accountant and assistant (or vice versa), and Terry Crews in Sigourney Weaver’s role. It would lower the whiteness , and make it less SNL centric. We love Jessica Williams at our house.
Well, don’t ruin real people’s (aka men’s) childhoods. Especially not those of people who were so fucking privileged that the worst thing to happen to them is that 30 years later people use a story set for a sequel/remake/whatever.
It is well known that women don’t have childhoods. We spring into existence at around the point straight cis dudes start looking for something to stick their dicks into. That’s why we then/i> get called “girl” until we seamlesly move into “hag” and “crone” territory at around 45.
Things we never did in our non-existent childhoods:
-watch movies, especially not movies with action.
-play movie plots/ role play in the worlds those movies had created
-remake the whole world because the only female role was the screaming love interest or the boring secretary
-bite the sour apple and play as a guy
-be fucking annoyed at that
How fucking unfair to dudes that now there might be a generation of girls who can play “ghostbusters” without remaking the whole world.
I’ve never been mad at a remake for any reason. As others have noted, the original is still there.
Even remakes that are generallly poor can have a few good elements. For example, the remake of Total Recall had a nice futuristic cityscape instead of looking like it was shot in a mall. Because I am pathologically incapable of being scared by Robert Englund, I liked the villain in the remade Nightmare on Elm Street even though the film as a whole was nowhere near the same league.
A poor remake only serves to enhance the value of the original. A good remake looks at the material from a fresh perspective, as I believe the new Ghostbusters will do. I’m looking forward to seeing it, and will stand up to people who criticize it based on sexism.
The only person who messed with my childhood memories is George Lucas who would never release digitally cleaned up but otherwise unaltered DVDs of the original Star Wars films.