If you remember around this time last year, there was a big backlash on the movie "Mad Max: Fury Road" as some people were upset about the presence of a strong female character in a movie franchise formerly dominated by men. Sounds harsh when I put it that way, but that’s just what it was. When "Mad Max: Fury Road," for lack of better words, destroyed at the Oscars, it was time to find something else to be up in arms about, and the rage landed on the new all-female reboot of "Ghostbusters."
I have browsed the “movement’s” various websites (aka Reddit and Facebook pages). Some are very straight-forward about being mad because of their distaste for empowered women or denounce it for being an all-female group, claiming that’s sexist. For goodness’s sake, men got Ocean’s 11, 12, and 13. Y’all are safe. You can cool it with the “just say no” to female empowerment, misogyny-versioned D.A.R.E.
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However, some mask sexism and fragile masculinity, as if they are fooling anyone, in bad movie reviews dating back to half a year ago. Yeah, that's six months before the movie came out. Now that the movie is out and most of the real reviews are less angry than they were hoping, they’ve turned to accusing reviewers of dirty play.
Some of the groups have even pulled the “If you’re a real fan, you won’t see this movie.” My favorite accusation was that reboots are a form of discrimination against fanbases because they water down the franchise. I have yet to figure out if they were joking or not. Personally, I love the original "Ghostbusters." And if you're a real fan, you would know all of the living original "Ghostbusters": Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson; Annie Potts, and Sigourney Weaver all make cameos. There are even homages to Slimer, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man,and the late Howard Ramis. So if you’re worried the OGs will be mad if you see it, they’ll probably be glad. Not that this is a contest, but who’s the fake fan now?
It was a good movie. A great movie, I thought. I thought it was sweet and funny and occasionally made you jump. It wasn’t a remake exactly; it wasn’t a sequel exactly; it was just a wonderful homage. And I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys movies. However, some people comparing the two films have continued a time-honored tradition of creating unreasonable standards for women to live up to. When you think of the original Ghostbusters, remember it was a good movie, a fun ‘80s film, borderline advanced for its time. I didn’t spend weeks studying it in film appreciation. It wasn’t "Citizen Cane" or "Ben-Hur" or "Psycho." It didn’t change the world. It was a good movie.
But I do get it. Sometimes, it can feel like other people getting built up feels like you are being torn down. But it’s just not. Someone else being empowered is really not about you at all, and I’m sorry if that’s a hard pill to swallow. Opportunities opening up for women are not stolen from men. And I’m sorry if this seems like a mockery. I don’t want to minimize anyone’s feelings, but on a broader scale, I don’t want women minimized.
As Manohla Dargis wrote in her New York Times review, “Girls rule. Women are funny. Get over it.” And if Sigourney Weaver taught us anything in this reboot, it’s “Safety lights are for dudes.” So if you refuse to see this movie on principle, it’s ok; I’ll see it enough times for all of us.
