Movie Essays: The Misogynistic Ghostbusters Fanbase

In January 2015 it was announced that Ghostbusters (1984) would get a reboot. In the following seventeen months people went from exciting to borderline aggressive.

"Cannot believe what they've done to one of my favorite films of all time! Even the shitty sequel is better than this poorly thought out cash-cow" (June 21, 2016)

This is a random 'review' from a user on Rottentomatoes. A review for a film that will be out on July 15, 2016 (which is quite an achievement I must admit). This is just one of thousands of hate messages for Ghostbusters. It's unbelievable to see or read how angry people are. Fans from all over the world just can't grasp the fact that the original will get a female-driven reboot. If I'm honest, I didn't like the trailer. As a fan of Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy I expected more, but that doesn't mean I get all the anger. I simply don't get it at all.

There are many men who claim that the story appeals to men, and men only. That's why a female cast wouldn't work (someone gave as an argument the comparison of female ghostbusters and a male version of The Other Woman (2015) with three men extracting their revenge on a woman. It would be called The Other Man and it would 'certainly' never work. Hence, female ghostbusters won't work. If that's not strong evidence, I don't know what is...). I think that Star Wars VII The Force Awakens (2015) has proved that a female lead characters can still be very interesting for a fanbase dominated by men. Rey was a huge hit and J.J. Abrams proved that gender doesn't matter for the story, as long as the characters are well written. It's my theory that the male fans would be all right with a woman, but only if it's a 'pretty' actress. Daisy Ridley has become a wet dream over the last few months for many Star Wars fans. Though I think they are beautiful, the four women of the remake of Ghostbusters don't quite fit in the category of 'pretty girls'. 

So, it's a remake. Although, it's not even a remake, it's a reboot. It's one of the hundreds of remakes/reboots that have been made in the last ten years. Isn't Jurassic World (2015) a reboot of a beloved film? Isn't Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) a reboot? Weren't The Hobbit (2012 - 2014) films unnecessary prequels? Yes, Yes, Yes. Almost all recent films that the Science Fiction fanbase love are reboots, remakes and unnecessary sequels or prequels. For that reason it is beyond me why this one gets so much hate for being a reboot. The best analogy I think, is the one with Jurassic Park (1993). The first film was a hit and is still widely loved. The two sequels were not as good and a little boring. Ghostbusters (1984) was also a hit and is also still widely loved. The sequel was not as good and a little boring. Why is it that Ghostbusters is the one that is getting way more hate than Jurassic World ever got. In my opinion it circles back to the female cast and the misogyny of the Ghostbusters fanbase. The makers of Jurassic World took the safe route with a tough, handsome leading man and a one-dimensional female side character (running constantly in high heels). The makers of Ghostbusters tried to think outside the box and cast some unconventional lead characters.

It's not that women don't have a place as a lead in big budget films (Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games (2012 -2015), Shailene Woodley in Divergent (2014 - 2017) and Charlise Theron in Mad Max Fury Road (2015)). It' is however very uncommon that there's not a male as a very important secondary character. The amount of (big) films with four women in leading roles is very limited. Besides Bridesmaids (2011) and Pitch Perfect (2012) there aren't many more. The main audiences of these films were women. Apparently, the majority of male audiences can only enjoy a film when they see a male leading character on screen (and possibly a hot girl as a one-dimensional love interest). Unfortunately, this isn't a problem that can be solved in on day and it's a problem caused by all of us, both man and women. Dr. Martha Lauzen leads the Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film. She's done a lot of research on the representation of women. She says:

“People tend to create what they know and having lived their lives as females, women tend to be drawn to female characters. We need to have greater diversity behind the scenes if this is going to change.”

The position of men towards female characters/actors is rooted in our society. We first have to tackle gender inequality in our culture before these problems of misogyny in modern cinema could be taken care of. Still, fighting for gender equality should not be a task for women alone and that's why I think campaigns like HeForShe is important. HeForShe encourages men to take action, because women can't win the fight alone.

But back to Ghostbusters, because I'm probably way out of my league talking about gender issues on this film blog. I thought Melissa McCarthy said a clever thing on The Graham Norton Show when she, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon were guests a week ago:

"It's like the announcement came out: 'We're gonna burn every version of the original two. Never to be seen again'. It's not an either/or-thing! It's all still remaining!" (June 17, 2016)

This is just spot-on. No one is going to force anyone to watch the new version. Did anybody force you to watch Jaws 4: The Revenge (1987)? Did anybody force you to watch Indiana Jones 4: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)? Nope. You have the right to not see a remake and rewatch the original hundreds of times. I'm certainly no going to judge you for that. I will, however, judge you if you keep sending hateful messages to a new film whose only crime is that it's thought outside of the box. Ghostbusters might not be Oscar material, but I like that they're not going with conventions. The negative hype will certainly be an influence on the box office and reception. And I believe very strongly that every film should get the same, fair chance to do well with critics and audiences.