It won’t have escaped your notice that there’s a new Ghostbusters movie out, starring four people with differently-shaped, erm, proton packs than in the original movies.
The new paranormal investigators are played by Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones, and so far the critical and popular response has been positive – certainly better than many predicted when the movie’s first trailer became the most disliked video ever on YouTube earlier this year.
Totally digging our new @IMAX poster. I'm sorry but this is one cool cast. #notsorry #inawe pic.twitter.com/9VPf8bPdqE
— Paul Feig (@paulfeig) July 15, 2016
Ever since the movie was announced, there has been a huge row about it, mostly online, focusing on everything from changing the gender of the four heroes, to “ruining childhoods” by sanctioning a remake.
https://twitter.com/zachheltzel/status/752330262625652736
Now that the movie is actually out, and that people seem to like it, a fresh charge has been added to the all-female Ghostbusters: that it doesn’t offer positive representation to young boys.
This complaint stems from the characterisation of the two most prominent male characters in the film. Chris Hemsworth plays Kevin, the group’s office assistant who struggles with everyday tasks like answering the phone.
#Kevin #Ghostbusters @ghostbustershttps://t.co/lw5MaTTEhI
— Chris Hemsworth (@chrishemsworth) June 7, 2016
Meanwhile, Neil Casey plays the movie’s villain, a totally creepy loner determined to unleash spectral mayhem on the world.
With @notneilcasey at the #Ghostbusters World Premiere! pic.twitter.com/2lRdCGPL6p
— Ghostbusters (@Ghostbusters) July 10, 2016
Rachel Strolle, a bookseller in the US, has singled out one review in particular that decries the representation of men in the Ghostbusters movie.
From a ghostbusters review. Maybe this is how women feel about the movies where the woman is just the love interest pic.twitter.com/4p0q1H2td9
— rachel (@recitrachel) July 12, 2016
Strolle points out that, if indeed the movie is “making men look bad to elevate women”, then maybe male viewers might finally realise how women “feel about the movies where the woman is just the love interest”.
Strolle followed it up with a further discussion of the many problems that blight modern Hollywood movies when it comes to depicting women on screen.
She also points out how silly it is to argue that a boy can’t look up to a female character and vice versa.
To sum up, in the words of another Twitter user:
https://twitter.com/SarahSnitch/status/754582286478094337
