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Today will go down in history as a dark day for manbabykind. For today, the lady Ghostbusters trailer dropped. And there was much wailing and tweeting of tweets.
Let’s take a stroll amongst the wailing manbabies on Twitter, indulging their ridiculous rants.
And then let’s talk about what’s really wrong with the Ghostbusters trailer, which has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with race.
First, the manbabies:
There were those who pulled out the old “my childhood has been raped” nonsense.
https://twitter.com/M_Stewarr/status/705445173568868352
So my childhood has been officially raped now… #Ghostbustershttps://t.co/vrQ2jmwDc4
— Dat Dragons Dude (@dragonsfan1988) March 3, 2016
There were those who strenuously insisted that their anger at the female Ghostbusters had nothing whatsoever to do with misogyny, nuh-uh, but was rather a reaction to the trailer’s objective terribleness.
Anyone else not impressed with the new #Ghostbusters trailer? (No feminazi's its not because i hate women)
— Ryan (@DeeTownn) March 3, 2016
https://twitter.com/katmereMUFC/status/705463502278959108
There were the fat-shamers, because at no point in history has a fat person ever been funny.
New ghostbusters movie has that annoying white fat lady. Not interested, I'm shitting all over it! #Ghostbusters
— 8Bit (@The8BitVillain) March 3, 2016
https://twitter.com/NerdzurK1/status/705500568035397636
@voxday gender aside, original Ghostbusters at least weren't fat
— Константин Мокин (@goga002) March 3, 2016
My Ghostbusters have dicks. Long, swinging, dicks. They're also funny. These Ghostbusters have big fat sweaty vaginas and are not funny.
— Matty Almeida (@MattyCat24) March 3, 2016
There were Trump fans:
https://twitter.com/easternmney/status/705506566758383618
https://twitter.com/jaesex23/status/705499814415486977
Hell, there were so many Trump fans that one observer made a helpful Venn diagram:
https://twitter.com/BCDreyer/status/705475020076785665
There were even a few Knights Who Say Cuck:
https://twitter.com/kcD___/status/705472132185202688
Some raised the specter of WHITE GENOCIDE:
https://twitter.com/TheSamGrady/status/705434158152224772
https://twitter.com/TheSamGrady/status/705496761662578689
Some worried where the evil feminazis would strike next:
https://twitter.com/garmonbozia/status/705427963789979648
Others offered somewhat less comprehensible critiques:
#Ghostbusters, a new scapegoat for idiot hipster trash and feminazi garbage, fuck this obvious PC toilet fest.
— Rob Grundy (@Officer_Grundy) March 3, 2016
One Tweeter summed up the day on Twitter with a little haiku:
https://twitter.com/luketunderwood/status/705500826580594688
And another Tweeter left us with this existential question:
https://twitter.com/cleotrav/status/705505847129022464
Still another raised the possibility of a second reboot with a rather different cast:
Already working on a new new Ghostbusters that is played entirely by my favorite versions of Kurt Russell from every decade.
— ozempic godskin noble (@hamsandcastle) March 3, 2016
And this guy helped us put it all in perspective:
https://twitter.com/GregorySantos/status/705462910714183680
So what happens once we step back from all the manbaby whining, and the jokes about the manbaby whining. and actually watch the trailer? Well, be my guest:
I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit underwhelmed.
There are a few funny moments, but the trailer sort of steps on them. It’s hard to tell if this is a terrible trailer for a good film, or if the Ghostbusters reboot will end up being, well, basically a female version of Adam Sandler’s godwful Pixels.
But the really distressing thing that the trailer reveals is that the three white gals in the movie are the scientists, while Leslie Jones’ Patty is relegated — or so it seems from the trailer — to the tired, stereotypical role of sassy black sidekick who may not be educated but who “knows the streets.”
This racial/racist failure has not exactly gone unnoticed; it’s already inspired thinkpieces and polemics on sites ranging from The Root to The Inquisitr, as well as in innumerable Tweets.
The original Ghostbusters, however hallowed it has become, was infamous for a similar racial failure. That movie’s “black ghostbuster,” played by Ernie Hudson, was so forgettable, and so obviously a token, that the designer simply left him off of this recently reworked Ghostbusters poster featuring his three white comrades.
Despite all the complaints by angry manbabies about the gender-swap of the main characters, it may well turn out that the real problem with the film isn’t that it’s too radically different from the original, but rather that it is too similar — at least in its inability to imagine a black character as more than a token or a stereotype.
The one thing that gives me some hope is Jones herself, an amazing comedian who may have been able to transform her character into something more nuanced and less stereotypical than what we see in the trailer.
I guess we’ll see.
The way that story has traditionally gone with women in Hollywood is that the studio executives tell the director to make at least one main character a man to sell more tickets. I am very dubious that there’s been a major change in their motivations rather than their methods.
One of the recuts:
https://youtu.be/8IDXpOX0Cp0
@Naodi –
<3
No one ever asks where they got a dress that fit Leia…
Yeah, for me it’s firmly in the “entertaining when I was a kid but totally doesn’t hold up” camp. Ha ha, people covered in slime! Nickelodeon levels of humor!
Before I get into my main point, let me just say I also have concerns about the portrayal of the one Black character in the new movie.
That said, it never bothered me that Winston was the non-scientist in the original. I know that one way to look at that is “oh, of course the Black guy is dumber than the three white guys.” On the other hand though, being the layman of the group allowed him to fill the role of audience surrogate, asking the questions that people in the audience might have, allowing them to be answered without a clumsy exposition dump.
And let’s face it, apart from Winston, how often has the audience surrogate character, the everyman if you will, been a person of color? Doesn’t happen very often.
David Futrelle,
Off course the MRA losers are not going to care about racism. They’re too busy whining about the non existent oppression of men by the non existent matriarchy.
@sevenofmine
Like Nick, I was responding to the idea that Winston was a token. I have never seen his character that way. He was a needed balance to the other characters, and he was still funny.
But I also tried (probably did not succeed) in say that Winston was good character 30+ years ago, and there should be some progress on that front.
Lol critical dragon, its almost as if those MRA “losers” realised the best way to tackle thier real problems where to adopt the tactics of sad feminist fembabies.
Opinions, opinions. /opinion
A character can perfectly well be the everyman audience surrogate and also a scientist, though. You just make him/her the “new kid” straight out of school who’s really smart but has never experienced any of this in real life.
That’s true, but audience surrogate characters are usually the main character as well. Bill Murray’s character was more on center stage in the movies than Winston.
This comment section is a perfect example of how to critique a movie with an all-female cast without coming off as sexist. Honestly, it’s not that hard!
“I think this trailer looks awful” – great!
“Not to be sexist or anything, but this trailer looks awful” – hmmmmmmmmm
Like the majestic groundhog being frightened by its own shadow to predict the turn of winter. MRAs collectively soiling themselves over social media over movies tend to predict their success in the box office and ensure critical acclaim i.e. Fury Road, Force Awakens, etc.
I really want to like this movie, but like most trailers for today’s movies, it makes me NOT want to see it, even though I was highly enthusiast about it.
I’m going to wait for more trailers to decide if the movie is any good but the trailer has already been successful in helping me decide if I want to spend money to see it.
I was wondering if my comment on page one was unknowingly insensitive.
While a sex and/or gender flipped version of Porky’s would be funny (trigger warnings for misogyny and sexism were probably a good idea), I realized it might also be a problem for similar reasons outside of a carefully made satire or other cultural criticism. I thought I would ask just in case.
Otherwise there are tons on things in the horror genera which would be interesting with sex/gender flips.
Re: Conflict around strong words like rape.
I’m not surprised to see the massive use of the word rape in contexts that have nothing to do with rape. While I do believe that they are feeling a social violation, authoritarians do have an instinct to take symbols that they fear and try to remove and avoid their power in social conflicts. Whatever the real violation is they are unable or unwilling to actually express it clearly.
So a person that fears the word rape will use it on as many non-rape things as they can where someone who feared rape would use the word for rape. That way the meaning of the word is functionally diluted in society and conveniently many of them don’t notice (or avoid noticing) that “rape can mean anything” comes from rapists, rape enablers and social cowards too terrified to deal with the concept. I have yet to get any of them to show me a feminist that was using rape in such a way.
A similar game is played with sexist, racist and the term “social justice warrior” itself is functionally a dilution of the meaning and importance of social justice because it’s specific definition matches the people using it as an insulting characterization, while the term itself taken literally applies to anyone struggling for social justice.
These people only have strength in packs.
@alan
No I’ve not seen doomsday but I’ll check it out!
@ valentine
You’re in for a treat. It’s by the guy who did Dog Soldiers. After he’d had some other successes his backers gave him some money and said ‘make any film you want’. He took that as license to (happily and very admittedly) plagiarise all his favourite 80s action movies. One bit is basically ‘Aliens’ but with Glaswegians.
Rhonda Mitra is just amazing in it.
I laughed out loud when Jones literally smacked the possessing spirit right out of McCarthy. “The power of pain compels you” indeed.
I don’t know why I haven’t seen Doomsday yet. The Descent is one of my favorite horror movies, I liked Dog Soldiers and Centurion, and I loved Neil Marshall’s Game of Thrones episodes.
@ WWTH
I’d be really interested in your opinion of Doomsday. I have a lot of female friends who are really into their fighting. They say that it’s almost unique as a film in having a resourceful female protagonists who isn’t just doing high karate kicks so you can see her pants.
ETA: it also doesn’t have that annoying thing where a woman spends the first two thirds of the film kicking ass; but then for some reason when she’s rescued by the man in the last act she forgets all that and has to swoon whilst he takes care of the bad guys.
No you got it backwards, the “Men’s Rights Activists” are the real losers.
“Flat Earth” more popular than MRA, MGTOW and PUA combined, Google Trends suggests
https://www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/2016/02/28/flat-earth-more-popular-than-mra-mgtow-and-pua-combined-google-trends-suggests/
Also if our society was a Matriarchy, like ever, why is it that men held most of the positions of power throughout our history? And oh yeah, why was it that women had to fight for their right to vote. Its the problems that the MRAs whines about that aren’t real.
You’re right, you do come off as snippy. Also, it was a mistake, I meant to say that I can see why it come off as a tiny bit pandery to some people, but to be fair it was kinda late at night and I didn’t really pay attention when leaving that comment. I myself have no opinion on them being female.
I don’t really have anything intelligent to contribute, other than a fervent desire for a female Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
Additional sad peepeefeefee head explosions will make the movie seem that much more realistic in the theater.
@Leah3 – I love your idea for the SNL skit 🙂
@NickNameNick – take good care of yourself.
@mockingbird – fantastic pic of Death (including the wee Death of Rats, the only one that he let stay. How could you say no?)
@guy – I’ve been following the Ghost in the Shell news with interest. I think Scarlett Johansson would make a fine Kusanagi. Agree that there’s no good reason not to have most of the characters played by Japanese actors, though, including the Laughing Man. They’d better not do it with Togusa!!!!
Re Aramaki, I see him a bit differently; he’s like an extremely powerful background presence and influence (with adorable cotton wool hair). Marginalisation is a possibility, though, yes. Hope not.
Live-action remakes of anime series don’t have the most successful history, generally speaking, and the sheer quality of GITS piles on the pressure. On a slightly silly level, I do hope that Kusanagi wears pants for most of the movie 🙂
Now I really want to be sure to see this in a theater because 1) it looks fun and 2) creepy people don’t want me to see it.
The recut fan teaser was well done!
Oh noes! Anything but more fat chicks!
I’ll see if I can track it down. I just started the new season of House of Cards though. So it could take a few days.
So, you’re saying female Ghostbusters are a real men’s rights problem? But it’s the feminists who are whiny babies? Seems legit.
And what’s an lol critical dragon? Did I miss the latest trend in memes? Are lol dragons the new lol cats?