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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.
@WWTH
Yeah, it occurred to me just as the edit time ran out that seemingly (to them) men pretty much can’t be fat unless it’s to the point of “I wash myself with a rag on a stick”
Well it makes me feel old, I saw it at the cinema aged 20. These man babies who are whining about their childhoods seem more sexist than my generation. I wonder if it’s due to the ‘lad’ culture that permeated the UK (was it in the U.S. too?) while they were growing up in the 90s? In the 80s men were starting to become ‘new men’, helping their wives with childcare and housework (mine didn’t) and then we took a step backwards by making it acceptable for young men to act like overgrown kids. A blip I hope.
Did you guys have two-tone music in the late 70s/ early 80s? I think that helped against racism enormously in the UK. Although maybe it just displaced it from black (mostly West Indian) people to Asian (mostly Pakistani/Bangladeshi) people. Black London culture is so admired and cool that the cockney accent is disappearing to be replaced with the West Indian (Jamaican?) patois as the most common accent. Cockneys moving to Essex changed the Essex accent.
I don’t think they mean that. I think they only mean fat women. Because Chris Farley. John Belushi. Etc…men can be fat. Because it isn’t the job of men to get people hot and horny, at least in these guys’ worldviews. I don’t mind good looking men, myself, but don’t find “fat” quite so unattractive as skinny stick people who look like they need a meal, which seems to be how they want women to look.
As for Ghostbusters – Winston was forgettable? Not a bit! I’m like the others up above, I think he was a great character, and quite funny. He was my son’s second famous ghostbuster (my son always did like Egon the best – strange kid).
@iknklast
Can we not body shame please? Just because fat people (myself included) get way more hate for their bodies than skinny people doesn’t mean it’s okay to shame skinny people. Or make assumptions about their health.
I’m reminded of my first boyfriend insisting that the modeling clay diorama of a beaver lodge he made in third grade was REALLY GOOD.
You know, I’m in the minority when it comes to Winston from the first Ghostbusters movie. I loved him, he was my favorite Ghostbuster. “When somebody asks you if you are a God, you say YES!”
But yeah, that was over 30 years ago and they could do more with Jones’s character. I hope they do.
I feel like whenever someone feels the need to preemptively say that their opinion on something isn’t because they are sexist, it’s because they are sexist
I’m afraid I don’t remember Winston from the first film too well, except to note that Ernie Hudson got shafted hard when the film was put on video– back then no one seemed to want widescreen editions that I remember, so it was cropped for pan-and-scan– and he was cropped out of most every scene he was in unless he had dialogue.
Winston is the only Ghostbuster I can remember the name of. #cuck
All this mountain from the incorporeal molehill makes me want them to do Porkey’s next.
They are so dumb. Like the male ghost busters were amazing looking and studly powerful? No. Dan Akryod and the guy who played Egon who is sadly passed on (what was his name? Dammit) are not know for their physical beauty. Bill Murray? Not a model. So who cares what the new girls look like.
Bingo.
And of course, misogynists are therefore allowed — nay, OBLIGED — to hate them for it. Because they make misodge boners soooo saaaaaad. That’s the unpardonable sin of womanhood: Thou shalt please the boners of those who hate you, OR ELSE.
(Welcome, all newcomers!)
I want to like this movie, but it just seems like they’re taking some very funny women and giving them a script that isn’t quite on par with everything else I’ve seen of their comedic talents, in addition to the racial issue. It’s no Bridesmaids. It’s like there’s a rev limiter on the script, or too many cooks, which is sad. I had high hopes.
Yelling “Who gives a fuck, it’s just a movie, you’re b***hing about nothing” at another WoC who pointed out her very fair concerns isn’t exactly defending the movie…
(I feel silly for specifying “Another WoC,” but I’m trying to avoid gotchas from lurking trolls.)
Trust me, the racial problems are the only problem with the movie. Also, I think it should be fair to mention that most people don’t dislike the movie for its all female-cast, although there are some who do. The trailer was absolute shit because of its surprisingly shitty CGI and its HORRIBLE, cringe-worthy jokes. It really doesn’t matter whether or not the ghostbusters are female or not (although it does seem a tiny bit like pandering), but it really doesn’t need a reboot. I mean come on, the original is a classic movie!
I guess the movie could be pretty good, but I don’t have high hopes.
EDIT: oh, I almost forgot to mention one more thought that I had. I also don’t like the movie because to me, it seems sort of like a cash-grab.
@weirwoodtreehugger – I had the same thought when I read vox day’s tweet. ‘Can we hope for an all male Little Women?’ he whines …. no need, vox, there already is one. It’s called Little Men. Idiot.
Aside from the ‘women can’t be funny’/’fat women definitely can’t be funny’ and the stupid overblown ‘rape of childhood’ stuff, I think this pic of ghostbuster costumes sums up another reason why they’re so annoyed:
http://images.halloweencostumes.com/blog/files/2011/7/ghostbusters-halloween-costumes.jpg
That would be Harold Ramis. We lost a good one, there.
As for the remake itself . . . . I rarely enjoy remakes of films I’ve seen that I like, so I avoid them at all costs. The reboot is rarely able to stand up to the original in my mind. I have a feeling this movie will not be any different and that has nothing to do with it having an all-woman cast. It could have been remade with men and I still wouldn’t go see it.
Plus I do admit I’ve become kind of tired of the movie version of Melissa McCarthy because she seems to play the same character over and over. It’s not that I don’t think she has talent, it’s just that her usual movie character of the awkward woman-child who blunders her way through the plot has grown rather thin for me. I much more enjoyed the complex characters she played on TV in Mike and Molly and Gilmore Girls.
I can understand why it would seem that way. Hollywood almost never remakes beloved classics, especially when it’s only been 30 years.
Women can’t be funny. Especially when they’re playing characters that could have been cast as any sex and bros’d have found the exact same gags funny if played by dudes even though they’d still be the same gags. Makes sense.
@ ashara
What made me feel a bit old was when there was the original thread here about the “new” Ghostbusters movie and it took me a while to realise it didn’t mean Ghostbusters 2.
As for two-tone, there’s a really interesting discussion to be had there, if only to get nostalgic. Of course it’s not just the race aspect; there’s a whole debate to be had about what it meant about the changes in society and music when the Specials became Fun Boy Three.
Forgive me if I come across as a bit snippy, but the word “pandering” has really lost its meaning from being abused by GooberGobbers and other manospherians who believe that anything that isn’t “cishet white male protagonist” (in other words, anything that panders directly to them) is “pandering” and is therefore bad.
So, who is this “pandering” to, might I ask?
Ha, I came here to see if you’d cover this. No disappointments.
I think the creators might plan to put a twist on this “sassy black woman” cliche, though.
Why? Well, besides the fact that the climate in Hollywood at the moment is very sensitive to racism (even more so, you’d think, for a “progressive” film), many of the shitty youtube commenters were berating the trailer for saying “four scientists,” not three as there (apparently–I haven’t seen the movie) are in the original.
Now, I’m just putting this out there to see if I’m right, but I bet Leslie Jones’s character will turn out to be the smartest of the four, or be a super-secret scientist who has to stay undercover or something like that.
I’m in the minority here as I couldn’t stand the original Ghostbusters. I wanted to flee the theater but my young son had been so keen on seeing it that I had to stay. It felt like that movie would never end. Maternal sacrifices . . .
It’s almost 3 in the morning and I’m basically here talking to myself, so why not continue:
Given the backlash this movie has received, I think they should do an SNL skit with “Malebusters” or whatever, where an all-female team tries to take out MRAs and misogynists on the internet. Cue stumbling into the portal (ie a basement), a proton pack that attacks with a stream of Proactiv, and, rather than slime, have to deal with men spewing Mountain Dew. And instead of Gozer the final antagonist is a giant Donald Trump.
The jokes might be a little too internet-insular for mainstream tv, though.
Some of these MRA-ers are really obsessed with male genitalia, their own and other peoples. Nothing gay about that though, no sir!
I went to see the original at the movies. Also the sequel.
I re-watch the originals occasionally. Nowadays, I just wish there was more of Winston Zeddemore, the most sympathetic character in the original movie. Someone normal to relate to amidst the craziness.
What really annoys me about the new movie is that they’ve gone right back to the beginning as if the first two never happened. Like the Spiderman reboot.
When it comes to movies, or media product in general, Sony are only out for the profit. Ask Kesha.
Will I go and see it? Probably.