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It came across my Twitter feel like a fever dream. “New All-Female Ghostbusters Cast Chosen!” And then I saw who the new all-female Ghostbusters would be. “Melissa McCarth! Kristen Wiig! Kate McKinnon! Leslie Jones!” YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! *pause to catch breath, regain composure, freak out again* YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
The idea of flipping the gender switch on the classic should not be so extraordinary, yet it is. It should not be so exceptional, yet it is. It should not be so experimental, yet it is.
And of course, some dudes already have their fedoras in a wad about the whole thing. How could they. Pandering. Etc. Yet it’s so incredibly commonplace to have a movie with a mostly male cast, that no one even blinks an eye. Consider “The Loft,” which I can’t stop seeing fucking commercials for these days. A bunch of dudes are greatly inconvenienced when a dead woman shows up in the crashpad. No one has accused that movie of pandering to the rich white male demographic, which it portrays. It’s just a thriller. Consider all “The Hangover” movies. A bunch of dudes do stupid shit while drunk. No one has accused that movie of pandering to the overgrown frat boy demographic, which it portrays. It’s just a comedy. Consider “The Expendables,” if you must. A bunch of past-their-prime action stars blow shit up. OK, fine, people accuse it of pandering to the meathead demographic. But it’s still just an action movie.
But put all women in it and it’s a women’s comedy or women’s drama or – shudder – the dreaded chick flick. Are women’s lives and existence so unrelatable to men that we must always identify our gender beforehand so as to separate it from the default, which is – of course – male?
Hey, world, putting women in a movie isn’t a gimmick. Putting women in a movie is the world. Well, it’s 51 percent of the world, at least. What’s a gimmick, what’s pandering, is how much screentime the other 49 percent is allowed to hog right now.
