Needs fixing: ‘Ghostbusters’ backlash reflects Hollywood’s sexism problem

Director Paul Feig, film cast bombarded with death threats, hate mail

LOS ANGELES: An all-female reboot of Ghostbusters hits theatres next month amid a savage backlash by internet trolls that has thrown the spotlight back onto Hollywood’s gender discrimination problem.

The film’s first trailer has become the most reviled in YouTube history, having amassed almost 900,000 dislikes, while director Paul Feig and his cast have been bombarded with death threats and misogyny on social media.

“This garbage was made to make Feminazis happy,” one Twitter user complained in a broadside typical of the firestorm of abuse. Feig, who has made his name directing female stars in hits such as Bridesmaids, was responsible for bringing on board Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kristen Wiig for the new version of the 32-year-old all-male original movie.

“I’ve been hit with some of the worst misogynistic stuff you’ve ever seen in your life over the last two years,” Feig told a recent producers’ conference at Sony Pictures headquarters in southern California.



“The onslaught that came in was just so chilling.” The Woman and Hollywood blog noted a similar reaction after the producers of Star Wars cast female leads — in the latest instalment and the upcoming Rogue One — after six consecutive male-led films.

“We are struggling every day to get the word out against that bias. We still get called in the press a ‘chick flick’ constantly,” Feig said. “We’re never referred to without the words ‘all-female Ghostbusters,’ which makes me crazy. You never talk about the ‘all-male Expendables.’ It’s an uphill battle that I can’t believe in 2016 we have to fight.”



The backlash against Ghostbusters demonstrates how deeply ingrained the idea remains that big-budget, mainstream movies are the province of males, says Martha Lauzen of San Diego State University’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film.

“Traditionally, they have featured males and been made by males, with a young male audience in mind,” she said. “Further, the majority of critics reviewing these films have been male. Making a reboot of one of these films with a mostly female cast violates this group’s sense that this public space belongs to them.”

On the same note, at just 25, the Australian actor Margot Robbie is carving out a reputation for picking roles that are anything but shrinking violets, from the feisty Naomi Lapaglia in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street to the villainous Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad, which comes out in August.

“I think people have finally recognised that half the ticket sales are coming from women,” she said in an interview about her fiery take on the character of Jane in the upcoming The Legend of Tarzan. “And if they don’t create the kind of roles that women are going to be able to relate to, then they’re not going to enjoy watching them as much.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2016.

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