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Ghostbusters backlash highlights ongoing sexism in Hollywood

Wednesday, 29 Jun 2016 12:46:11

A still from the 2016 version of Ghostbusters, featuring a female cast. (YouTube: Sony Pictures)

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 but just over 255,000 likes in more than 34 million views, while director Paul Feig and his cast have been bombarded with death threats and misogyny on social media.

External Link: Ghostbusters tweet #1

"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," he 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 both the latest instalment and the upcoming Rogue One — after six consecutive male-led films.

External Link: Ghostbusters tweet #2

"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," he added.

"You never talk about the 'all-male Expendables.' It's an uphill battle that I can't believe in 2016 we're having to fight."

Blockbusters 'the province of males' but women more profitable

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.

External Link: Ghostbusters Tweet 3

"Further, the majority of critics reviewing these films have been male," she added. "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."

Women comprised 9 per cent of directors and 11 per cent of writers working on the top 250 domestic grossing films in 2015, according to Lauzen's annual Celluloid Ceiling study.

The knock-on effect is fewer female characters of any depth or interest on screen.

Of 11,306 speaking characters in film and television in 2014 analysed by the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, two-thirds were male overall and almost three-quarters in feature films.

However, the figures suggest the industry is shooting itself in the foot.

External Link: Ghostbusters Tweet 4

Female-led films grossed 3.3 per cent more than movies with male protagonists in 2014, according to Stacey Smith, director of the school's Media, Diversity, and Social Change Initiative.

Australian actress Margot Robbie, who plays a fiery take on the character of Jane in the upcoming The Legend of Tarzan and the villainous Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad, says she thinks "people have finally recognised that half the ticket sales are coming from women.

"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."

AFP

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