Busting the Nerd Patriarchy

How it begins…

It had been 27 years since Ghostbusters II was released. Director Paul Feig was making the rounds on the press circuits promoting Ghostbusters: Answer the Call. The movie featured some of the funniest women in Hollywood. The film was received largely positive reviews, but a select smattering of mostly male fans who were dedicated to the original movies were making a ruckus. They trashed the movie, with its female protagonists and its setting. Some felt it was set in an alternate universe. They believed this was being pointless, and an insult to the legacy of the Ghostbusters.

I grew up with the original movies. The first was released nationally on June 8th, 1984, several months before my fifth birthday. I don’t remember seeing it in theaters, in fact, I’m sure I didn’t. The first time I do recall seeing it was on VHS. My mother had rented it from a nearby video store (for people too young to remember, movies used to come on cassette tapes, and could be rented from video stores, similar to libraries). I couldn’t have been more than five years old at this time, but I loved it. I was turned into a lifelong fan of the Ghostbusters from the moment I finished watching that VHS tape and pressed the rewind button.

Backlash Starts…

When I heard about this militant backlash from my peers in the Nerd Community I was aghast. I didn’t understand how people could pan the movie without even having seen it. The campaign to smear Ghostbusters: Answer the Call was in full force. By the time it was released on July 15th, 2016 the trailer for the movie had the most dislikes of any trailer, ever. Still, even with all the backlash, the film holds a respectable 74% fresh rating on the popular movie website Rotten Tomatoes.

Personally, I’ve seen Ghostbusters: Answer the Call almost two dozen times, including four times in theaters. I have two Blu-ray copies of the movie, including one autographed by Paul Feig. I’ve always found the movie to be fun, inventive, and special, regardless of what some of my peers have said.

Impact on other Films and TV

This sort of reaction, though, has not been a “one-off” occurrence in Hollywood as of late. There appears to be a contingent of fans, mostly male, white, older nerds, who feel as though strong female actors, in strong female character lead roles, are not appropriate. They seem to believe those female protagonists (or antagonists for that matter) are not realistic and go against “tradition”. They claim characters like Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel don’t deserve to be in the spotlight, suggesting that because the “Mar-vel” character originated in the comic books as a male, the character should remain Male. And it doesn’t stop there.

Characters like Supergirl and Batwoman in the Arrowverse are insulted and criticized online for no other reason than they’re female and have starring roles in their own series.

This is a problem.

Who you gonna Call?

It is my assertion that it’s about time that we rid ourselves of these outdated and stupid gender biases, and perhaps movies and television are some of the best places to start. Hollywood and TV land can often be seen as a compass for the way society is traveling. We get a sense of how well particular issues will be perceived in the real world based on how well they’re received by audiences in theaters and those consuming media from their couches (or bus benches, cars, or planes). Television and film influence the way we see the world. There’s no denying that. For our society to progress studios and producers must embrace strong characters of all shapes, sizes, genders, sexualities, and nationalities.

We can do better. We can be better.