An Open Letter to the Creators of Ghostbusters
When I first heard the rumors that Ghostbusters was being rebooted, I was excited. When I heard the rumors that Ghostbusters was being rebooted with an entirely female lead cast, I was elated! How wonderful! It’s about damn time! So refreshing!
I thought, especially with the inspiration people are drawing from the (limited) presence of women in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this is going to be another step in the right direction. We’re really beginning to set the stage for a new generation of gender equality. What a win for feminism!
Then the trailer was released, and boy was I wrong.
Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon appear in the trailer for the first time (with dialogue) at 30 seconds. Leslie Jones does not appear until 53 seconds, and she doesn’t speak until she reappears at 1 minute 11 seconds. A full 41 seconds passes between the time the first words of the trailer are spoken and when Jones’ first words are spoken. In a 2.5 minute trailer, that’s a huge amount of time. The first time I watched the trailer, I remember thinking
“Wait, I thought Leslie Jones was in this movie?”
“Oh! There she is, finally.”
When at last Jones’ character is introduced, we find out a truth as disappointing as it is unfortunate; Jones’ character is a trope. The loud, sassy, street-wise black woman. She’s uneducated and works in a subway booth. She’s presumptuous and preoccupied with brand names. As if that weren’t enough, the trailer ends with Jones’ character back-handed slapping McCarthy in the face. Because, you know, violence is not something that is attributed to people of color by way of unfounded emotional bases every single day.
Upworthy recently published an article that stated this film “has really raised the bar on inclusive casting.” I have news for you, Robbie Couch. If three, able bodied and neurotypical white women of varying hair colors and one black woman is your idea of “inclusive casting”, you might want to explore some of the world you claim to wander. We could have had a film with four women that also happened to be Chinese, Dominican, Native American and Pakistani. What about Margaret Cho, or Mindy Kaling, or Jessica Williams, or Rashida Jones? Maybe Maya Rudolph or Aparna Nancherla? Constance Wu? Maybe none of those women would have truly fit the bill, I’m just trying to illustrate that there are, in fact, options for a diverse group of women who are also funny. We could have had a film with four women that happened to be struggling with anxiety or over-bearing parents. We could have had a film with four women that happened to have a wheel chair or a prosthetic arm or autism. We could have had a film with four women who happened to vary dramatically in height and weight. Maybe one of the characters loved wearing a ton of makeup and one of the characters didn’t wear makeup at all. Maybe one of the characters had an interfering obsession with insects or anime or food. Any of those things would have better reflected the diverse reality we all live in. That film would have been truly relatable. But we don’t have that film, because Hollywood still embraces and perpetuates racist stereotypes.
Even when one considers that the cast was meant to mirror the original gang, I frankly don’t care. The whole point of rebooting this film with women is to acknowledge that there is a problem in hollywood. I was under the impression that Paul Feig was making a statement about inequality and putting his money where his mouth is. Why, then, would this detail be important to copy, especially in light of Ernie Hudson’s own words about the injustices enacted upon his character?
Here are two exerts from Hudson’s piece:
1) “His elaborate background was all gone, replaced by me walking in and saying, ‘If there’s a steady paycheck in it, I’ll believe anything you say.'”
2) “I was a single dad, and we were struggling to kind of hold on and pay the rent. I still needed to do this job.”
The juxtaposition of these statements is sickening. Hudson took the job because of a well developed, interesting character. He did the job gritting his teeth because he couldn’t afford not to. It is still a common occurrence for people of color to swallow injustices and trudge through in order to make ends meet. That unfortunate reality is bad enough without Hollywood turning it into some ignorant or flippant attitude about getting money.
You know what? I’m not even disappointed. I’m angry. I’m angry that performers of color have to choose between standing up for themselves and feeding their families. I’m angry that intersectional feminists and people of color have to choose between supporting women in hollywood and rejecting racism in hollywood. This film suggests that we can’t do both. I’m angry because I know that if this movie doesn’t do well, it could be years before we see another all female lead lineup in a major film. I’m angry because I know that if this movie does well, we’ll be reinforcing the limits on roles for black actors and actresses. It’s bullshit. The talent, creativity, work ethic and dedication that comes out of communities of color deserves recognition. It deserves celebration. The sentiments perpetuated by this film are yet another link in the chains that hold that recognition back. Do the people of this nation really believe that loud, sassy and uneducated are the only black people worth mentioning or representing? It would seem the people of Hollywood believe that. So long as we’re recognizing the potential of women, why not extend that recognition to the potential of all subjugated groups? We cannot pat ourselves on the back for putting female leads in movies if those same women are stepping on people of color to get there.
The worst part is that Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, and Kate Mckinnon all went along with it. I would doubt that any one of them gave a second thought to what was happening or the impact it might have. The worst part is that Melissa McCarthy, who recently has been touted as a “champion of body positivity” (which is a badge I would not bestow upon McCarthy, myself, but that’s another issue) has been circulating through feminist spaces as a person with a platform that deserves our support. How can I support McCarthy, as an intersectional feminist, knowing that she participated in this?
So, this film has put me in a frustrating position; Do I support this film for women, or do I reject this film for, well, everyone else?
I wish I had an answer. But maybe the better question, Hollywood, is why do you keep putting me in this position in the first place?
