Gender and Sexuality

Smith: ‘Ghostbusters’ all-female remake upsets some, should be supported

Who is a director gonna call for a “Ghostbusters” remake?  Women.

On Jan. 26 director Paul Feig announced an all-female cast to put a spin on the 1984 classic. The film is expected to release on July 22, 2016. As with any revamp there are criticisms, but sadly most of the complaints for this remake had to do with the gender of the cast.

The people who are heartbroken women are making their way into “Ghostbusters” are severely misguided.

When the original “Ghostbusters” was released with actors Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson, they were at the height of their comedic careers. This is rather similar to the actresses that are considered for the remake like Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon. The original cast of comedians has also come out in support for the rebranding of the classic, giving any critic the cue to move on from worrying about a female takeover.

No matter how much our society advances, there are still questions, such as whether women can be funny, that push us back into the dark ages. That question admits that someone hasn’t seen “Mean Girls,” “30 Rock” or “Saturday Night Live” in the last decade, where women are hilarious.  Despite the ample evidence in popular culture proving women can be funny, some are still stuck in this outdated view that women aren’t.



Another reason both genders may believe women can’t be as funny is because humor is often seen as a masculine attribute. Humor can be a technique for power by underhandedly putting another down. In a 2012 study by Aston University on bosses and humor, 90 percent of jokes made by a man in power were welcomed with laughter, while less than 20 percent of jokes made by a woman were given the same approval. If this ideal holds true in comedy films, we have a lot of work to do.

Among the complaints on the remake, many Twitter accounts thought an all woman cast would ruin a classic.  “Well my day just got ruined… #Ghostbusters. All female cast burns me out. A gender mixed team with a female lead wouldn’t bug me but this?” said one tweet.

When the original “Ghostbusters” was all men, women did not go up in arms as it was seen as the norm. Having an all women cast is not some feminist agenda — it’s simply women catching up with male-dominated films. There have been many successes with female-led casts, like “Bridesmaids,” which was also directed by Feig, so it’s not as if this concept is new.

A female-led cast should not cause as much of a stir as it has. Questioning if these actors can be as humorous as their male counterparts does a disservice to women all over America. We should not put doubt into women’s minds that they cannot be as successful as men when it comes to comedy, because this can be dangerous for future female comedians.

This phenomenon happens in other subjects too, take math for example. When women were told in a study that they would not do as well on a math exam, they had less confidence in their answers, which resulted in lower scores.  Receiving these lower grades only shrinks the pool of women likely to pursue a major — let alone a job — in mathematics.

The same goes for comedy. If women are told that they are not as funny, then they will not see comedy as viable careers before they even have a chance to try it.
Instead of focusing on the fact that the remake of “Ghostbusters”’ will feature an all- female cast, we should focus on what these new talents will contribute to improve this classic. It’s time to give women a chance to save the Big Apple.

Julia Smith is a junior newspaper and online journalism and sociology dual major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @jcsmith711.





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